Best zombie action and co-op fun on the iPhone.
The premise is quite familiar. Zombies have taken over much of the civilized world and you must do what you can in order to survive. The storyline (what little there is) is nearly identical to Resident Evil, as are many of the enemies. The game is played from a top down view and attacks can come from any direction. There are four playable characters to choose from; each with their own unique starting weapon and stat boosts. Your character moves in any direction using the left onscreen joystick while the right one controls the direction they shoot. The levels aren't particularly large, but not much area is needed to enjoy the action. In the beginning, the game may seem a bit too easy because the only thing attacking you are the typical slow, bumbling zombies. After a few levels, though, plenty of new enemy types are thrown in to keep you on your toes. Anything from zombie dogs to fat exploding undead and many more. As the game gets more difficult, there are advantages thrown in for the player to work toward. Secondary objective, such as rescuing survivors, collecting items, or even getting caught in a certain number of exploding zombie attacks will unlock equipment to wear that provides various stat increases. Each level also rewards experience that can be put towards these stats as well. Money is also earned in order to purchase new weapons. There are thirty levels and if one is too difficult, you can replay any past levels in order to earn more money or experience.
The graphics are fairly impressive, but admittedly, I have a soft spot for the two dimensional hand-painted look over three dimensional graphics. Everything shows a great attention to detail. Even though the enemy types repeat, they die in different ways. The gore is just enough to be satisfying without being over the top. Firing your gun not only shows of a satisfying muzzle flash, but also lights up your character realistically. Even the menus are well designed and look good while also being easy to navigate.
The best aspect of the game is, hands down, the four player Bluetooth co-op. Up to four people can play the game simultaneously and work together on any of the game's thirty levels. More zombies are added to keep the game challenging, and the increased number of enemies makes each mission even more intense. As long as you are within a few feet of your friend's phone or iPod, the connection is flawless and never noticeably lags. Playing by yourself is fun, but adding others in made it one of my favorite experiences on the iPhone yet.
The game isn't without it's faults, though. Moving to the bottom left or right of a level will make your character walk behind your thumbs and become impossible to see. The same goes for trees that are scatter around some of the levels. If your character is under one, not only can you not see yourself, but you also cannot see any attacking nearby enemies. Sometimes an objective item is under a tree and it can be hard to know where to stand to pick it up. Occasionally, a survivor will be injured and you must carry them to safety. In co-op mode, this is awesome, because one player must provide cover while the other carries the survivor. In solo mode, this is frustrating since you cannot attack while carrying them and there are rarely less than five enemies on screen at once. Most of the time, you are better off to let them die and hope the next survivor to appear isn't injured. The touch area for many of the buttons seem to be a bit to picky on some of the smaller options. Pressing the 'pause' or 'objectives' buttons usually take a couple tries to get the to respond. There are also a few typos her and there that hurt the otherwise professional feel of the game. For example, the equipment menu is labeled as 'Equipments'. None of these are major and hopefully most can be fixed in future promised updates. (Edit: most were fixed in recent update and another is on the way)
Alive 4-ever is easily one of the best shooters I've played on the iPhone for the price, currently $2.99. The game is just a blast to play and one of the very few that offers Bluetooth multiplay. Hopefully other companies will take note of this and add this feature to their future games.