Endless Midnight: Zombie Swarm Review: Indy Zombie Game on Live Arcade Will Eat You Alive

Zombies are totally in right now.

The Walking Dead is one of the best-selling comic books around, Max Brooks’ best-selling book, “World War Z” is getting a movie treatment and “Year Zero” got rave reviews at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival; it’s as if anything zombie-related can do no wrong.

Well, not exactly. Ever since zombies became entrenched in American pop culture, there have been amazing work based on them, but a plethora of crap as well.

For every “Dawn of the Dead,” there have been a dozen B-movies that use zombie-inspired work to make a cheap buck.

Luckily, in the world of video games, zombies usually come out on top. From “Zombies Ate my Neighbors” to “Resident Evil,” the undead will always have a home on video game consoles.

Jordan Trudgett’s independent game on the 360 Live Arcade, “Endless Midnight: Zombie Swarm,” continues that legacy. Inspired by classic games such as “Loaded,” Robotron” and “Smash TV,” this simple, yet difficult and bloody shooter is more than worth the measly 80 Microsoft points.

Gameplay is straight-forward and eerily similar to the aforementioned classics in the fact that you simply run and shoot, while avoiding enemies. However, what sounds easy enough is terribly difficult as you move forward. As the game continues, the waves of the undead get larger in size. Eventually, tougher, faster zombies join the fold to spice up the action. After each level, you can trade in the cash you get for killing zombies [yeah, it’s weird, but who cares] for better weapons, health packs and firepower upgrades.

While this system isn’t the most depth-filled, this game isn’t about that. It’s about fun, old-school gameplay mechanics that challenge your hand-eye coordination in ways that many new games can’t.

Once you get to about the 25th wave of enemies, if you can keep up, you’ll reach a zen-like state. Your eyes will blur and you’ll simply react on instinct, mowing down hordes of flesh-eating ghouls with everything from a magnum to a rocket launcher.

This is where the game shines and tests the strength of every gamer that plays it.

Considering the simplistic nature of the title, the game should run without a hitch, right? Not really. At times, the basic sprites that plague the screen get sick with a case occasional slowdown. However, it never gets to the point where it’s inhibiting your ability to play the game. Instead, it’s more like a slight annoyance than a full-blown problem.

Regardless of these small hitches, “Endless Midnight: Zombie Swarm” is an enjoyable title that is perfect with friends and in between long runs of more complicated and modern titles. In the end, its simplistic gameplay is made up for with solid difficulty and trendy subject matter

It’s also less than two bucks. In today’s video game world, you can’t ask for more than what you’re getting here.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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