Reviews
ZDay Survival Simulator gets major update!
The text based zombie survival game “ZDay Survival Simulator” is getting a major update this week. Version 3.0 is expected to be available next week. “The new version is much more than just a patch or an update, it’s a complete overhaul from top to bottom.” said Ed Anderson, Creator of ZDay Survival Simulator and Survivor Z. “The engine is completely new, and a hundred times more sophisticated than the previous one. it’s like going from a mechanical typewriter to a super computer in terms of the game’s sophistication.” The game’s engine is the same as that found in Survivor Z, with some elements disabled such as online play and required location data. Players will notice similarities to the interface, which now gives them the ability to control their inventory, arm their NPC (non-player characters) with weapons. In addition, the challenge content has been changed to accommodate the new engine and it’s vastly improved capabilities to record and respond to user input. There is also over 30% more new content in the game, meaning challenges will be harder, and more expansive than in previous versions. The new version will include iAds at the bottom of the screen on iPhone 5 and...
read moreSurvivor Z gets 4 Stars from iFanzine
Survivor Z Review Are You Clever Enough to Survive? March 7, 2013 – Clovis L. Dye, Jr. Ever wondered how well you’d truly do in the case of a worldwide viral induced zombie outbreak? While many people have often envisioned strategies for where they’d plan to hole up in such an event, and which weapons they might prefer, what they often don’t consider is one of the most important things of all: what are they going to do for food and water? Unless you have somehow sequestered away years worth of food in advance – a feat preferably accomplished before the initial wave of zombie induced panic strikes – at some point or other you’re going to have to begin scavenging for resources, and it’s this idea that is at the very core of Mongadillo Studios’ recently released Survivor Z . The first – and easily most significant – way that Survivor Z majorly differs from the horde of other zombie games currently available on the market is that it’s a text based RPG, rather than an action title. After first completing the game’s lengthy prelude/tutorial – chronicling the protagonist’s run home, avoiding rioters and the military in the process, in order to reach the safety of the bunker he or she has prepared – the real action begins a year later when the story’s hero is finally forced to leave their place of safety in search of more supplies. Along the way they will face down – or evade – the restless dead in various states of decay, as well as dealing with the other survivors whom can sometimes be far more dangerous than an entire throng of zombies. Survivor Z is – as I mentioned before – a game this is almost purely delivered via the medium of text, although playing the game will generally feel far more like reading a choose your own adventure book than playing a round of Zork. Normally you will be greeted with two textboxes: one which describes the world around you and any thoughts you have at the moment, and the other which describes the situation at hand that you are specifically expected to respond to. Below these two text boxes will be a varying number of buttons – each listing a specific action – that the hero can currently take, extra options may also show up if tools relevant to the present situation are currently on hand. A player – for example – may find themselves in front of a house that hasn’t yet been broken into as far they can tell, meaning all the potential supplies inside haven’t yet been carried off by other scavengers. A quick look around the place reveals that the back door is of rather flimsy construction and could easily be kicked in, but doing this would definitely cause a lot of attention getting noise. However, should the player happen to have found a hacksaw earlier – and thinks to put it in their hands at this time – they could just as easily cut off the lock far more silently. Survivor Z is not a game of flat out avoiding situations, since nothing ever ventured always equals nothing gained, rather instead focusing on how intelligently a player delves into each and every potential scavenge scenario. While the above example illustrates how a...
