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Look, we're just as sick of zombie games as you are, which means they really need to step it up a notch to impress us. Thankfully, Road of the Dead does just that. It also has the benefit of playing exactly like the Super Nintendo game Outlander, which for whatever stupid reason still holds a special place in our hearts.
It's a pretty basic premise: Get out of the city using your car as a battering ram. You race through several obstacles, hitting zombies. The military is hell-bent on keeping everyone in the city too, so you'll have to deal with them as well. To keep things interesting, there is an upgrade system to get your car in order. It's not the deepest thing in the world, but it does add a layer of strategy to the whole affair. For instance, you'll need to add reinforced glass and wear a Kevlar vest to deal with a helicopter when it comes down, but you'll also need to upgrade your tires to deal with road spikes.
For all its charm, there are a few problems with Road of the Dead, namely the repetition of it. The scenery doesn't really change or offer any variation, and the gameplay can get a bit stale. There's also the problem that it can't be shifted into a full-screen view, which for a first-person driving game is a bit difficult to wrap your head around at first. That said, this is a Flash game, not a $60 investment, so the fact it's entertaining for at least 15 minutes should be enough to cover any breaks at work you have today.
If you've got a hankering to play an Outrun-style game with hints of Carmageddon and zombies, then you'll be in heaven. Even if you hate zombies, there is still something to enjoy here while you pretend to work. It's certainly not the greatest achievement of the medium, but it does stand apart as one of the better zombie games, and it certainly fits in nicely with a Halloween motif.
Play it here.
Keep Westword Free... Since we started Westword, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Denver with no paywalls.
