Yet Another Zombie Survivors embraces every word in its name with aplomb. This is, in every way, another game that falls into top-down, wave-based combat where enemies flood the screen and players weave in and out of danger. Compelling progression keeps things fun for those who love the grind.
Self-awareness is a healthy quality to have. Keeps you grounded in reality, provides a degree of confidence in how you see yourself and how others might perceive you. You don’t have to sell yourself short but you might. Maybe you can slyly prop up your ego, fully aware of capabilities others are unsure you may have. It allows you to take stock of the world around you and how you fit into it.
Yet Another Zombie Survivors is aptly named. Developer Awesome Games Studio is highly aware of the product it is unleashing unto the world. Every word of the title an admission, an acknowledgement.
Would I glance past Yet Another Zombie Survivors on the PlayStation Store, I would know exactly what kind of game it probably is. The game’s key art relatively unremarkable. People blasting away at undead in a dark, drab shot. How many of those have we had? How many of them are Free to Play drivel gating any semblance of progression behind constant advertisements or a greedy dollar? How many zombie games have we had? How many games are nibbling at the cake of Vampire Survivors, clinging to that second noun in the title?
Top-down “Survivors-likes”–because that’s likely what we’ve all accepted at this point to call them–are an easy sell. Anyone who has played them knows the itch that’s being scratched. Whether it’s a narrative being chased to its resolution or a satisfying gameplay loop, interactive entertainment quenches that need for fun and progression and accomplishment.
Games where players die, get a little bit stronger, die again. Games where we get that unbridled luck that somehow pushes us beyond our normal capabilities. It feels good.
Vampire Survivors somehow just reached critical mass. Maybe it was a cheap price point. Maybe it was the fact that everyone desperately wanted anything resembling Castlevania. But in the wake of poncle’s beloved top-down, wave-based game, there was a definite shift.
Yet Another Zombie Survivors doesn’t hide its true colors–many games like it haven’t. “Survivors” has been tattooed onto both name and identity, occasionally a badge of honor, other times exuding a desperate “pick me!” plea.
When going into Awesome Games Studio’s attempt, I wondered if the name was simply a nod or a cheeky rewording of a sequel. Otherwise, I knew what I would be consuming: popcorn, hopefully warm, salty, and with enough “butter” topping. Delicious in the moment and hard to put down. After all, I’ve been here before. On my phone, on PC, on console. Games I keep on my phone and only play when on a flight. Free games I’ve deleted after a week, exhausted at the prospect of combining dozens items of multiple rarities to creep my power up.
Yet Another Zombie Survivors is very much like Vampire Survivors. But it is also very much not like those bottom-of-the-barrel cash grabs. Even with virtually no knowledge of game development, the genre feels like an easy one to milk. Waves of enemies, upgrades, certain death, a constant cycle. Make it shiny enough to attract eyes, make it frustrating enough to coax money or time out of players.
The game is simple, easy to digest. It doesn’t mask hidden complexities to muddy the formula. It doesn’t bloat the mechanics with unnecessary bits that waste time. Yeah, you’ve probably played a game like Yet Another Zombie Survivors and you’re wanting to know if it is absolute garbage, middling, or actually interesting enough to be worthy of the several hours of investment–until maybe you put it down for a few days or weeks, and then eventually come back to cross off achievements or max out upgrade trees.
Honestly, I think Yet Another Zombie Survivors is fun.
While this may not feel like a grandiose revelation, Awesome Games Studio understands the targeted audience and what they expect from a Survivors-like. I first played Yet Another Zombie Survivors early in the week. It was a game I used for decompression. Recently I had been bludgeoned with the likes of Mortal Shell II and Onimusha: Way of the Sword–games that require surgical precision and focus. This felt calmer. Certainly it had the chaotic hallmarks due to the flood of increasingly difficult and more frequent waves of undead. But there was no concern with blocking and parrying and stamina management and the like. Nah, I just needed to kill shit, collect shit, and upgrade shit.
So for a few days during the week during my job I would think to myself, “Man, I wish I was playing Yet Another Zombie Survivors.” Not those exact words, sure, but still a close approximation towards my feelings. I wanted to throw myself into another 20-minute run, or two of them. Upgrade some stats. Then do another task or play a different game with buddies.
