Day of The Zombie (PC)

Today i'm looking into FPS game with zombie disaster theme but it's not Dead Island or Dying Light. It's GMI Technology Limited's  Day of The Zombie (2008). 

So far no zombie spotted but there's blood trail there so the situation isn't entirely safe there. I may be incarnation of Joseph Frost or whatnot, so i most likely will have bad luck playing any game that related to zombies but curiosity get the best of me. I don't think anyone care about Multiplayer mode in this game so i just go straight to Single Player mode right after making profile.     

Chapter 1: Post Mortem Education

Johnny Anderson is studying for midterms test and suddenly zombie accident happens. I really hate someone or something interrupts my study for test so sucks to be him. 

 

At first he's content with isolating himself within his room away from the zombies. But then he remembers Erica his pretty girlfriend. I don't think she look pretty. She might as well zombified already.

 

Johnny calls Erica but the responds only from answer machine. Is there any answer machine for mobile phone? Also how Johnny can using his phone while his both hand are in front? Maybe he using hands-free set, nevermind. Anyway, he's determined to rescue her who's currently at library building so he goes there. He may sounds reckless but he's smarter than Dario Rosso from Resident Evil 3 who isolated himself at container and later goes wild, get out of the container, and killed by zombies.

 

Then i found baseball bat and i use it to kill Johnny's roommate Susan because it's my objective point. Besides she's already become zombie with sunglasses and you know that any zombie with sunglasses is bad zombie. Actually, every zombie is bad zombie.

 

I'm still within 2 minutes of the game and i already discover jankiness here. I move my aim slightly to prove that i don't make the gif by using only a couple or two frames. They are there, stuck on the front door even though it's wide enough for 2 of them. I guess i should go there and beat them because that door is the only way out of this room.     

 

They move funny but they're still deadly and i got cocky. If there's number on my health bar, it will be 1 point or something. There's  medical pills that i can pick up to refill my health by measly portion. Let's say it heals 10% of my health bar but enemy's attack damages my health by 20-30%! Scout_medic03.wav   

This stairway is blocked! And to add insult to injury, there's ventilation shaft above that keep respawning zombie everytime i kill one.

 

Why they bother to make blockade their door if the zombies can break through wall like this? At least they provide me with access to progress the game.

 

I find vending machine and i can use it to pop out some soft drinks. But i can't drink them even though i'm in very need of health refill!

 

What subnormal idiot that put wheelchair on shower? Don't tell me it's one of those zombies! Medic_jeers04.wav

 

I like to show you other jankiness of zombie passing the blockade and the way she dies is so hilarious. Also how the combat works. It takes time for Johnny to swing the baseball bat so i have to time it right. There's 2 kind of attack: 1) Light attack, which is executed with left mouse button 2) Heavy attack, which is executed with right mouse button. It takes 3 hits of baseball bat's heavy attack to kill zombie. Anyway, i shouldn't be here because 1) It's dead end 2) That blockade keep spawning zombie.

 

I went to other way from that blockade and i fell down to this floor due to collapsing floor. After more walking and zombie bashing, i find kitchen where i find Molotov bombs! I think most people will more expect gun in this kind of situation. To me, i feel secured by having explosive weapon because as we all know zombies like to move in group because they don't care about physical distancing at all and nothing can destroy group of zombie better than any explosive. Bullet just ain't cut it for that. Anyway, i manage to escape from this dorm safely.  

Chapter 2: Power Failure

 

We move on to the janitor of the college, Hogarth Morten. I say that for janitor, he has very fancy suit. When the zombie accident happens, he only thinks to save his previous school and maintain order of it. He hates disorder as much as the students who often mock him.

 

So, yeah. I get to play as the janitor now. He has hammer at his disposal as you expect from some handyman. It goes without saying that the hammer's reach is much shorter than baseball bat but he can swing it much faster though. Because of that, i need to get closer to zombies to hit them...      

 

...but not this close that i can see his throat through his head. AAAAAHHHH!

