Sas Zombie Assault strikes an awfully familiar cord to Endless Zombie Rampage and many similiar shooting defense games. This maybe because actually it is virtually the same game, except for one forgiving exception, its realism and overall enhancement on what was already a very successfully and well created shooter just about allow it to have its own identity.
With Endless Zombie Rampage showing great success for Diseased Productions and Crazy Monkey Games, in addition to the Boxhead Games by Sean Cooper, Ninjakiwi must have thought now was the time to reel out their own zombie shooting survivor. Admittedly so they have done a damn good job at it!
Sas Zombie Assault shows greater realism and further difficulty than EZR, in fact by the time your done with the game on nightmare mode you will have probably plucked out your last strand of head hair. In EZR the basic principle was to defend your base, which wasn't very big! The perimetre could be covered in a seconds with your trooper, in SAS Zombie Assault your base is that much larger, and your character that much slower, which means heavier use of the mini map to spot the next attack and more urgency about disposing of every single zombie.
The in game graphics are much more realistic than in EZR and do more than is required in order to immerse you in a situation of isolation and eerie impending death. In Endless Zombie Rampage the graphics were much more cartoon like, Ninjakiwi has put additional effort into making this game feel more like a film than a cartoon.
The zombies and abominations you encounter in Sas Zombie Assault are of greater creativity and visual satisfaction than EZR, in the later levels you will be delighted to see some really weird and gruesome looking bad things appear from the mist! Just make sure you have the right artillery at your disposal to get rid of them. If you spend too long attempting to gun down a big fat critter you will soon come to realize just how screwed you truly are.
The game also adds a neat feature to the 'defending the base' concept - that is the base defends you! The zombies are not interested in destroying what you choose to stand in, but instead simply want to taste your flesh and be gone! So in order to help keep these malicious flesh hungry creatures at bay, you will find yourself constantly repairing your barricades ready for the next horde to knock them back down. What's more, there isn't just one or two weak points in your base, there are 6! Of course matters are helped by the ability to upgrade your barricades ($250) so they last that bit longer and you have an endless supply of repair capabilities. But each barricade must be repaired singularly, there is no general option to repair all at once at the cost of money, so you must run around like a blue arse fly repairing them using the F key.
The weapons are more realistic in Sas Zombie Assault than in Endless Zombie Rampage, they don't hold anywhere as much power and so shots must be consistently accurate in order to have the best chance of holding the zombies at bay, and this is especially true on nightmare difficulty.
The choice of weaponry is as follows:
- Pistol - What you start with
- M870 Shotgun - $50 (Reload $5) - Very High Damage, Very Short Range, Low Rate of Fire
- MP5N Submachine gun - $120 (Reload $12) - Low Damage, Short Range, Very High Rate of Fire
- L85A2 Assault Rifle - $450 (Reload $45) - High Damage, Long Range, 3 Round Burst
- AWM Sniper Rifle - $1500 (Reload $150) - Very High Damage and Range Armor Piercing, Low Rate of Fire
- MAG Machine Gun - $1800 (Reload $180) - High Damage, High Rate of Fire, Very High Ammo Capacity
There is also the neat option of being able to deploy turrets to aid your defense. There is a light sentry gun ($400) and a heavy sentry gun ($500) and although they have a limited life and ammo supply they do hold great power and act as an additional body to neutralize the zombie scum. The heavy sentry gun is especially worth checking out, deploy it wisely!
Undead proximity mines are also available to buy; they have a great explosive effect, wiping out many monsters within the surrounding perimeter. At $200 each, they must be used sparingly and only in a matter of great urgency.
Money comes in a more abundant fashion later on in the game to match the difficulty of your task, so should you survive the early on rushes you will be rewarded generously with $$$ and will have the opportunity to mow down further armies of undead goons with more powerful weapons.
There is also a normal and a hard difficulty to choose from. Whichever path you travel you will surely get some thrills out of playing this zombie shooter, with its realism, graphics and overall challenge surpassing EZR this game is well worth a bash.