read moreGamezebo Reviews Survivor Z
What do zombies and Foursquare have in common? Survivor Z. By Nick Tylwalk | Feb 26, 2013 Since I’ve never shot a gun and have a tendency to be way too trusting, I probably wouldn’t last long in a zombie apocalypse. Survivor Z by Mongadillo Studios and 3 Jacks Software is driving that point home even more since its text-based RPG adventuring and turn-based combat incorporates real world locations. Yes, the struggle against the undead is now personal on your iPhone, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier. At least you don’t have to worry about any fancy goals. Your job in Survivor Z is just to keep living, period, something the game wryly notes that you can put your full attention to since you no longer have to worry about a job. The opening sequence of the game deals with the initial stages of the zombie outbreak, introducing some of the tough decisions you’ll have to make while getting you acclimated to fighting, searching and other useful skills. After holing up in your well-stocked bunker for about 10 months, it’s time to check things out topside and find out what’s left of civilization. It’s not much, to say the least, and you’ll spend most of your time scavenging useful stuff out of the remains. Food and water are the top priorities, but you’ll also come across weapons, protective gear (the better to avoid nasty bites from the infected) and a variety of tools and other items. The descriptions of the post-apocalypse world are well-written even if they do repeat after a while. In some places, you’ll have choices of several different actions, and since both the undead and other survivors can be threats, the game keeps you on your toes. Think of it as kind of a grown up Choose Your Own Adventureexercise, except with more rotting corpses. The real killer hook is the way the game uses the location services built into your iPhone to populate the game world with real-life locations near where you are playing. It certainly enhances the mood to be searching through the elementary school down the block rather than a generic locale, and you can freshen things up just by taking your phone on the road with you. The only problem is that the game occasionally misinterprets buildings in unintentionally hilarious ways, like when it mistook a small café near my house for a sports arena. Scripted encounters mixed in with the random exploration help propel the story forward while testing your problem-solving skills. Usually this means putting items you’ve found to creative use, and though the game does give you some hints, it doesn’t just hand you solutions. This feels right, but it does sometimes leave you at the mercy of what random stuff you’ve scrounged (although that’s probably how it would work in a real apocalypse, now that I think about it). When things get violent – and they will – the fighting takes place on a grid. There’s a bit of strategy involved in terms of initiative, but the combat mostly boils down to choosing a weapon and a target and watching things play out for that turn. All characters start out with the same skills, and the only way you’ll get better is to practice, just like your mom told you. If you get too lonely,...
read moreSurvivor Z gets a 9/10 for Gameplay on LevelSave
Survivor Z – The People It Kills Get up and Kill Published on February 25, 2013, by Austin Griffith Survivor Z is the latest title from the creators of the zombie survival simulator “ZDay”. Survivor Z has the same basic elements of its predecessor, only with more fun baked in. You’ll start Survivor Z at the same time the outbreak occurs in the original ZDay, as all hell starts to break loose you’ll be given text based choices to make as you make your way towards your stronghold. The game plays like a text based adventure for the most part. You’ll be given a scenario and have to use a sett of choices to figure it out. There normally isn’t any right or wrong answer, some just end with better cases then ever. The real innovation in Survivor Z comes with it’s use of your location settings. Survivor Z is always pinging your location to give you more places to visit and loot in the apocalypse. This will have you always searching for more environments. This does have it’s downfalls though, as once you loot somewhere it can’t be searched again. This will create problems if you like to play only at your home, because unless you play at school or work, you’ll have nothing to do. The things Survivor Z gets right, though, it certainly gets right. The game has a unique system for your loot, which has you using it to open up doors and boxes, and fight zombies. That’s right, zombies. Survivor Z also has a unique board game type system for fighting the zombies you encounter. You can use almost any item you find, including guns, to mow down zombies and survivors alike. Overall. Survivor Z is a fun romp through your city after the zombie apocalypse hits and it will certainly keep you coming back for more – as long as you’re able to play out of your homestead....
read moreSurvivor Z gets 4 stars by 148apps.com
Survivor Z Review Our Review By Jennifer Allen on February 14th, 2013 Expanding upon the offerings of its predecessor, ZDAY Survival Simulator, Survivor Z deserves to be quite popular with adventure game book fans. It tells an interesting story while offering them sufficient control over their destiny, also. It’s all about a matter of surviving here. There’s no deliberate mission to save the world or anything like that, it’s just a matter of lasting as long as possible, much like its predecessor. What changes here is the depth of options. Players can now use items such as flashlights, as well as change what weapon they use depending on the fight involved. Combat on the whole is more involving and there’s a form of levelling up system instead of the simple percentage listing of the previous title. There’s also the rather original addition of location aware moments. Regardless of if you live in a huge metropolis or a small town, like myself, it’s possible to interact with familiar locations. Of course, the algorithm behind Survivor Z means it’ll be less personal than it seems but it’s nice to have the introduction of names and locations that one is used to. I found a weird sense of realism while exploring my local gym in the game, rather than just a generic one. It’s a clever interface and one that should keep players coming back for more. The level of decision making throughout the game is more extensive than the previous instalment and easily makes one question whether it’s worth being a hero or more cautious. I found Survivor Z an ideal game to drop into on a daily basis, hopeful that I’d continue to survive, especially when travelling further afield. Fans should greatly enjoy the change of focus, much as I did. Read...
