Nation Red: Top-Down Zombie Shooter Review
Nation Red Game Review
Hey guys, Dungeonjay here. Today we are taking a peak at a top-down wave-based shooter called, “Nation Red”. Where blowing up zombies wave after wave is as normal as ice is cold. Developed and released by DiezelPower back in 2010, this ultra-fast paced zombie slaying top-down shooter throws frantic gameplay with perks and weapons galore with mini-boss elements included as well. Now with some age on the title and the playerbase about sputtered out, the question is asked, “Is it worth buying still?”.
Gameplay and Storyline
I would like to say there is some storyline progression or even an outsourced fan-made story but Nation Red doesn’t stop at the small stuff and goes straight into gameplay with guns blazing. The controls are spot-on and the AI(while not the smartest) is consistent at one thing, going after their target. When being swarmed by zombies that is probably the best gameplay mechanic to have. No wandering zombie at the corner of the map walking in circles, each spawned enemy lumbers indefinitely after the objective(which just happens to be you most of the time). As you melee or gun down zombies at various points a weapon or special item may drop. Just because the item drops doesn’t mean it is something you should instantly pick-up as you may be working on the perk system that opens your gameplay as you level through the wave. This is where the game excels at, having options.
First you select your style of class that you want; Sniper, Gunner, Medic or Scout. Each class comes with their starting primary weapon and abilities that will vary. For example, the Gunner deals 25% more damage with explosives. On top of that is baseline stats like Speed, Healing, Targeting Accuracy, Armor and Reload Speed which each class will have a percentage based. It seems the core mechanics of the game are based around a percentile. So, if you pick a Medic then obviously their healing will be better at the start of the round versus a Scout.
Next is perks. Perks are options you get as you level up inside the wave. Slaying zombies in consecutive order will earn you quicker experience which will lead to you leveling faster. If you have the option to bundle up the zombies before doing a massive explosion or mowing them down with an Assault Rifle, I suggest doing so. Once you level, there will be a random style of perks that you can option into and pause the game to select. Depending on the style of wave(does it have a mini-boss or defending a point), will help you mitigate which perk-style to select. As it progresses, the perks option will reflect your choices as some perks require previous ones to work. An example of a simple perk is Aftershock, which releases a supersonic shockwave at regular intervals, pushing back and wounding enemies around you.
The single player option has a lot of different modes which include Mission Mode, Survival Mode and Barricade Mode. Mission mode is the standard campaign. Complete each wave to unlock the next until you get done with the 20th wave. Survival mode is interesting in that there is no power-ups or perks to collect. Get a weapon and try to survive. Finally, there is Barricade mode where you defend against waves of zombie attacks. This has NPC soldiers to help you defend and I found the most fun after completing the campaign mode. All total, to complete the campaign mode and spend some time playing with the different modes, I invested about two hours into the game itself.
As a side note, I wanted to speak briefly about the AI, which for the most part I applaud for doing what they do. However, after doing countless waves, the mini-bosses become nothing more than a more complex AI to defeat in the oncoming swarm of undead. In some ways, this became somewhat a bullet hell as with one boss that carries a minigun and just finding the areas he isn’t shooting at to shelter in when reloading. Overall, they do the job well but I couldn’t help but feel I wasn’t facing off against any real threat other than sheer number of monsters they throw at you.
Sound and Music Design
The FX on the guns, bombs and various power-ups sounds on target. However, the continuous groan of ghouls as they lumber to you can become repetitive as an overlay tone. Overall, the sound queues inform you much about what type of weapon you may have accidently picked up when just trying to evade the oncoming army of death. The zombie moaning is made up for it with a fast-paced rift in the background as you mow down undead after undead. The music on loading screen and the music in-game fits the atmosphere and overall there isn’t much they could do to improve the feels you get in this aspect. If anything, because of it being a wave based left little room for atmospheric creepy spagetti-music or undertones and just reeves up the gameplay with faster tempo pieces.
As you know I rate buy, sale or forget about it and Nation Red is a buy. It sits at a low-price point of $2.00 USD now and there really doesn’t seem to be a point to say wait for a sale on this. The gameplay is fast-paced and you can blow through the content in a couple hours, but the content is fun and on those days you don’t have a lot going on and just want to kill some time, this title does the job well.
Well guys, thats it. I hope you enjoyed the review. This is Dungeonjay signing out. Guys, have a great day gaming!
If you would like to watch the video representation of the review the link is below!