Infect Them All Review

Note: 2010-07-14 The name of this game has changed from Infection:Zombies to Infect Them All. The title has been changed as well as references to the name in the review.

Another day, another zombie game in the App Store. This time, it's Infect Them All, from developer MagicCube. They manage to bring some freshness to the zombie genre by putting you in the shoes of the zombie, spreading your taste for human flesh amongst the masses. The result is a fun, casual game.

In each level of Infect Them All you begin as the lone zombie in a crowded (but otherwise featureless) area. You start noshing brains immediately, and have the choice with each victim: consume them for food, or infect them to make more zombies. You'll have to eat some of them; your health meter slowly runs down as you get hungrier, and only tasty flesh will fill it back up. But you also need to make more zombies before you're overwhelmed by defensive living folks.

There's

some strategy to be had. You want to make zombies as quickly as you can, because they take the hits for you--and in later levels there are a lot of hits to take. Fists, briefcases, guns, flamethrowers, and even lawnmowers are wielded by scared citizenry. There's also a pair of special forces agents that look suspiciously like an homage to classic zombie killers Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, ready to gun you down. Because you don't earn any bonus for keeping other zombies alive, they're perfect cannon fodder for these future meals.

Infect Them All is a neat little game that plays well. The default control uses the accelerometer, and it works fine. Only in the later levels did I feel the need to swap over to the onscreen joystick for finer movement. Level design is basically nonexistent, with the challenge coming only in the form of more varied and tougher-to-kill humans. The graphics are cartoony, but they work for the level and style of the game.

The problem

Infect Them All suffers is repetition. While it's a fun game, all the levels play exactly the same: eat or infect everyone. It gets more challenging as new human types are introduced, but your zombie's game play is always the same. Luckily, this isn't a fatal flaw for the game; but it does mean you'll never be playing it for more than a few minutes at a time.

The other annoying thing that must be mentioned is the game's lapses into Engrish. While all the text is readable, there's glaring errors here. The developers might want to hire a native English speaker to edit their text before the next update.

Overall, if you like both zombie games and casual games, Infect Them All just may be worth a look for you. While prolonged play gets repetitious, it's perfect for a few minutes of undead fun.