Platform: iOS

Developer: Playforge Games LLC

Publisher: Playforge Games LLC

Release Date: April 23rd, 2012

Genre: City Builder, Strategy

Nerd Rating: 6 out of 10!

Zombie Farm 2 is for the most part a clone of the big Facebook title Farmville, however, I personally consider it to be much better. Zombie Farm 2 puts you in the shoes of a human farmer who grows (you read that right, grows) zombies as well as plants and crops. The plants and crops you grow are sold to make money in which you can buy more seeds or zombies to grow, much like Farmville. The zombies you grow on your farm will be put into a specific order by you, and then they will be sent to attack human establishments for coins, power-ups called boosts, and brains (the premium currency of the game.)

The invasion gameplay (which is when you invade human establishments with your zombies) is uniquely interesting and rewarding, but not very fun. The zombies will invade in the order that you assign them to and the different types of zombies each have unique stats like speed, extra life, etc. The zombies attacking the establishment tend to get distracted by their thoughts and you will then have to tap the thought icon above their head to make them re-focus on the humans they are attacking.  The most fun part about raising the zombies and attacking with them is the fact that you can combine them with your crops in a mutation machine to give them different stats as well as a different look.

Much like Farmville, Zombie Farm 2 requires you wait a certain amount of times before your crops and zombies are done, as well as waiting a certain amount of time before you can invade again. Your crops and zombies will also wither if you do not play the game daily, which ends up making Zombie Farm 2 feel more like a job then a game in which you can enjoy. I feel like this is a reoccurring problem with iOS and Facebook titles, especially in the city builder genre.

My favorite part of Zombie Farm 2 and similar titles is the freedom you have when decorating your farm and the vast amount of decorations available to you. While Zombie Farm 2 does have quite a big chunk of decorations available, most of the good items will cost you brains, which is the hard-to-come-by premium currency. The cost of brains is quite expensive in my opinion, and I would certainly never buy them. These items that are only available through brains, even the cosmetics, will give you a boost which would make the game pay-to-win if it had more multiplayer PVP-type functions.

Overall, Zombie Farm 2 is an interesting game that far surpasses its inspiration Farmville. That being said, however, I can’t recommend you play Zombie Farm 2 unless you are a huge fan of the genre and/or are ready to spend a large chunk of real money in order to get the things in-game that you would like the most. After a few months of playing, Zombie Farm 2 became quite boring and felt more like a job that I had to do daily, which is why I uninstalled the title until recently when I reinstalled it so I could write this review for October (being based on zombies and all).