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Until SEGA gets the lead out and brings House of the Dead over to the iPhone, you can indulge your zombie-killing tendencies with Zombie Crisis 3D. It plays out like an arcade light gun game; you have zero control over the movement of your hero. All you do is point and shoot. This lack of "control" doesn't upset me too much, as I have a real fondness for light gun games and Zombie Crisis 3D does a good job replicating that arcade experience.
Like Resident Evil and House of the Dead, you are pushing headlong into a conspiracy involving man-made zombies. Zombie Crisis 3D's story is minimal, told only through some very short static cutscenes. I appreciate good writing in games, but the narrative here just isn't important enough to register. All that matters is if it's fun to slay the zombies. And, to be sure, I had some good mindless fun here.
Crisis point
To kill the incoming zombies, you just tap them. Hammering a zombie is enough to eliminate it, but you should always try to tap their skulls for headshots. You have only three weapons – pistol, shotgun, machine gun – and it's very easy to run out of ammo at the wrong moment unless you reload whenever there's a pause in the onslaught or you blast ammo dumps in each scene (these are usually tucked inside crates). Boss battles are especially tricky because those brief moments of respite are so limited and your hero is often running so fast, you need lightning reflexes to blast open ammo crates. It's too bad there are only three weapons. I would have greatly enjoyed the "strategy" of locating heavier boom-boom and saving it up for the boss battles.
The 3D part of Zombie Crisis is serviceable. The visuals are not going to be a contender for any year-end awards, but they work. On the other hand, I liked the music and sound effects quite a bit.
Closing Comments
Zombie Crisis 3D is a fun little zombie blaster that borrows elements from House of the Dead and Resident Evil. I wish there was a little more originality to the set-up and some more weapons for taking down the undead brutes, but as a throwback to arcade light gun shooters, Zombie Crisis 3D gets the bloody job done.
Crisis point
