Zombie Night Terror is a strategy/puzzle game that is heavily inspired by Lemmings. It has the same basic premise, but differs significantly in its execution.
The gameplay in Zombie Night Terror initially feels like a strategy game, but it quickly becomes apparent that it is primarily a puzzle game. Most levels have a handful of obstacles that need to be overcome in a certain way. The hardest levels require a lot of restarts, which can get a bit tedious. A checkpoint system or a way to save would help alleviate some of these issues, without taking away from the challenge. The basic game loop involves you infecting people with a zombie virus. You usually begin with a handful of zombies and/or some syringes, which let you infect any one person in the level. This is how you get the infection started, and your goal is to snowball from there. There is special challenge criteria that requires you to beat the level a certain way, but this is just an extra difficulty option and doesn’t need to be done in order to enjoy the game. I would have liked a lesser difficulty option, but if you enjoy challenging puzzle games and don’t mind retrying a lot, this probably won’t bother you.
There is a basic story, but it takes a backseat to the gameplay. It is delivered in the form of miniature levels that aren’t meant to be challenging, but are instead meant to introduce new mechanics. I didn’t find the story very interesting, but this genre rarely requires good writing anyway. Aesthetically, the story fits with the visuals and sound design and creates an old-school horror movie feel. The soundtrack is great, with plenty of tracks sounding like they would be right at home in a horror movie. Visually, the game has a fantastic art style with superb animation work. Different types of zombies move in completely different ways, making it easy to distinguish them. When you have many different types of zombies in one group, it makes it actually look like an onslaught of zombies, rather than a bland mass of clones.
Zombie Night Terror is a somewhat niche game, appealing primarily to those that enjoyed Lemmings and anyone that enjoys complex, trial-and-error style puzzles. It can get repetitive if you struggle with these types of puzzles, so even among fans of puzzle games, enjoyability will vary widely.
