Land of the Dead : Road to Fiddler's Green

[DeeBye]

I don't normally like FPS games, but I can't resist the zombie genre. I liked the movie, so I picked up the Land of the Dead : Road to Fiddler's Green game.

A horrific plague breaks out and mobs of zombies are roaming throughout the
tri-state area, killing people at random. You play Jack, a simple farmer who
must rise beyond fear, and battle your way through hordes of terrifying
undead who are bent on spreading the zombie plague. You encounter a
mysterious man named Mr. Kaufman who has established Fiddler's Green, a
fortified city, which holds the last of the living. He has offered you a
special job, with an exceptional reward. An offer too good to turn down, but
will you live long enough to reap the rewards?

I have only put about 3 hours into this game, but that's a lot longer than I put into most FPS games. The atmosphere is pretty good, and the graphics are really nice considering my antiquated system. Even with a Radeon 9200SE 128 MB video card, I get about 70 frames per second at 1024 x 768 with maxed visual goodies.

Some screenshots. Click to make big. My video card doesn't handle anti-aliasing that well so ignore the jaggies :(

The texture detail on the zombies is outstanding. They are really gross. It's a lot of fun to shoot the zombie's legs off and watch them crawl towards you.


The onscreen stuff is very simplistic. You have a paperdoll cutout of yourself showing damage, and an indicator of ammunition.


Fat zombie alert! The lighting effects in this game are very cool.


Jack just dropped a zombie with his M-16, and is ready to drop another.


I didn't think to take any screenshots in the city parts of the game, which is a pity. The city portions are a lot of fun and look great.

The story is told through a series of video cutscenes, as well as radio updates whenever Jack can find a working radio. The action takes a backseat to atmosphere. You'll find yourself creeping along with no enemies in sight for long stretches, only to have the crap scared out of you when one comes at you out of nowhere. This game reminds me a lot of the Resident Evil series.

The weapons are generic, but that's okay. I can't expect lowly farmer Jack to come across a BFG-9000 while shucking corn and milking cows. The melee weapons are especially fun.

You can download a demo version of this game here (130MB).