A Brave attempt but fails in the "Fun" Department.
You begin the game as "Jack", your typical farmer, cut-off from the hustle and bustle of today's world living out his peaceful existence on his spread of land. The intro movie shows him standing atop Fiddler's Green and we're treated to a fairly decent narration, then he cues the flashback to how it all started. He notices a stranger standing outside his house and you're given control. With nothing but your fists, the game instructs you to "Find out what the strange wants" via an objective pop-up which it uses throughout the game to tell you what to do next. The controls are your typical FPS fare; movement, jump & crouch, attack and alternate attack buttons.
You head outside and you find out that the stranger in fact (Big Spoiler) is a zombie (Okay, maybe not). You try to fight the zombie off, but soon realize that your fists are about as useful as toothpick is against a tank, luckily your fists CAN knock a zombie down with a fairly good shot. The computer gives you the next objective to run upstairs and get your gun from the attic. You find your .22 caliber rifle inside your trunk .
If you were smart and closed your door behind you as you went to get your gun, you'd hear the sound of the door being broken apart as "The Stranger" and some of his friends beging to flood into your home. Gun in hand, you'd think you're ready to dish out the undead destruction, but this is hardly the case. It took me 3 headshots from the .22 to kill a zombie and the clip only holds 4 shots. That and the fact that it takes you a fairly long time to reload makes killing the zombies a royal pain.
Next you have to head to your shed to get your other gun. After a quick jaunt to the basement to find the proper key, you're off to the shed and grab a .38 revolver. The revolver is going to be your mainstay weapon for a while as you find out that a well placed headshot has a pretty good chance of popping a zombie head. The physics of popping a zombie head seems to be luck since a pointblank shot rarely does the deed alone.
After picking a melee weapon from the barn, your run over to the main gate of your farm and end the first level. The game continues on with straightforward objectives and practically no way to get lost. Ammo other than .22 always seems short in supply, forcing you to turn to melee weapons to take care of the zany zombies.
You have an attack button and an alt. attack button. Until you get the fireaxe, neither seems to do much damage. Example: Attack does a quick, simple attack which damages the zombie slightly, alt. attack tends to knock the zombie down while doing moderate damage, HOWEVER if you strike at a zombie while it is getting up it does no damage whatsoever. Even using the alt. attack of a weapon causes no damage and the zombie will not fall until it is back at attention. If you strike to soon, the zombie will lunge at you the second it has righted itself, basically making melee tedious and all about perfect timing.
While headshots seem to dish out a little more damage, they rarely take a zombie out in one shot. Even the shotgun shoved down the move of a cankerous cadaver is literally a hit or miss affair. These shortcomings are the only thing that actually makes the game difficult which frustrates me even further having taken the majority of my damage from zombie cheap shots.
Graphics feel about 2 generations behind, making the game look like a port of a PlayStation 1 game with a bit higher polygon count and sharper textures (expect clipping) but does have nice ragdolls when you chance a head-popping shot. Sound is about average with no 3d or EAX effects, but the zombie groans and moans are actually quite good. Voice acting is decent and not really over the top, although throughout the game most of what you hear is Jack's narration and the guttural groans of your zombie oppressors.
Overall the game is definitely bargain bin material. It would have been salvageable had the gameplay mechanics been tuned better to eliminate the frustrations of combat, but in the end it leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth. This game would most likely be appreciated by Hardcore Romero fans or masochists everywhere.