Zombie Driver THD Review

Guess what? The city’s overrun with undead due to a chemical spill, and you’re the guy who’s going to save the day. It’s not an original plot, but why fix what’s not broken? Right?

Zombie Driver THD, a console/PC recently ported to quad-core Tegra 3 devices, has 31 missions involving driving, zombie slaying, survivor rescue and some serious zombie bosses. You earn in-game cash by completing missions, enabling you to upgrade your car and weapons along the way.

The top-down racer will feel familiar to Grand Theft Auto players, with similar gameplay and maps. The twist manifests itself as zombie hordes you can mow down with your car, splattering blood everywhere, or use your arsenal of weapons to kill.

The further you progress through the levels, the bigger these zombie attacks can be, and you’ll need to upgrade your vehicle to be able to push through them. You start off in a taxi but can unlock vehicles a limo, fire engine and even an army tank, with weapons ranging from flamethrowers to bombs.

Away from the main event, there are two other game modes: Blood Race sees you up against other drivers, trying to take them out in a series of races, while Slaughter mode has you trying to stay alive for as long as possible, killing as many zombies as you can before they destroy your car.

Mindless zombie violence is all well and good – and this game has it by the bucketload – but it’s the controls that let the experience down. The on-screen buttons are too sensitive and ultimately tricky to get used to. Acceleration and steering are on the same D-pad, and we found it very difficult to tear around the zombie-ridden streets without being seriously slowed down by constant crashes.

There is the option to connect a keyboard or wireless gaming controller to play the game, which we expect would improve the experience, but a tablet port really ought to perform decently on a touchscreen. 

That’s a shame, as otherwise the game is great (if huge, you’ll need 1GB spare to download it). The satisfying noise made as you squish zombies is a particular highlight, and if you can master, or at least learn to tolerate, the control system, Zombie Driver is a whole lot of fun.