Yet Another Zombie Survivors does not demand the world from its players, nor should it. This type of game is meant for entertaining bursts completely centered around players’ attention span and thirst for progression. The main loop of selecting a level, selecting a difficulty modifier, and potentially whether or not the run is going to be endless, shorter and more challenging, or similar variants is what you would come to expect. From there, a character is selected who will auto-aim whatever weapon they have, killing enemies that drop upgrade currency, and then cashing in upgrades that will help survival. Weave in and out of denser fleets of enemies, hope for that magnet to vacuum up missed drops, pray your health never gets too low.
Those hallmarks are enough for a passing grade, a day or two of captivation. The question is, how long does it take that interest to wane?
Regardless of whether or not a game like this is packed with secrets, Easter eggs, and hard-to-earn achievements, the flame will eventually and flicker and die. It happens with literally any game ever. And you’ll probably come back if the itch needs to be scratched.
Yet Another Zombie Survivors nagged at me for awhile. Tugging at my brain while I was playing other games or trying to live my life. Its boundaries are so easily defined. A round typically lasts 20 minutes, or 10 minutes when choosing the faster “challenging” option. “Endless” rounds for me never went past 40 minutes simply because I wanted to test out new characters or tackle a new challenge. It’s entirely digestible and you can time other activities around it.
But what’s the secret sauce that actually makes Yet Another Zombie Survivors nudge itself past the pale imitators?
While it isn’t anything wholly unique to the genre, I really enjoyed the way characters, weapons, and attacks are handled. In the game’s canon, zombies are the weapon of choice and a group of survivors have banded together trying to not die and accomplish personal goals. Each character represents a certain type of soldier, or warrior, or fighter from across varying forms of entertainment. A hunter shoots a bow and arrow, a soldier deploys turrets and an attack copter, a pyro uses fire, a ninja has cyber attacks and throws shurikens, etc.
Each character the player picks has a base weapon that can be upgraded and then later evolved when their skill tree has been upgraded. From there, other skills that activate on longer cooldown but do more damage are unlocked and upgraded. Rotating saws that encircle the player, molotov cocktails that drench an area in fire, a healing drone that recovers health. Everything makes sense and has cooldowns and damage numbers listed. Run over coins and gems created by dead bodies and fill up that experience bar to be gifted a new upgrade. Hover over item chests to get things that will help synergize builds.
The big spin here is that players can have a team of up to three survivors running in a tight circle, meaning all their primary weapons and skills are going off in tandem. Players will also unlock synergies in the skill trees of each survivor, skills that will grow in strength and take on the properties of the other character’s skill it is being evolved with. Often this means multiple types of elemental damage and bigger areas of effect.
Some players may lament that there isn’t really any mystery as the game easily defines which skills work with the other but it actually allows players to either focus on the survivors they enjoy the most, or plan out which skills can potentially work the best for their needs. Honestly, Yet Another Zombie Survivors isn’t that kind of game. It’s direct, chaotic and just wants you to have fun.
And when it’s all said and done, I can’t find much fault with what Awesome Games Studio has done here. It is a fun game but that fun has a definitive ceiling, one that can be reached relatively easy, even for players who are addicted to these types of games. The developer hopes to extend the shelf life by offering “story” missions for each survivor. What that ultimately amounts to is reading some basic text that suggests a typical zombie narrative and having to equip a specific survivor for that run and accomplish the task being asked.
I do wish Yet Another Zombie Survivors was prettier to look at. In-game, character models are pretty bland and don’t have much detail. Attacks are colorful and loud but everything else is relatively muted, lacking a distinct identity that would cause you to be able to pick it out of a pack of others. The home base players visit after rounds is a nice touch, showing conversations between survivors. Some of these are worth a chuckle or two but not too exciting. And if I’m being honest, the character art used feels almost generic in its attempt to be unique.
But that stuff isn’t really what any of us are here for, is it? The game could have used a bit more pizazz and polish, in both its visuals and sound design but I suspect this is also the kind of game you play with other stuff going on in the background. Again, that might sound like a slight against Yet Another Zombie Survivors but it’s not, it’s merely a reality of the genre. It is addictive and straightforward and there’s a comfort in that.
Yet Another Zombie Survivors embraces every word in its name with aplomb. This is, in every way, another game that falls into top-down, wave-based combat where enemies flood the screen and players weave in and out of danger. Compelling progression keeps things fun for those who love the grind.
