THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

In this top-down shooter, you play as an ex drug-dealer named Butch. Butch has had a bad day and it's getting worse by the minute. Trapped in the underground parking lot of a shopping mall, you must shoot, punch and kick your way through this 80s-horror movie inspired game as it hurls Zombies, infected rats, psychotic mutants, crazed soldiers and torrents of other nasties in your direction. Dude, this is one really bad trip...

MY VERDICT:

I lovingly call this game "Hotline Miami of the Dead" as that is very much what it is. It shares the same twitch-based gameplay mechanics as Hotline Miami (though, thankfully, is a bit more forgiving), replacing the majority of the enemies with flesh-hungry Zombies. At one early point, there is a boss to kill which is actually several smaller enemies linked together in a chain, a clear nod to cult horror movie, The Human Centipede. This boss took me several attempts to successfully defeat; I go this way, die, change tactic, die, adapt my tactic and so on until I finally achieved my goal. And that's what keeps Garage: Bad Trip alive; that repeated failure, adaption, incremental success and then a huge feeling of satisfaction when you find that perfect strategy that gets you through. While the game does faulter at times (there are rare but occasional motorbike sections that are far too unforgiving and can lead to frustration), the developers have done a sterling job at keeping this 'try, fail, get better and try again' concept fun throughout the entire, fairly lengthy, campaign. A handful of other minor niggles spoil the show but nothing to stop me giving this 'cheap and cheerful' Zombie blaster the fetid, decaying Zombie thumbs up of appreciation.