Zombie Defense King Review

Get Ready to Face the Horde

Simplicity in mobile gaming can be a good thing. Mobile games are somewhat limited by their medium, so it’s best not to overwhelm gamers with too many game features. Unfortunately, Zombie Defense King, developed by Mobirix, is simple in all the worst possible ways. The game lacks a plot, creativity, and is essentially the same from start to finish. Zombie Defense King is as mindless as the endless waves of generic zombies you face throughout the game.

It Feels like I’m playing Nothin’ At All

Zombie Defense King is an action, strategy game that lacks both. Deploy mercenaries to defend a barricade as endless waves of zombies try to breach your defenses and eat your troops. Players can deploy up to twelve mercenaries at a time and upgrade them by matching similar mercenaries. Two level one mercenaries become a level two mercenary, two level two mercenaries become a level three mercenary and so on to level ten. After level ten, upgraded mercenaries become elite mercenaries with unique weapons, like a flamethrower or stationary gatling gun. 

As you deploy mercenaries, you’ll quickly realize, there isn’t much to do in this game. You upgrade your mercenaries and then you just wait for the opportunity to deploy more mercenaries and match them again. It starts to feel a bit like solitaire after a while. You just constantly do the same thing over and over, trying to beat your own personal records. What’s worse is the fact there are only four stages in the entire game and they’re all identical aside from some aesthetic differences. There isn’t very much variation in the zombies either. Some zombies attack from close range, some use projectile to attack from a distance, but they all basically felt the same.

The game includes some features to help with the monotony though. Players can double the speed of the game and use auto-play, which automatically deploys and upgrades mercenaries, but at a price. This is where the in-app purchases come into play. Players can use these features by watching an ad to unlock them for 15 minutes, or by spending 50 gems for a full half hour. Gems and gold are the main forms of currency in Zombie Defense King. You can buy gems and gold in-game, but you also receive them regularly for defeating waves or unlocking achievements.

Do I Even Need to be Here?

I found the best times to play Zombie Defense King were when I was doing something else. The game doesn’t require much attention. I would turn on auto-play and just set the game beside me while I watched tv, occasionally checking in between commercials. It also continuously plays when the app is closed and features a battery-saver mode, which blacks out the screen, but keeps track of what wave your on. These features, along with auto-play, make the game feel like more of a simulator than a strategy game. 

The more you play the game, the more you’ll need to simulate as constantly trying to reach waves extending into the 300+ range quickly becomes a serious grind. There is also a leaderboard feature, which lets players see where their personal best rank among others. The leaderboard also adds perspective to the objective of this game as top scores reach as high as wave 10,000. Either those players are simulating the game or they’re investing too much free time into a game that does not deserve it. 

Zombie Defense King is an uninspired action, strategy game that is best played with your phone closed. There is very little that could be considered redeemable in this game, but at least it gives you something to do while you’re sitting on the toilet or waiting for a commercial break to end.