A game with zombies is always fun, but what can be even more fun? Well that’s a game with Zombies, Rock and Roll of the 50’s and a good dose of strategy gamers will enjoy. Candygun Games brings that to the Xbox Live Arcade with their latest title, Dead Block.
Story
This adventure is set in the 1950’s in which the rise of Rock and Roll is in full swing. And this evil music awakened a horde of zombies, the undead swarm now terrorizes the city. (I always said Elvis was evil, i just knew it).
Three survivors will have to stop this menace while they try to remain alive to see the next day. Mike a construction worker, Jack the little boyscout and Foxxy the police woman.
Block doors and windows, you have to survive!
Gameplay
This title is not just about zombie killing, but also has a very similar style to Tower Defense, and you have to block or build traps in the doorways and windows to stop the advance of the zombies.
But, unlike a tower defense game there is not a number of waves to survive, the goal is to find the parts of a guitar and an amp to play a melody which has the power over the undead who are after your delicious brains.
This may sound easy but it is not, the number of materials at your disposal is finite, since you can only use wood or items you get by smashing parts of the house such as cabinets, toilets and furniture in the place where you are a refugee.
This adds quite a bit of challenge to the game and it’s pretty entertaining, as you need to find these musical instruments while you kill zombies, block doors and windows, build and keep running the traps, all to survive each level of the game.
Speaking of musical instruments, you can beat the zombies with the Zomb-o-matic 9000 or with your guitar that activates a musical sequence much like Rock Band. In which you must follow the sequence of buttons to play the song that beat this evil threat.
Time for the boyscouts to save the day!
Game Modes
The campaign of the game has a total of 10 levels. The story is presented in a very quirky and fun style, which shows us the different characters and the plot of the story as a TV show of that decade which gives the game a very special style.
Co-op: you can cooperate with up to 4 players, and what could be more fun than killing zombies with your friends? The co-op mode is offline and doesn’t allow you to play through Xbox Live with other players. The screen is split into a maximum of 4 panels. Online multiplayer was much desired and could have been a major asset for a title like this.
get rid of the undead swarm
Extras
The game has avatar awards including a construction worker helmet and the classic shirt.
There’s a pack of Gamer Pictures available for 160 Gamerpoints, but at the moment there are no extra content or add-ons available to download.
Overall
Dead Block is an excellent game that combines various elements in a very singular way, that really is quite challenging and fun. If your thing is killing zombies and Tower Defense games are also appealing to you, you will trully enjoy this title.
However the lack of an online multiplayer mode over Xbox Live is something that leaves a great void in the game and should not be so. Although this is a game well worth 800 Microsoft Points.
If you have extra controllers lying around, invite some friends to a zombie-fest that really will be enjoyed by all.
We give the game an 8 out of 10!
~Mario
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