Saturday 4 August 2012

Zombies, Run!

So today I started my new 'game' - Zombies, Run! It's a cracking little app for iOs and Android (in my case my trusty Android powered Transformer Prime TF201) which at it's core simulates you running away from Zombies whilst jogging.

It's fair to say I'm not a jogger, I've tried before and have always found the motivation hard. Well, after a glowing recommendation from my good friend CJ, I paid the £5.49, quite steep for an Android app, and downloaded the 200mb program.

The startup instructions are a bit pap but it's easy enough to figure out. (Note all these notes are for the Android version and are probably different on ipads etc).

Basically you open the app and start a mission, it then plays an audio introduction to the scenario and then plays your music to you as you jog. Between each song you get the next part of the story. The story seems quite good (although I admit I've only completed Mission 1 at the mo) with you surviving a helicopter crash after the Zombie Apocalypse. You are soon contacted by a radio operator from a local armoured township. The story is one of the apps strong points so I won't give any more away.

You do need to have created a playlist with a third party app before Zombies, Run! will find your music. All I had on my device was Katherine Jenkins and it didn't really fit the theme. I'm going to create a better one with more energetic songs. There is a music shuffle option aswell to stop every mission seeming the same.

Whilst you run you get voice notifications of items you find, these are useful items which you use to upgrade your HQ between jogs (see below) along with 'quest' items mentioned in the narrative. These items are seemingly awarded based on time jogging and are themed around the surroundings your character is currently in.

A good imagination helps as during the course of your jog your character, Runner 5, will be going through wasteland, forests and abandoned buildings all whilst jogging round your park or along your local canal.

With GPS enabled the app monitors how far and fast you have run as well as enabling Zombie Chases. These sound awesome. At random points during songs you hear Zombies approaching and need to increase your speed to outrun them. My TF201 has crap GPS, a known fault being rectified by a hardware mod Asus are sending out to all owners free of charge.

Between missions you can upgrade the township you find yourself in using items you find whilst jogging. Upgrading certain areas unlocks later missions. I'm not sure if this is the only benefit of upgrading as I'm only at the start. If there isn't any benefit, hopefully future seasons (there are plans for a Season 2 already) will do something with it.

It's worth noting people have mentioned that there's no way to change the difficultly but there is. If you have a playlist with shorter (or longer) songs you'll have to jog less (or more) to get to the next narrative section. Although if you run for less you'll presumably get less items.

All in all it's a cracking game. I sure as hell wouldn't have gone jogging today without this app. I'm looking forward to hearing the full story of Runner 5 and hopefully getting a bit fitter too.

You can find out more about the app on it's website.

Keep the Flag Flying!

Craig

1 comment:

emmar82 said...

I'm very impressed that you went jogging and still seemed enthusiastic when you got back! This program has definitely worked for you (although I guess we'll see if you go again :-P)