read moreiPhone App Preview reviews ZDay Survival Simulator
ZDAY Survival Simulator: Shoot the Zombies, Save the World March 29th, 2012 by Luke Patrick Reviewed by Luke Patrick When it comes to modern fads, we personally hope the zombie-mashing-blasting shooter is here to stay. There’s nothing we like more than sending some undead baddies back to the beyond. However, how long would we really survive in a zombie apocalypse? Between you, us and the walls, we haven’t got the foggiest clue. But, with that being said, ZDAY Survival Simulator by Mongadillo Studios takes us one step closer to knowing for certain. You see, the app acts as a calculator, letting us know exactly what our odds of surviving are based on the decisions we make. It’s a killer concept, and if your interest is piqued, you can head on down below the break to view our whole review! First and foremost, we’d like to just mention that this is nota traditional zombie shooter. You won’t be grabbing shotgun ammo to gun down wave after wave of enemies. However, what you will be doing is surviving a zombie doomsday. The app acts like one, overly-glorified choose-your-own-adventure game for the iPhone—and it’s awesome. The app starts you off in your home. From there, you must choose the best decisions, starting with items like what weapon to grab, who to save, where to go, etc. Along the way, depending on your choices, you’ll add new weapons, party members, and zombie kills. You’ll constantly be waging the odds versus rewards, and if you make enough mistakes, you’ll find yourself victim to an undead and untimely ending. However, the fun doesn’t stop there! Once the party is over, the app calculates your specific odds of surviving an undead invasion, as well as your unique stats. How many kills did you get? How many people saved? The app has it all, telling your own zombie apocalypse story. Even better, the graphics included in ZDAY Survival Simulator have been designed by a premier DC comic artist. As such, they look absolutely fantastic on the iPhone’s Retina display. Firstly, there’s the crisp, bloody illustrations that set the tone perfectly for the gameplay. Then, there’s the killer writing that has you on the edge of your seat. All that being said, though, we aren’t sure how many play throughs the average user will get with ZDAY Survival Simulator. It’s an entertaining novelty, but will you be able to waste hour after hour with the app at the helm? We aren’t sure. Overall Value We’ll spin it to you this way: For the two bucks ZDAY Survival Simulator costs, the app will provide you with a wealth of entertaining gameplay. The graphics are incredible, as is the writing, and though you may not have many play throughs with the app, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth....
read moreZDay gets 4 stars by 148Apps
ZDay Survival Simulator Review Our Review By Jennifer Allen on January 16th, 2012 ZDAY Survival Simulator is all about surviving a zombie apocalypse. It sounds predictable. After all, there are hundreds of zombie games already out there. ZDAY Survival Simulator does things a little differently though as it’s a text adventure akin to the Fighting Fantasy games and books of old. In the 1980s, the likes of Ian Livingstone revolutionized reading and gaming through such interactive storytelling. For fans of that era, it’s immediately great to see such a concept expanded upon on iOS. ZDAY Survival Simulator does a pretty good job of it too. Ensuring that players won’t be bored by a purely text based interface, the backdrops to each ‘page’ are illustrated by Matt Haley, famous for his DC Comics work, which keeps things consistently attractive. Starting out the game with no possessions and placed in the middle of a huge zombie infection immediately sets the player into survival mode. This game isn’t about being heroic (although opportunities do arise), it’s all about getting by and living for as long as possible. There’s a risk of ZDAY Survival Simulator repeating itself during multiple sessions but that only really becomes apparant in the early sequences. The first few minutes of each game is a little repetitive with the same questions coming up but after that, subtle variations keep things fresh. It’s unfortunate that there’s no way of using items that are collected such as flashlights or even riot shields, they simply bump up the survival percentage that dictates the player’s chances. Clearly there’s a pretty smart game engine going on behind the scenes as each decision is assessed ultimately leading to a detailed results screen explaining just what the player’s strengths are. The inability to choose to use items is a little annoying but otherwise ZDAY Survival Simulator is a very solid title. For those of a certain age who loved adventure game books, it’s the perfect app to play and one that players will find themselves returning to. Not least because they’ll have to be pretty skilled to ‘win’! Read...
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