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Undeniably the living dead, specifically zombies, have played a major part in the construction and continuation of the horror genre and have influenced countless novels, movies and in recent years, videogames. Though beginning much earlier, one of the most memorable of such games was of course Resident Evil. However, unlike other one hit wonders and novel concepts, Resident Evil went on to enjoy a number of sequels and a trilogy of rather impressive action flicks, starring many flesh devouring fiends. But please, don’t let me make you think that it ends there, because it surely has not. Nevertheless, it was only a matter of time before the zombie concept was manipulated and formed into something of an online game.
Though I’m sure many of you know what I’m talking about by now, for those that don’t I am of course talking about the new online, flash based game, Dead Frontier, which, all things considered, is not bad at all and can actually give you a fair bit of fun, especially for those of you who enjoyed old-school top down RPGs such as boulders gate.
Essentially, the game sees you, as the player, thrust into the role of a lone individual who has survived a terrible onslaught and now must continue to survive through the zombie and mutant infested streets of a major city. If you have played the flash version of this game, nights one, two and three, you should already be familiar with the style of game play and just what is expected in order to make it through with your life. However, the online version, of course, differs slightly, in that, there is no end, no final solution and no way to ensure that you won’t end up becoming fiend food.
Like games similar in style to Dead Frontier, such as Boulders Gate, the Bard’s Tale and to some extent, Diablo one and two, the graphical perspective is given from a birds-eye view, giving you the ability to see both your character and what is lurking around the next corner. However, with the zombies able to spawn randomly, this doesn’t make trying to stay alive any less difficult as, at times, you will become surrounded by mass hordes and will be forced to either shoot and slash your way out, or die trying, the latter option of course being the one preferred.
For those of you who can still remember, or still do, play Rune-Scape, Dead Frontier is a game played through your browser, with Mozilla Fire-Fox being preferred to Internet Explorer. The game runs pretty quickly, even on lower end systems and no matter your connection speed, you should be able to play the game with little trouble, or lag difficulties.
Once you have signed up and logged in, your prompted to create your character from a large range of classes, including soldier, banker, chef, student, athlete, businessman and fireman, with each having benefits where the others do not. Though there is not must option for customisation in terms of your character’s appearance, it really doesn’t matter, because when your talking top-down view, you can hardly see them anyway. Nevertheless, after that, you are shown to the Outpost, the hub, from which you can visit the forums to trade with other players and higher them for jobs, put your money in the bank, and trust me, this is very important, level up your character and check out once in your inventory.
When you are ready, just click on the arrow pointing back into the city and when the game is finished loading, you will find yourself in the middle of an eerie and mostly desolate street. Now, start moving and do it quickly because it wont be long before the dead are after you. Movement is through the FPS WASD method, with a left click being your primary attack. You can switch weapons by the numbers 1,2,3,4, or you can simply press the spacebar to cycle through. When you come across something which can be searched, often a dead body or trashed vehicle, you can hold down the f key to start searching. If you are forced to stop before you are done, you will have to try again. Essentially, every once-in-awhile, you will pick up food, medical items, melee weapons, guns and ammo, all of which can either be used by you, or sold to other players through the forums.
One tip I will give you is this, make your choice early on in the game, as you will not have time to make up for it later; guns or melee. You can try to make a hybrid character, but you will be a long time trying to get into the later parts of the game. Essentially, the stats for both guns and melee weapons are determined through your character’s build and you will be give a chance to examine and add to these each time you level up.
At the moment, Dead Frontier is only in the Beta stages of testing, with many new features having been planned for once the game is officially released. However, that is not to say the game is not already quiet a bit of fun. Yet, with the possibility of a character wipe, the choice to jump in now, or wait until later is up to you. Nevertheless, it is always good to give things a try.
All in all, this one gets about 7 - 10
Tags: Dead Frontier Zombies MMO Michael Grantham Review Pre
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