 

This chapter introduces us with this crawler zombies but i like to call them dweller because they reminds me of dweller from Nioh a lot. They can't be staggered or stunned unlike normal standing zombie and they can unleash furious swipes at your feet. So you have to be more careful when aiming your attack. Luckily, this type of zombie can't chase you to staircase so you can try hit and run by utilizing it.

 

Then i find dead security and grab his rifle. But don't get too excited there. It's rifle with 0.22 type bullet which is intended as civilian's self defense and not for military purpose, meaning it's not powerful than military standard weapon but at least it's better than air rifle.  

 

To kill zombie, i need to shoot at their head 3 times. Everytime i shoot the rifle, i need to manually unload the used bullet then insert the new ones into the chamber because this gun doesn't have automatic loading mechanism. You also have to consider about the reloading time because it takes fairly forever to do so. But you can't expect much from civilian-purpose gun anyway. Nonetheless, i can kill zombie from afar with this gun.   

 

Then, i got killed by dweller and she eats my Achilles even though there's not much meat on it but good for her. It's pretty difficult to deal with the dwellers with small hammer but i reluctant to use the rifle because -you know- i'm stingy person. By the way, the main method for saving in this game is manual saving. There's not many auto-save checkpoint, i warn you.   

 

By the way, my mission is here to retrieve the rare books and then activate the generator in this library. Yes, i said that i'm in library which Johnny's girlfriend, Erica supposed to be. So far i didn't see any other survivor. Thus i assume she's dead.

Chapter 3: Campus Om Död (means "Campus of The Dead, maybe?)

 

So the military takes action in this zombie accident. What's with the most front soldier there? His assault rifle goes through body just that or the artist can't be bothered to draw the assault rifle in detail plus his arms.

 

But the military get overwhelmed by the zombies. Sgt. Daniel Travis retreats to nearest building and i play as him now! He's military operative so you expect him to have standard military weapon. Yes, he does. But he's sniper! If you excuse me but WHAT THE HELL THEY THINKING? It's very inefficient to send sniper on foot in open area. They should drop sniper on rooftop or other high ground, that way zombies have harder time to reach sniper. Or even better, they should send demolitionist to deal with the zombie. No, seriously. Send Tavish Finnegan DeGroot (aka Demoman) here and he can blows the problems away with huge collateral damage, sure but get the jobs done. Anyway, Travis has sniper rifle (that also requires loading time after shoot) and he has to snipe zombies from windows...

 

...until a zombie breaks wall behind so he decides to get out of this house even though i'm sure it's still safe place and that zombie is the only one who manage to get inside! Lucky for me  that there's M-16 assault rifle near my snipping spot. Also i notice that his melee weapon is shovel, he's truly (Team Fortress 2's) soldier!

 

The game said "Head to the hedge maze". You mean the area where the zombies that i sniped, come from? Sounds like bad idea but that's the place where i have to go indeed.

 

Can i just shoot the bolt with my M-16 here? It's powerful enough to kill zombies with 1 bullet if planted in their head. No? Fine! I will look for the bolt cutters somewhere behinds me along with horde of zombies chasing me. They're quite slow but it's enough to induce my paranoid .

 

There! I find bolt cutters on the tool shed at the end of one of junction near the locked fence. Now i have to go back to it while dodging all dozens of zombie that i kept alive because i'm really conserving my ammo. By that i mean i keep being stingy as always.

 

Shoot the explosive barrel to make way, sure. But why it's green. Explosive barrels always in red, game! Spy_negativevocalization03.wav  

Chapter 4: Street Meat

 

Hi, there un-sunglasses Susan! I thought i killed you back then. Anyway, i'm back as Johnny Anderson. I lose my baseball bat but i found golf stick lies on the bench behind me. I think it's worse melee weapon because it's less powerful. You see that big dump bin? It's another zombie "generator". I wish i can destroy it like in Gauntlet Legends.  

