Your helicopter has crashed; everyone died, except you. From the distance, you see a lot of people coming towards the crash site, like moths drawing into a flame. But these people don’t appear to be friendly, they sound strange. Your survival instincts order you to run… to survive!

As we head into the fall season, we look forward to Halloween, horror movies and the new season of The Walking Dead. With this seasonal change in mind we give a look to a game that has been played by many people waiting in line for a scary ride. Into the Dead is an endless runner game by PikPok for Android and iOS. Unlike other games in the same genre, which tend to follow the format of Temple Run, Into the Dead goes on a different route. In this game, you play the role of a sole-survivor. Your helicopter has crashed in open ground. Surrounded zombies, you have to run into the heart of the dead, just like how the name suggests.

The first thing I noticed was the first person point of view, which was welcome. When playing the game for the first time, the game lets you to choose your preferred controls layout, a respectable feature. Tilting your device, touching the left side and the right side to move, sweeping left and right on the left side of the screen, or sweeping left and right on the right side of the screen.

The rules of the game are simple: run as far as you can, and kill zombies if you must with weapons made available to you. There are many useful weapons in the crates you see on the way and you can simply use the weapon in hand by tapping the screen.. The weapons are fairly balanced, which means every weapon has a weakness and a strong spot. Assault Rifle kills with one shot but fires three consequential shots followed by a delay, Sub-machinegun fires full auto, but it’s not as powerful as the Assault Rifle, and Minigun sprays bullets everywhere and kills everything, but the short startup time means death if used unwisely.

Kill… Kill them all!

There are mission sets that you have to complete in order to level up, unlock more weapons and gameplay modes. There are two ways to complete these missions, either do the task, or skip the mission with Coins. The amount of Gained coins are calculated by how far you have ran and how many zombies you have killed. Although completing these missions feels rewarding and challenging, some missions can have sadistic designs, like glancing off five zombies, which is achieved by running very close to a zombie. Not exactly a recipe for survival. Further adding to the variety, there are daily Trials of the Dead that keeps you engaged with new challenges. The game features perks which aid you on your run., including a dog companion which kills zombies for you.

Which should I choose? All of them?

If you’ve had enough running, the game features 4 unique play modes. The first mode is Classic mode in which you have to run as far as you can. The second mode is called Massacre, in which you have to kill as many zombies as you can. The third mode is called Hardcore mode, in which you have to run in a random environment as far as you can with three pre-selected weapons. The last and most special mode is the Flashlight mode. It’s midnight, raining and you only have a flashlight that has a limited range and use, with no weapons. The pitch blackness of the screen is lit up only by the occasional thunder strikes.

Mind the trees!

But all of these require strong sound effects, right? Don’t worry, Pik Pok has got it covered. The sounds of zombies, environments, and weapons give a nice immersion to the game. When you’re running in a forest, you hear the symphony of insects. When you are running in the heart of the horde, you hear the zombies snarling. Variety is a little lacking in that the sound of zombies are alike. Both male and female zombies have the same sound effects which can be distracting over time, but it’s not something that kills the entire concept. The harried soundtrack of the main menu is top notch, which evokes the feel of similar frantic zombie movies like 28 Weeks Later. The visuals are also great, especially for an Android game with each weapon is fully detailed and animated. You can see the blade of a chainsaw moving while holding it in hand, poised to create gory carnage. The lightning effect of thunderstorms are another equally impressive visual of the game, which combines with the sound engineering to create total immersion.

At the end, if you want a game with unique gameplay and infinite amounts of fun, Into the Dead is a game you can count on. It’s bite sized, fits in your pocket and packs the zombie smashing punch that any genre enthusiast would love.