Review: Zombies, Run!
Score:
62%
Your Windows Phone can help you exercise. We've seen that with apps like Sports Tracker and Endomondo, but now there is an alternative. A rather horrific alternative called 'Zombies, Run!' Designed to help you get out the house and exercising, this piece of interactive fiction has a lot of promise, but in parts it's a little bit shambolic.
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0.0
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Unlike the more numerically based trackers of the exercise world, 'Zombies, Run!' is all about encouraging you before and during your exercise, rather than afterwards. While there are still numbers to follow after you complete your routines, the goal of 'Zombies, Run!' is to motivate you to actually get up each day and do what you need to do.
It does this through storytelling.
When you set off on your regular burst of exercise, you open up the application and start the next chapter of the story. As long as the story keeps drawing you in, the theory is you'll want to go out and do another exercise routine to hear the next chapter. It's not just advancing the story, you can also head out to collect raw materials for your base and build it up with the resources you 'stumble over' while out running.
The assumption is you'll be running, but anything that uses movement in the real world can be used - I've been testing while out on my bicycle. As long as you move, you can run, walk, cycle, hop, morris dance, whatever works for you will work with 'Zombies, Run!'
Oh yes the plot. Given it has the word 'Zombies' in the title you can probably guess where this is going. As the adventure opens, you're being helicoptered into the town of Abel. Like any good pre-credits scene, the helicopter isn't going to make it and you'll need to run to the township.
Pop your headphones on, and you'll be drawn into the post apocalyptic world, as the radio operators from Abel guide you back to the township, and then keep an eye on you as you earn your keep by scouting for supplies as an ongoing runner in their organisation, always keeping a little bit ahead of the Zombies lying in wait.
It's a great approach and mixes up a very light game mechanic with storytelling to give the players a new experience. For the inventiveness and consolidation of various elements on the smartphone platform, developers Six to Start should be congratulated.
As a piece of performance storytelling, it's wonderful. As a game, it's a bit of a let down.
Let's start with how you die. Because I've tried and nothing happens. Without giving away any plot points, there was a moment in the first chapter where, I as being urged to run, to keep running, as fast as possible, no faster than that, to evade the Zombies. Which I was eventually told I did. The only problem was I had stood still throughout the entire encounter to see what would happen and how gruesome the death would be. Yet I still outran the undead.
You have the option to switch on random encounters that will happen outside of the main plot lines in the game. You can be caught here, but when you are, you simply drop some of the supplies that you have picked up as 'a distraction'. As supplies are used to improve the various buildings in the township, and unlocking new levels to play, you do want to keep a hold of these if you can - while there are supply missions so you can grind out extra supplies, they don't advance the story.
The gamer in me is wondering how you can have a Zombie adventure where you don't die? 'Zombies, Run!' markets itself as a game, but a game requires some sort of challenge to go with the reward.
Neither is there a branching element to the story - you don't have to make any decisions that could change the outcome of the story, you are on a fixed path here through the wasteland. Yes the supplies unlock chapters, but those chapters will always be there waiting for you. Each chapter (essentially a level) takes around 30 minutes or so to complete, but this time isn't 30 minutes of story. The clips are around a minute or two each, and there are a handful per chapter. Between the clips you can either jog in silence, listening for the signature heavy breathing of a zombie, or you can have music from your Windows Phone playing.
I went with the latter. It's a serviceable option, but not incredibly user friendly. For example, the volume of the cut scenes, which is set in the 'Zombies, Run!' app, can only be changed when you are not running. If it's set too low, you won't hear the item pick-ups or sneak attacks over your music, the only option is to turn up the master volume, which of course increases the volume of the music.
You're also limited in listening choices. Only your playlists are offered, not individual albums, or artists in your collection. Hopefully you've got a few set up on your phone. Unfortunately all my playlists are based around the Eurovision Song Contest, which meant I had some dramatic moments outside of the Abel township, followed by jaunty seventies bubblegum pop of The New Seekers "Beg, Steal, or Borrow".
By the time I was ready to play the next chapter, a suitably oppressive playlist with lots of Mike Oldfield, Hans Zimmer, and John Williams had been put together.
As a game, 'Zombies, Run!' is lacking in many ways. But as a motivational exercise, 'Zombies, Run!' is one of the best ideas I've seen in a long time. It's very promising, but I'm not convinced that discovering the next chapter of a serviceable Zombie story is going to get you out exercising if it's not something you are already in the habit of doing. In that respect 'Zombies, Run!' doesn't work. As a distraction while running, it has its moments, but I'm not sure that's enough to justify the price tag.
It's significantly more than a tech demo, but I think 'Zombies, Run!' is missing a clear vision of what it wants to be. If it's a game, then it needs to be more like a game. If it's an exercise tracker with sound effects, then it needs far more tracking, sharing, and analytical options. Right now it falls in the strange space between those two areas and fails to stand out in either task.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at