 

But i find another baseball bat. Thank God! Once i pick it, i automatically drop the golf stick but it's fair trade. There's man screaming on next room but i can't do nothing about it not until the zombie finish break that door. No. I can't open the door by myself. The game won't let me do that.

 

I found extra petrol bombs so i figure it's time to use one of them. Look at them! They're burning. Muahaha! Wait! I'm also burning! I didn't throw it far enough from myself! The loading screen says i must seek water when i'm burning. But i don't see any of it! Maybe if i bash some of hydrant around here, i can get some water spray but i don't have opportunity to test that. By the way, i spend quite some time to find path to progress. Turns out there's one on small corner of this area. I wish there's the usual-modern objective marker in this game.

 

Ok. This time i have to be more careful using this Molotov cocktail. There's significant time before i throw the bomb. After pressing left mouse button, Johnny brings out his lighter, turn it on, lit the fuse, and finally throw the bomb. But it's really pay off. Really. 

 

Then i enter this big building that i assume is the library but actually not. But i find lead pipe! I can feel it! I can feel the power of Mayor Mike Haggar himself courses through my body from this pipe! That zombie trembles in fear as she should!

 

I reach this rooftop and the only way to progress is through this hole. I can see zombie from here and if he tries to do something funny he will get a taste of the might of Mike Haggar! Nevermind. He's only hanged corpse.

 

Then this cheeky bastard ambushes me while i'm fixated to that medical pills. I bash him so hard that his corpse stuck to that shelf. Serve him right! Do you see green fumes around him? That's because he's poison zombie that can vomit poisonous blood. If you happen to get hit by it, the health bar goes green (which makes you can't see your health temporarily) and drained overtime temporarily. Sometime this kind of zombies, start trembling and growling then suddenly they explode and give you poison status if you're too close to them. They're the most annoying enemy in my opinion.

 

But i find armory that contains this revolver and this full-health medkit. Soldier_cheers01.wav

 

I reach this closed arena. There seems no other way out of this place and enemies keep respawning from window on building around here. Eventually, the enemies is no longer respawning and that burning car on that blockade explodes for no reason which allow me to get inside that big building which apparently is the library.

Chapter 5: A classy gal named Bessie

 

Hogarth keep thinking that this zombie accident is prank by the students. I know that most of these students are unlikable but please look into this matter more seriously! This is definitely not prank, buddy! Anyway, the janitor feels an urge to find this Bessie that will help him solve this zombie problem.

 

This fence suddenly close itself! But it's helpful as i left one or two dozen of zombie behind me as always. Wait a minute! This is that once locked fence on Chapter 3!

This bridge also in Chapter 3. Back then i forget to pick those medical pills near that car because they're concealed while i'm running in opposite direction plus horde of zombies was on my trail. Anyway, i explode a barrel to break the blockade so i can proceed to hedge maze.

 

Yup! This is the house that Travis ran from but back then the door to the basement is locked. Inside of it, i find Bessie that is...

 

...a shotgun. She can clear zombie's head off with one blast. You're the best, Bessie! I was thinking to end this writing  but curiosity (again) get the best of me and decide to play further. But i skip a lot of thing because there's not many thing different from my playthrough at this point.

Chapter 6: Cooking The Books

 

Sgt. Daniel Travis decides to regroup with division 2 at the library (yes, that's the same library where Johnny's girlfriend supposed to be and the starting level for Hogarth). But (un)surprisingly, they're all annihilated! No wonder, they're dead. They have all the ammo (that exceed my maximum capacity even) but they don't have the gun at all. Of course, you will be struggling to survive against zombie if you only have the ammo but no gun. How about some improvisation, lads? How about using chairs as weapon. There's many chair around here, y'know?

Chapter 6: Curriculae Corporis

 

Hogarth now feel responsibility to secure Fencott College's symbolic shovel (that i can't use as melee weapon), documents and these photos! I believe that guy is one of development staff carrying toy shovel, and the other is just a cow. I don't see the importance of these photos, seriously.

