Endless Midnight: Zombie Swarm, Retrocade: DataStream Y2K600 and Warbirds At Work are reviewed in our first Indie Zone article.
The Indie Zone Reviews is our new series of articles covering reviews and previews of Xbox Indie Games. We get inundated with requests to review XBLIG and we were unable to keep up with the demand with writing the old full length reviews which take a lot of time to write. We decided on a shorter review format which still covers the game but without all the filler found in longer reviews. This way we can review the many games sent to us and not have to refuse any.
We plan for the articles to be weekly but over the next couple of weeks they will be more often as we clear the backlog of reviews. Once things have settled down we may tweak the length of reviews depending on how many reviews we need to do for that week. Future articles will also include previews of forthcoming releases and other related news. Any feedback is appreciated so please let us know in the comments. Finally thanks to @EscoBlades on Twitter for suggesting the name.
Endless Midnight: Zombie Swarm
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Endless Midnight: Zombie Swarm is as the name suggests a Zombie survival game. It is a twin stick shooter where the aim is to survive waves of zombies and rack up the top score. The main mode is the Survival Mode where you start with a lowly pistol to defend yourself. You earn money by killing the Zombies and it can be spent on purchasing new weapons such as shotguns, machine guns and a rocket launcher.
Weapons can also be upgraded to provide more firepower which is essential as the zombies get faster and more numerous as you progress. Some advance planning is required, should you buy a new weapon or upgrade the current one which could be more powerful in the short term but over time will become less useful. The game can be tough at some points, especially if you do not upgrade early enough, but once you have the rocket launcher it does get a little easier as you upgrade it. The Challenge Mode is something not often found in survival games. There are several challenges, similar to the normal game but with some limitations. These include using only unmodded weapons, pistols only and the hardest challenge ‘survival’ where one touch from a zombie results in game over! The modes provide a good a distraction from the usual survival modes and gives the game some extra value.
Graphically the game is average, the zombies are well drawn but the single location backdrop makes the game feel a little stagnant and I would have liked more locations to give a sense of progression. The sound effects are fine though there occasional breaks in audio when a lot of different noises are played. A medal system is included and rewards you for completing tasks such as killing a number of zombies with one shot, reaching certain levels and reaching a number of headshots.
Endless Midnight: Zombie Swarm costs 80 :MSPoints: and it is worth checking out if you are a survival game fan. The Survival Mode should hold your interest for a while, the challenge modes live up to its name and also brings something extra to the game. You can download the demo or purchase the full version from the Marketplace.
Retrocade: DataStream Y2K600
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Retrocade: DataStream Y2K600 is something quite different to many of the Xbox Indie Games available. As you can tell from the graphics it is a retro inspired game and wouldn’t look out of place running on an Atari 2600. Back then games were much simpler and Retrocade follows suite with a number of games built around a similar theme.
There are six games in Retrocade, five of which work around the theme of nodes and streams. The Arcade modes work on the idea of you controlling a yellow node which can travel between streams which alternately scroll horizontally across the screen. You must collect the red error nodes before they corrupt the streams which will eventually remove them, if you loose all the streams it is game over. To make things a little trickier, green nodes found on the streams will kill your node if you touch them.
Despite the very basic looking graphics, the various game modes plays very well and they all feel different to each other even though they follow the same principle. Some feel like Frogger in various ways and that is no surprise as that very game is the sixth game which you can play! The music tracks are well made with a modern retro feel which sounds good.
Retrocade: DataStream Y2K600 costs 80 :MSPoints: and is worth the money. While not everyone will understand this game and its appeal, the older generation will appreciate the simple idea. It works very well and has enough variety and challenge to keep you busy for some time. You can download the demo or purchase the full version from the Marketplace.
Warbirds At Work
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Warbirds At Work is a vertical shooter. Aliens have invaded earth and it is up to you to defeat them and save the world. Warbirds features seven levels covering earth with forests and lava levels, and space with the Moon and Mars.
The seven levels are all available to play from the start and require no unlocking. Each level has a different backdrop that show the location but it is a plain design with no features or scenery such as buildings to help provide some variety. The aliens come in a few types and some of the designs are well made, more time was obviously spent on the sprites than the backgrounds.
Your spacecraft comes equipped with the usual upgradeable gun, rockets and bombs to destroy the enemies. These can be upgraded or replenished by collecting the diamonds left by enemies. The game is fairly easy if you start from the beginning but it feels like you are playing at a pedestrian pace as enemies and their bullets are quite slow to travel across the screen. Later levels are are little more difficult but by then you should have a better gun and the task is again made fairly easy.
As mentioned the graphics are a mixture of poor for the backgrounds and good for the sprites. The music comes in a few varieties, some are the regularly used free music tracks which detracts from the quality, others I have not heard before and sound quite good. Warbirds at Work costs 80 :MSPoints: which is a fair price but the game is a little boring due to the slow pace and lack of action found in other scrolling shooters. One to avoid unfortunately! You can download the demo or purchase the full version from the Marketplace.
Trailers
Endless Midnight: Zombie Swarm
Retrocade: DataStream Y2K600
