From my experience of text-based games that focus on the 'Choose Your Adventure' style of gameplay, I had initially my first test of it through none other than another of the very same zombie setting that this game bases itself upon here, with how I tried out a neat little Flash game from way back in November of 2009 called 'Dead Frontier: Outbreak' on a Flash-based gaming website called Kongregate followed by it's sequel some months later. (Sadly it's one of those artifacts of gaming lost in time, but it's something I still fondly recall every now and then)
It's what brought me back to finding out new, more modern, alternatives to this genre of gaming and it's how I eventually came across Zombie Exodus here not long after getting settled into using Steam here, with how I've severely neglected PC gaming outside of a few MMORPGs and a couple of DVD games that really ought to have been played on the console at that time!
PC Specs asides, (seeing how this is one game that ABSOLUTELY does not need a decent computer to run, with how the most intense 'graphics' to be processed here is the occasional sketch-based photo that describes the action of the scene currently ongoing) Zombie Exodus focuses on one man's (or woman's) long and arduous journey through a world that gradually turns from bad to worse through the zombie apocalypse that is painfully-detailed in quite the sinister way that builds up a horrific atmosphere that is befitting of such a story of this caliber!
Now, getting into the actual 'meat' of the gameplay itself, indeed I could forgive some for looking about it to be as intriguing as that plain and ordinary big book on the shelf that comes across as quite a dull activity to participate in, so much so that perhaps their own work might be a preferable alternative, however Zombie Exodus is a game that takes full advantage of it's dynamic interactivity in that one can *choose* the outcome that their character makes and see their chosen decision lead them to victory or defeat, to rewards or perils and so much more that a mere book that actually engages with these principles can offer on paper! (For the curious, the first I came across this genre was way back in my primary school days, with a rather intriguing book going by the name of 'Journey Under The Sea', it's perhaps the first inspiration from way back that got me thinking more openly and expanding one's imagination)
What I quite enjoy about this fascinating game here, outside of the excellent use of the dozen characters that one can develop a friendship or, perhaps, relationship with alongside making changes to the main base once you make your arrival to it, is that it offers a lot of choices that don't come off as entirely unrealistic, by which I mean some games that are shallow in their actual choices that impact the story will give either 'false' choices that don't do anything or give you a meaningful choice or few right at the very end of the game to minimize expenses from additional branching content. (Telltale Games comes to mind here, The Walking Dead being an OBVIOUS example of what could be done with this sort of storytelling although, despite lacking the iconic graphics that Robert Kirkman's series possesses, Zombie Exodus does go one step ahead of that game as choices will lead to problems, some lethal, later down the road, something I like to call 'delayed deaths' in a couple that doom your character or otherwise put you in a worse situation.)
The sheer amount of detail one can have to converse with the many characters here is also quite good, as it is all optional and, in fact, I would wager that one could theoretically speedrun and speed through this whole game in less than 15 minutes easily with the quickest paths with the least dialogue possible, however I quite enjoyed taking my time and thinking about the decisions I had to make for each of my three playthroughs here in the 29 hours I spent with this game. (Not including a fourth that was really just to see how many ways I could die, which took a fair amount of time to document just about ALL of them!) It's why I reckon this is the kind of game that a lover of details will enjoy, as it's not a game with such 'gameplay' where some form of skill in performance can change the outcome, much like it is for many other traditional games, hence why thinking about what actions your character will take alongside the equipment he or she will bring is the utmost importance.
Now I will admit, for as much as I do like this game, there are several flaws that need addressing here, with the first being that those sketch photos from before, as much as they are seem simple to do and maybe does not add too much to the story itself, does seem oddly missing once one moves into the third chapter of this game and beyond, as not one sketch was seen after, something I found a little disappointing for lack of consistency.
Secondly, there are still some 'false' choices here, a few of which make sense once you further explore the story and see what is going on 'behind the scenes' as you come back to it from a second playthrough, however others are a little questionable and had me scratching my head as to why it wouldn't result in a prolonged death or wasting time that could impact how the intended path would follow instead of seemingly leaving no difference to the overall story itself. A missed opportunity, one might say.
Finally, and something of a nitpick here at most, it is not made clear where the save game files are as I was always under the impression that, once you make it to an ending, (or, in a very weird case, near the start of the third chapter if you are horribly incompetent!) you had to start over from scratch. This is not the case as I did eventually figure out where the save files are kept, which allowed me to go back as my previous characters and make better decisions, however it wasn't made very clear upon seeing the menu.
Overall, it's a pretty solid choose your adventure for the lovers of the iconic Zombie genre here and, hopefully, it's sequel 'Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven', will eventually release it's final part and become a good welcome back in the months (if not years) to come!