Chapter 9: Breaking up the kegger

 

Travis is supposed to meet scheduled extraction chopper on the roof of this dorm. Once cleaning it up from zombies, the chopper crashes! I don't understand why. A flying vehicle should not meet any problem from stupid zombies, right? Maybe this is sabotage as part of "conspiracy" so there's no living witness to this event yadda yadda.

 

Once i reach the crash site, the game spawn dozens zombie at me. This is another "endurance" arena where i need to kill zombies until the game feels satisfied for my heroic massacre. Luckily, in this chapter Travis brought hand grenade to deal with this massive group. As the contrary of Molotov Cocktail, he throws the grenade immediately but the thing is it explodes on timing instead of impact. Nonetheless, it's very useful in this situation. If any of them survive the explosion, my melee weapon will do the rest with no problem.

Chapter 11: Johnny Come Lately

 

O ho! Someone is foolish enough to challenge me on fire axe duel. I'm seasoned Pyro, he stands no chance against me! This type of zombie who can wield melee weapon, is much tougher than regular ones. It takes 2 headshots to kill this kind of guy. Once you kill them, you can have their weapon. Anyway, Erica isn't in library. She leaves note which said that she along with other survivor decide to evacuate to this lecture halls. I have gone through dozen of corridor and 2 lecture halls, still no sign of her.

 

Why, of course. She is found on 4th lecture hall which is the last one in this map. She's the one on the right by the way. Yeah, she turns into zombie. You shouldn't expect some romantic miracle like in Cloverfield, Johnny boy! And now your fate comes to a miserable end.

Chapter 12: Running On Fumes    

 

Meanwhile, Sgt. Travis tries to escape the site by going to the dock and ride a boat. To destroy burning car that block the road, i must use this Gatling gun but -get this- it's probably the weakest Gatling gun in gaming history! The rate of fire is suitable but the damaging power is pretty feeble as if it uses BB pellets instead of military standard bullet. There's no overheating or bullet limit and you can use it to put barrage on zombies but it's not satisfying because how weak it is. M-16 Assault Rifle is stronger than this, go figure! Heavy from Team Fortress 2 will immediately divorces this Gatling Gun on the spot because how shabby it is!

Chapter 13: Trial Through Fire

 

Hogarth Morten goes to the dorm to stop the fire from spreading to other part of campus. He extinguish the flame but he got surrounded by half of a dozen zombie? Is that it? Is this supposed to be bad ending for the Janitor? I'm not buying it, game. I killed dozens of them by using only lead pipe. Even if that fails, i still have lots of ammo for Bessie.

Chapter 14: Gunboat Diplomacy

 

Sgt. Daniel Travis finally arrives at dock and he makes his way to functional boat. Here i find another funny zombie's ai involving door. It was fun playing with them until one of them slips in and claw my face. Silly me! :P  

 

Look at those bozos! Walking at each other instead of coming after me who's out in the open. There's that one punk who finally decides to get out of the crowd but later he seems indecisive about what he wants to do next. Demoman_taunts01.wav

 

At long last, Sgt. Daniel Travis manages to take a boat and escape the bombardment. Oh, yeah! I forgot to tell you that on Helicopter's radio they will executes full bombardment on whole college with the codename "Operation Phoenix". So Mr. Hogarth probably won't survive afterall. Two zombies manage to hitch a ride on Travis' boat and about to attack him from behind. The narrator says "In the end no one survives". Again, i'm not buying this scary thrill. This kind of cliffhanger certainly works on that bad ending on Clock Tower because the player/protagonist is flimsy woman. But Sgt. Daniel Travis here can kill almost hundred of zombie with lead pipe (with Mike Haggar's blessing). Plus i believe he still has fully loaded Glock pistol, sniper rifle, and M-16 assault rifle with him. I believe he will kill those stupid zombies with no problem at all. He survives. Case closed!    

