So this Is my first review for Kustom Gaming Kommunity, thanks for having me on board brothers and sisters! Ok let's get down to it, Dead Ahead we have.... well..... DEAD AHEAD: ZOMBIE WARFARE!!!!!
So This is a follow up to the Original Dead Ahead, which went down pretty well critically so no surprises Its back with some red neck Zombie shooting attitude! Well very cute and chibi-style attitude. Main premise is your In a bus traveling the post zombie apocalyptic wastelands trying not to blow up said bus by letting the cutest zombies ever slap the bonnet and make it explode (Well hard these Zombies, bit like my wife!)
Like most Indies it focuses on the addictive gameplay and not the storyline, which is why I love Indies and why I fell in love with such creative Devs (Not in a personal manner, you are still safe to leave your houses Mobirate!) Now this series has actually been mocking around since 2015 on App store but is only just seeing a console release which is a shame!
So the gameplay works like this. Your bus on the left bieng defended poorly by a chap with a well crafted handle bar "Tash", and various types of Zombies on the right trying to wee on your chips. You have both water and blood counters. The More water you have the more troops you can use, the more blood you have the more you can use power ups such as med kits, dropping oil drums on zombies head, spawning a dock off machine gun on top of the bus ETC.
There are different power ups too which give different effects such as faster cool downs on troops, more water drops on the field etc. The levelling up system is cool too, so you find bits and bobs such and toothbrushes and super glue which when added to a troops upgrade slots will level them up dependant on what you have equipped. To level up costs you coins, but you'll hardly be short of them, Dead Ahead good like that!
You can also upgrade the bus to have better defence and health, and even buy more varieties of troops to add to your "deck". At the time of writing the in game store was not active but you do have the option to buy loot drops, coins and various bundles. But by no means does that mean you need to cough up even more to get the most out of this game.
The soundtrack is dull and eerie which is what you would expect, some nice shotgun sounds and blood splatter. It's nothing noteworthy but if all fits in very well. Graphics wise Its a nice like pixel art job, it all blends in very well to make a cool title. My one problem with the Xbox one release is the thumb stick sensitivity and mapping. On the game map and along the bottom menu on levels your thumb stick doesn't always go the way you want it to and can be a bit laggy which can cost you games from time to time. Hopefully it's something they will patch!
Verdict.
It's simple, fun and exercises your brain so it's ripe for a flesh eater! Dead Ahead Zombie Warfare is a surprisingly good niche game with a couple of porting issues, but the good outweighs the bad. For a price tag of £15.99 I hope they plan on fixing the thumbstick issues!
Overall Score 9/10
Developer: Mobirate LTD Publisher: Mobirate / SPL Release Date: 06/04/2018 Price: £15.99 File Size: 279.86MB Xbox One copy provided for review purpose Available on: Xbox One, iOS