Publisher: Blendo Games

Platform: Windows XP/2000/Vista/7; Mac OS X 10.6+; Linux

Size: 58 MB

Price: $15 (Direct), $10 (Steam)

Atom Zombie Smasher is a real-time tactical defense game with an overhead view. The time: 1960. The place: a banana republic. The emergency: zombie infestation!

A typical turn is:

#1. Choose a territory to defend. You get to see what units you get to defend with (chosen randomly). You also see the random event, such as "reduced helicopter movement". Events can be good or bad.

The map shows infected territories with a purple number from 1 to 4. One is a few zombies and four is no humans left, full of zombies. If you happen to kill all zombies by the time limit then you conquer the territory (beige) and get points from it each turn. If you win the level the territory turns black and it's neutral point-wise. Zombies also get points for their territories so taking out a 4 territory is somewhat good points-wise.

#2. Next you see the city and place your units. Most everything is placed on a city street. There are about eight unit types.

helicopter - used to evacuate people

infantry - moveable killers

sniper - don't move but can shoot far away

barricade - place 2+ 1-square barricades that zombies can't pass

mines - place 2+ mines that explode when a zombie runs over

demolitions - place 2+ explosives that you can trigger all at once

artillery - rains an artillery shell every 20 seconds or so

decoy - attracts zombies for a few seconds, not place, activate anywhere

You see where the initial zombies come in. You can use mines and explosives to take out entering zombies when they're most bunched up. Barricades to channel zombies towards your infantry.

Red buildings can explode taking out the whole block (gas main). Some parks with open areas (though once buildings start falling they'll be more open areas.

#3. Start the level. It's real time though you can pause. Use number keys to select a unit. Then usually right-click to do an action.

helicopter - set next landing point

infantry - move to cursor

sniper - move arc of fire (they only shoot targets in their arc of fire)

barricade - (can't move them after level starts)

mines - (can't move them after level starts)

demolitions - (select demolitions to make them all explode)

artillery - drop artillery on cursor, takes a few seconds to land

decoy - start decoy at cursor

The purple dots are zombies. Yellow dots are people. Blue dots are scientists. Each scientist rescued gets you one science point. Science points are used to buy global upgrades.

There's a timer for daylight at the top. If you kill all the zombies before the timer runs out you conquer the territory. If the timer runs out night arrives and zombies enter from all entrances to the city.

There is a gauge on the bottom right. Saving people and killing zombies increases the gauge and when it fills you can call in an orbital strike. Click the gauge then right-click a spot. In a couple of seconds lots of artillery falls around that spot. Lots of damage but not accurate.

The object is to save people. If you kill all the zombies all survivors are automatically saved. Otherwise use the helicopter. As it's landing the helo toots a horn causing all people nearby to start heading for the landing zone (and is the only way you can herd people). People jump on board until the helo is full then it takes off and comes back a few seconds later for the next load. It's automatic and all you can do is make the helo take off early (it'll also take off after a few seconds even if not full) and change it's landing point.

People die from friendly fire, explosions only (they're safe from infantry and snipers). Really don't worry too much about it as they're like ants and if you have artillery, mines or demolitions you'll inevitably kill some people.

#4. When the level is over you get to the scoring screen. You get one point per person rescued. Multiply by a difficulty factor if the zombie infestation was rated 2 or 3 (level 4 has no people so you score a flat 100 points but you get 35 science points to make up for it). Zombies get one point per person infected.

Your units also gain experience. Helicopter gets one xp per person saved. Attack units get one xp per zombie killed. I think decoy gets one xp per zombie influenced and barricade gets one xp per zombie diverted.

When a unit goes up a level it gets better.

helicopter - reduce turn-around-time or speed of people boarding

infantry - increase to-hit skill or movement

sniper - increase fire rate or arc repositioning speed

barricade - more barricades

mines - more mines

demolitions - more demolitions

artillery - reduce reload time or shell landing time

decoy - increase decoy time or decoy range

Then you go back to world screen and do it again.

There are "cut scenes" which are shown comic-strip fashion. There is also an encyclopedia and an icon comes up whenever a new entry shows up. These two things are the only fluff text in the game and otherwise there wouldn't be much of a theme.

When you start the game there are lots of flags you can set to make the game mostly easier but sometimes harder. You can also set the number of points to win.

It's a really fun game. At default level it got hard really fast. At easy mode I finished it a couple of times but perhaps it's too easy. I'm not that good at this game so I haven't found a happy medium where it's challenging and yet I will still beat it.

There are sounds. A 60's happy background music. Makes use of OpenGL for flavor things like rain effects.

You can design your own mods, changing monster and unit characteristics. Browse user-uploaded mods though it's one big list with just the mod name and rating.

Overall a very fun game and fairly unique.