Pride And Prejudice And Zombies iPhone App – Review
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has now made it’s way onto the iPhone as a game, further cementing it’s multi-media dominance among all things zombie.
The game is made by Freeverse, who are no strangers to zombie games having already made Zombie Cannon Carnage, but PPZ The Game is an entirely different style to their previous zombie app. The game gives you control of Jane Austin’s heroine Lizzy and admirably tells the story of the book while focusing on the zombie action the Seth Grahame-Smith re-imagining throws in.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies the game (PPZG) is a side scrolling beat-em-up similar to other iPhone (and now Xbox) game, Twin Blades, featuring a similar system of upgrades and special moves. Zombies are killed and scenery smashed to reveal coins which can then be used to buy upgrades to health and techniques. There are 12 levels in total and a variety of zombies, ninjas and ninja-zombies to kill along the way.
The game both looks and sounds amazing. The graphics are muted pastels with a style that suggests they’ve been lovingly painted into the small 320 x 480 screen and perfectly suit both the subject and period. The menu music is soothing and the drum beats sound like there’s an army marching at your back when slicing up zombies in the game.
PPZ the game also manages to tell the story beautifully through a series of 16 bit RPG style cut scenes, with the characters talking to each other. I’ve never read the book (:O) but can tell exactly what was added to it from playing the game. Since most games struggle to really tell any sort of story one that fits in both Austin’s classic tale and extra zombies is to be commended.
It’s just a shame the game isn’t actually much fun.
Players move by using their left thumb to control the character and right thumb to attack. A quick tap slashes ahead of you and more complex strokes cause the character to attack either behind, a jump, a spin or a kick. It seems initially to be a complex system allowing interesting and complex battles.
What it actually evolves into is rapidly smashing your finger on the right hand side of the screen and moving around to position yourself appropriately for this tappy attack. Having quickly maxed out the spin move, zombies from behind also proved no problem and bosses could be juggled to their death almost without worry.
Earning the rest of the upgrades seemed superfluous and despite gorgeously drawn backgrounds every level was basically the same. Despite lasting only about an hour it seemed to drag on for far too long. It would take a few replays to max Lizzie out but there’s very little reason to go back and play it again.
You’ll probably get your $3 out of PPZG, but only get it if you’ve already got all the other good zombie apps.
