Dead Trigger (Android): I got zombie in my front pocket for you.

So, the summer drought kicked my ass. I had nothing to review. Now we're are getting into the fall months and aside from one new title, I haven't had much to go on. And since I felt a blog post about the Library Science crap I am studying would not make for an interesting read, I thought I would talk about something that caught my eye.

If you are like me, you have been following the potential new system coming out called the Ouya. The open source android console. But in the video found on the Kickstarter and the Ouya site in the interface screen there is a option for something called Dead Trigger. I did a little digging and found that most of the options on that screen were just games currently on the android platform, and since I was clawing for something to do, a new zombie game seemed great. The screens shots seemed impressive but how would it hold up on my phone?

DEAD TRIGGER:(Android)

There's a story in the game. But to be honest, I haven't read a lick of it. Why would I? Who in this zombie pop culture world we live in would need me to recap the story in this one? I bet it goes something like this: "There was one zombie, now there is a lot of them. Now you have to shoot guns at them to survive, get supplies, and save people" We all caught up to speed? Great, because if on my phone and it's not an RPG, I really could give a damn less what the story is.

Dead Trigger is a first person shooter designed for the mobile phone platforms. It was primarily a Android game but I believe it is available for the Iphone now as well. This definitely lends to play easier on the larger phones such as my HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3, or the Iderp 5. You can also play it on  tablets pretty well, although using my dad's 10 inch tablet it was somewhat hard to control even with my massive hulk hands.

The controls of the game were actually fairly responsive and intuitive. The left lower corner of the screen functions as an analog pad and allows your character to move and strafe with fairly regular FPS controls. On the right side there are a series of buttons: Fire, Reload, Iron Sight. All of them respond rather easily and fluidly to a level I got comfortable with them with ease. The blank area above these buttons you can use to turn the camera which allows you to strafe and circle enemies. What is also handy is while you are holding down the fire button, you can make subtle turns from there as well, allowing you to make adjustments to your shots as you fire.

The graphics in this game are VERY impressive for a game designed for a mobile platform. I'd go as far to say that the graphics look almost on par if not better than how games looked on the original PlayStation, Or possibly the PlayStation 2. Actually, I'd definitely say PS2, zombies in Dead Trigger were easily much more detailed than the zombies that were found in Resident Evil: Code Veronica, (I know that was on Dreamcast first, but I'm using it as a frame of reference. I played it on PS2 first anyways). 

The music is really nothing to write home about, but I don't really expect mobile games to have an incredible score. Which is kind of disappointing when I reflect upon it. I can think of a number of SNES games that have amazing soundtracks and they were incredibly fulfilling to the point that they are permanently ingrained in my head. I understand you can't put chiptunes sets into non sprite games these days, but I think if you went a little longer than some droning music loops that are featured in many mobile games, they might be a more satisfying experience. Sorry, I'm getting off track.

Generally, the missions have been broken down into three main categories: Hunt, Survive, Retrieve. Up to where I have played, the goals are simple and not usually much variety to the rules. All of them involve gunning down zombies, just sometimes you have a set number to kill, number of minutes to wait, or go to point A and back to B. I haven't been playing many of the story missions yet though so perhaps that will change. 

You can earn money by going to the casino or ranking well on the missions and that allows you to buy upgrades at the shop. Not all the upgrades or weapons are available though because there are two forms of currency. Money you earn during the course of the game. Gold you can win at the casino, but the real way to get it is to pay real money for it or sign up for promotions or surveys. I'll pass, thank you very much.

While there does seem to be a constantly changing blend of zombies, I have yet to come across any boss fights yet, which is a little disappointing because every good zombie game needs boss fights. Perhaps there will be some as do more of the story missions, but so far? No sign of em.

While I am not much of a first person shooter type of guy, I am really getting into this game. Its not frustrating to play and it the levels are the perfect length for the mobile platform. Its something you can whip out and play with for a few minutes and be able to come back to it. Yes some of the levels get a bit repetitive but as I said I haven't been playing the story mode so much so that could change. The best part about it the game is free to download on both IOS and Android so if you've got a newer smartphone that has the power to run it, I would suggest giving it a download.