2019 seems to be the year of the zombie. Resident Evil 2 remake acted as a reminder of why we loved them in the first place, and Days Gone is coming. On the mobile platform, NetEase has also released its own zombie survival game, LifeAfter.
You are one of the survivors of a zombie apocalypse and now must do everything you can to try to endure in this horrible environment. The tutorial introduces you to all the basics, which includes collecting resources, crafting necessary tools, and avoiding (or fighting) zombies. The game is actually very similar to Ark, only this time you have zombies instead of dinosaurs.
There are a ton of things to do in LifeAfter. Needless to say, a large part of that involves fending off the ravenous walking dead, but even a larger part is about avoiding them. And that’s where crafting comes in. You’ll be able to make your own weapons and tools, as well as structures and other utility items such as bandages.
Speaking of structures, you’ll need to rely on them a lot as you progress. After all, the ultimate goal is to restore humanity, so you must find shelter, fortify it, and gather other survivors to guard it against the zombies.
When it comes to gameplay, LifeAfter has a very similar feel to Rules of Survival. The graphics are stunning, the touch controls are good, and the various menus are well-designed and easily accessible. In fact, these menus are all pretty visual polished themselves. It’s very cool that your character actually whips out a tablet every time you open the crafting menu.
Combat is pretty diversified thanks to the wide variety of weapons that you have access to, which includes both melee and ranged weapons. Unfortunately, it just feels kind of lifeless. You can shoot a zombie directly in the face and it will barely react. Some even continue to walk at you for a couple more seconds before they realize they are dead (Well, deader than they already were, anyway).
The dialogue, though, is just… abysmal, which is really a shame as the game allows you to change the outcome of several situations by picking certain dialogue options. Unfortunately, all the conversations are just too painful to watch or listen to that you’ll probably end up skipping through them all.
Overall, though, LifeAfter is a pretty enjoyable zombie survival – adventure experience with a lot of fun things to do, all of which is set in a visually impressive environment. All it needs is just a bit more polish to truly become great. Nevertheless, it is definitely something you should check out. Get it now on the App Store or Google Play.