About Zombie Defense Tycoon:
When I first picked up the game it hooked me with the open approach, design and topic but soon after the cracks started to show. The tech tree looks fantastic giving you not only choices but also a motivation to replay completed maps in order to generate the money required to get all those upgrades. Especially in regards to units tho its an illusion. You soon discover that some units simply are better then others and some types are a must-have while others are a very situational luxury that make you waste the money you generated with trial and error. Money is generated by killing zombies and completing waves. The amount of money per kill depends on the amount of money you currently have banked. The more you stock up the less valuable kills become. This makes higher upgrades a test of your patience especially if you have to re-purchase it multiple times for multiple units. This mechanic forces you to do upgrades in one way only. If you think that completing one unit first (the strongest) then going over the others one-by-one is a good idea you ll simply sabotage your own progress. This becomes extremely boring after a couple hours due to lack of variety and choice. Maps represent a playing field which is an open course for the enemies meaning they do enter the map at specific points but how they traverse the ground depends on your unit placement (bee-line to closest unit bar any obstacles). Each map holds a certain number of tiles in specific locations. Those are the spots at which you can place units of yours. Moving your unit after placing it is possible between tiles resulting in gameplay that lets you set up your forces wave-by-wave instead of building towards a final stage as in other TD games. BUT….units become effectively invulnerable while on the move which means that this feature is easily exploitable by having several long-range units in the back and a “runner” in the front switching between 2 front tiles continously while the rest of the pack sitting in the back rips stuff apart. Its interesting at first but becomes a chore later on as it forces you to min-max the map while the game runs on auto and your interaction is restricted to switching a unit between 2 tiles over and over And with this we get to the “real” negatives….. A single map has a predefined number of waves you need to beat in order to claim money. The initial “base” isnt too bad resulting in quick plays but also low amounts of cash rewards. In order to generate more money (upgrades become really pricy quick) you need to “continue” a map after you reach the final wave which adds a number of waves with another “final boss wave” at the end. You can do this as often as you like (?) while zombies become more numerous and stronger with each wave. Eventually your units cannot be upgraded anymore and due to damage cap and resticted number of units per map you can only do so much before the onrushing zombie hordes kill you. You will stay with known maps because if you die at wave 60 after 90 minutes of non-playing you will fail the whole thing not getting any reward. This promotes a low-risk and boring game style at least for me as you run the risk of otherwise wasting hours of your time. This kind of system results in a map run that can easily several hoursat later stages (the best wave I completed so far was 60). This is an hour or moreof gameplay where you do nothing else then occasionally click and watch the game in auto-mode. If you come to the point where you have to switch positions in order to overcome waves you are better off restarting the map in order to generate money. Maps dont vary too much, many seem to be the exact same map as earlier ones with differently placed tiles. While there are new things to play with (APCs, Bulldozers other environmental hazards) its not enough to keep up your interest over hours of gameplay. I keep saying “gameplay” but I havnt even completed all the maps nor purchased all available upgrades and the game already has become a gigantic grind for money. I ve gone through 14 or so maps and have zero interest to unlock the rest. Upgrade prizes require me to run the same map 2 or 3 times now. The grind is not the worst thing. I consider myself “grind-friendly” as I like clicker games and MMOs as well as ARPGs but these other games either offer more variety when it comes to engaging gameplay OR at the very least run in the background while you go through the hoops. Zombie Defense doesnt allow you to check on anything else while you go through the first 40 waves or so (depending on your upgrades) which takes a lot of time already. As soon as you switch applications the game pauses. It FORCES you to stay on the screen and watch it. If you want to do anything else you have to boot up another computer or keep yourself busy with something else. While there are work-arounds through third-party applications this is a design decision that miffs me off to no end. Current gameplay even on highest speed (x3) results in me staring at the screen waiting for the money counter to fill up enough to either purchase an additional unit or an upgrade. The farther into the game I get the more I have to wait in between purchases as the money counter needs longer to reach the required amount. Zombie attacks require zero assistance from my side as my units kill off anything with ease. After 60-90 minutes I finally reach the stage where my attention is required to overcome the final wave but after killing off the couple of bosses rushing my lines the rest of the wave itself consists of zombie trash in the hundreds that easily takes another 10 minutes of inactivity on my part to clean up before I can complete the run or add another batch of waves. This single issue kills any enjoyment I draw from zombie defense. Its “play-to-do-nothing” while you save up enough cash to purchase a lackluster upgrade (you often need to buy certain upgrades which are required for the “good” ones) after x hours only to return to the grind woking toward the next upgrade. I want to make it clear that the gameplay itself “hardly doing anything while you watch” isnt the issue here. The issue is that Zombie Defense bloats up the amount of time with you watching and doing nothing to extreme amounts while it PREVENTS you from entertaining yourself otherwise while you wait for the early game to run its course. While my units indeed become more powerfull with upgrades it also adds more time to each run the more powerfull they become. Trust me when I say that after 20 hours of staring at the same map running through several hundred cumulative waves of zombies the thought of starting it up again makes me physically ill. Sure you have different maps but fact is that some maps are simply better for grind runs then others and as generating money is THE prime directive you will disregard all available maps and replay a handful over and over.
Verdict – TL:DR It was nice for a short while but Zombier defense is not a keeper. Not a bad game, just in dire need of some improvements enhancing long-term interest. After 10 hours total I feel like I have “seen it all” and all the unlocked stuff only offers me units that are better suited for specific maps or which put another few % on damage or range or whatever. If there is indeed an “endgame” I could work towards I m already in it. edit: My steam library shows 10 hours played total but I estimate my “real” playtime between 20 and 30
