Anti-Zombie Game Simulates Holiday Bioterrorism (ZRC Review of Infectonator Christmas Edition)
Now this I have to admit is a wrinkle I wasn’t expecting:
‘Infectonator: Christmas Edition’ pares the original ‘Infectonator’ down to its bare, horrific essentials. Like the original, your goal is to spread a zombie-causing virus amongst an expecting populace. This is done by merely clicking on a screen full of innocent bystanders, spreading infection and zombie carnage. In between Christmas-themed stages, you can spend money acquired from the dead to improve a variety of statistics, from the speed that your virus spreads to how much damage your zombies can take.
Ahh. Here’s what an actual product of that Zombies-Post Cold War Bioterror Nexus that Mr. Mantz was talking about might look like.
In essence what you have here is a bioterrorism simulator, with Zombies being the ‘disease’ deployed on a largely civilian population. I guess it’s a sign that we as a nation are finally starting to recover from the World Trade Center attacks that a game simulating mass terrorism can now be considered a light diversion from doing paperwork at the office.
Unfortunately we once again have Zombies cast in the role of slayers of civilization. Why is it that this game with an already highly inflammatory premise had to be used to cast yet more doubt and fear about the Differently Animated? Oh, if you see a Zombie while out on your shopping errands, it must be the result of some sleeper terror cell deploying their carefully crafted bioweapon!
Yikes.
I sat down and played through an entire campaign of the free flash game (available at this address after watching a short ad) to see what it was like to be a simulated bioterrorist.
The results? Heinous and yet iteresting, with very disturbing implications for Zombie Rights. The gameplay’s a little rough around the edges. You basically have one button to press each round to deploy your Z-virus, and you need to hit a tiny little figure scurrying around. It can be hard to tell precisely where your cursor, even though it is marked, is aimed, and very easy to miss your mark.
The strategy seems fairly simple: hit a person in the middle of as big a crowd as you can to maximize the initial number of Faux Undead footsoldiers. Everything proceeds rapidly from there, with the exception of grenades, which you can purchase to toss into the melee. Warning: be fast if you want to use them; the round will close itself out quickly once your last Fake Zombie is down, whether or not you still have ammunition (a minor but annoying quirk I’d change if it was up to me).
After a few virtual weeks of massacring little human figures who scream about Zombies and beg God to save them, I was done, with what I suppose was an OK score, though I didn’t hit all the achievements. Replay value is.. limited. But the game is/was free and fairly diverting, which is mostly what you’d hope for in a free flash game.
Now, the Zombies unfortunately are treated very poorly here. They exist only to spread mayhem and carnage, perish one way or the other after mere seconds, and are clearly tools for destruction and evil. One can’t help but feel a bit of proprietary pride in them, since you upgrade their stats and abilities yourself; the feeling is similar to admiring your handiwork in Sim City, perhaps. Nevertheless it’s impossible to really connect with them on a human level; once again, Zombies here aren’t even presented as characters, let alone people.
Infectonator: Christmas Edition gets our second-lowest score, that of Anti-Zombie, because while it treats Zombies with contempt, it pretty clearly places the principal blame for the overall destruction on the terrorist, which is to say, the player.
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