 

That's the end of Single-Player mode. But i might as well as check what the Multiplayer mode has to offer. I don't think i can invite anyone to play this rather-janky zombie FPS and there's no option to add bot. So it's just me...and the zombies, again! This is deathmatch mode but with addition of neutral-hostile zombie to join the fray. It feels weird. By the way, the weapon will spawn in certain spot.

 

Next we have "Capture The Flag" mode but they should rename it "Capture The Bag"! Because you're contesting over this bag that's said contains supply. Grab enemy's bag and put it to your team's bad, that's the gist. Of course, the game will spawn zombies to make your day. I can't say the multiplayer mode game is bad, it's just very unusual. Like imagine ice cream cone with baked bean and chili powders as topping instead of cherry and chocolate sprinkles. I would eat that because i love me some baked bean. Anyway, you get the idea, right?

 

GMI Technology Limited's Day of The Zombie (2008) is quite something even with all that jankiness and the averageness of the gameplay. The firearm combat works fine. The aim is fine mostly. Sometime, i hit crawler zombies in shoulder although i'm sure the crosshair is on their head. I learn that the civilian's rifle takes a same slot as handguns. It has the same firepower as Glock but it's more accurate for long range although you have to take account of the loading and reloading time. It seems revolver is the strongest handgun. M-16 Assault Rifle is definitely the best gun in the game. 1 headshot from it, is enough to kill regular zombie. The bullet grouping is pretty narrow so it's very accurate rapid-firing gun. Bessie the shotgun is the second best gun in the game. Her burst can pierce through enemies. On to melee weapon topic. The reason why there's no targeting HUD while equipping it, because each melee weapon has different hitting spot which also different between light and heavy attack. I though heavy attack deals more damage than light attack but that's not entirely true. For example: 1 successful light attack's hit from lead pipe and fire axe can instantly kill zombie! Thing for sure is: light attack has significant less delay on attack and only make zombies flinch a bit when hit.  While heavy attack has noticeable more delay on attack but will guarantee make zombies knock down when hit. Assuming they're not weapon-carrier or crawler type of zombie. Here's the example of difference between light and heavy attack: While equipping lead pipe, the light attack is simple overhead bash on center of your aim (which can easily knock zombies in the head thus killing them fast). Meanwhile the heavy attack is side bash from right side to left side that can knock zombies to your left. Don't bother killing zombie with punch, because it doesn't work! I tested punching a zombie in the head so many time and it refuses to die until i shoot it in the head. Speaking of weapon, you pick one between your arsenal by using mousewheel (default) and there's no alternative. In any FPS game, i like to choose my weapon by using number keys but there's none here and that's bad in my opinion. The variety of enemy seems distinctive and solid even though there's not much into it.

Because they keep using same map (but with different path), the tension/horror of the game becomes weary once you get to Chapter 5. The path is all linear. If you walk into possible alternative path, you will only get medical pills or extra ammo at most. Nothing groundbreaking on your discovery from strayed path. Because how low the health refill you get from the pills, you can say that the game leans on "Survival Horror" genre. Sgt. Daniel Travis' chapters feel immensely easy, because the game puts lots of ammo there especially M-16's magazines. Johnny Anderson's chapter are fairly easy because he has Molotov Cocktails. Hogarth Morten's chapter probably the hardest because lacks of ammo finding but at least he has the ol' reliable Bessie. What really baffles me is: these characters never met even though they clearly using the same map over and over again. Although each chapter can be finished 20-30 minutes, the game feels overly long and tedious, in my opinion. The difficulty is pretty friendly but i hate the part where enemies spawn continuously. The music is kind of there but not significant. But there's scary thrilling music when you're about to close in on Erica. The sound effect is so-so. Instead of CG, they use comic panels to deliver prologue and epilogue which i appreciate it. But the drawing is not good especially on Erica who's supposed to be pretty.

 

Day of The Zombie (2008) is pretty mediocre FPS with zombie. But it's fun to play because of the jankiness of the zombies and their ragdoll physic. Also you can learn that pipe and fire axe are the perfect weapon in zombie outbreak situation!