teikjoon reviews... Dead Ahead (iOS)

I'll be honest...I have never taken to the "endless runner" sort of games for the iPhone. While I appreciate that they are working with limitations of an iPhone, and make the best out of the tiny amount of screen space, processing power and (lack of) any physical buttons, I found most of them...boring.

Until now.

Zombies. Motorcycles. Guns.

From the opening sequence, we can surmise that zombies are everywhere and are out to kill us (obviously), we've got guns and motorcycles, lets get the heck outta Dodge.

Poor zombies, no one really seems to want to cure their affliction or help them in any way... but I guess they are a good source of cannon fodder. If we were to run over people and shoot them, we'll be murderers. But if we do the same to zombies, we're suddenly heroes.

Not complaining though. It's fun.


The only buttons you have are shoot, and accelerate. Going faster allows you to outrun the zombies, as well as fast forward through the lulls in action. There's no brake on the motorcycle though, so hitting a zombie (or a car...but that kills you) is the only way to slow down, although you can scrub off some speed by "rubbing" the top and bottom barriers.

I think this is what sets Dead Ahead from other endless runners, not only are you not limited to fixed 'lanes' in which to maneuver, but there's action going on in the front (obstacles you have to avoid, zombies to smush), as well as from the back (zombies that run after you, and if they catch you, game over).

What I like about Dead Ahead

I am not sure which I find more enjoyable, smushing zombies under the tyres of my motorcycle, shooting zombies, or weaving in and out and avoiding the derelict cars which little the highway...while smushing zombies and shooting them.

Generally gameplay feels very engaging, games don't take too long, and you're always up for 'just one more' and see if you could do better.

Dead Ahead is free to download and try (do eet!), and so far the only things you can buy with real money ($1.99 each) are the Prototype XRB (AKIRAAAAA!) as well as two guns, an AK-47 and a grenade launcher.

Well actually, you get a cute girl to ride pillion with you, and she does the shooting, which was a nice touch. Buying any one of these also disables ads, which I thought was very generous of the developers. There's also the usual in-app-purchase of gold coins, but after unlocking Vera the Shooter, I've never really felt that I needed to buy gold.

There are also daily challenges that pop up, usually in the form of "do X thing Y" times such as killing a set number of zombies, jumping cars and killing bosses. Most of them pay a good bit of coin, for something that you were going to do anyways.

The not so great parts...

Its probably universally accepted that movement controls are on the left side of the screen, buttons on the right. Been this way since...forever (sorry, you lefties). 

When you play the game for the first time, this is actually reversed (why?).

Not only does this make it hard to control, but it actually makes gameplay more difficult because your thumb obscures vision... you can't see whats ahead.

There were deaths. Many, many deaths. 

Only by (accidentally) holding the controls and swiping to the left, I discovered that you could change the control scheme. Thankfully I found this out early (there's actually a setting for this in the main menu).

But even with this change, I must say that the controls are a bit...touchy. Not sure if its because of my fat fingers on my tiny iPhone screen, or my general lack of hand-eye coordination, but I do find myself going up instead of down (and vice versa) occasionally and becoming zombie chow.

There's also a choice of two control schemes, "Tap Road to Steer" and "Tap Buttons to Steer". On the iPhone's tiny screen, I can't really tell what the different between them. Also, "Tap Buttons to Steer" has a handy graphical overlay for the buttons, so that you know where to press....which then disappears (why?!).

Old guys like me need all the help they can get, you know.

Stuff I would have liked to see

Gold coins unlock motorcycles, motorcycle upgrades are well as giving you access to bigger and badder guns. I felt that the guns were well tuned, you could tell the difference (damage, ammo, area of effect) but for the motorcycles I didn't really feel that there was much difference. Maybe its just me.

Would be nice if there was some sort of 'skill tree' which would allow you to give extra perks to your character, such as higher damage for the gun, bigger air when jumping, or even an increase in survive 'near misses' with cars/obstacles.

Finally, I would really like for some sort of death animation for my pillion riders (Vera and Betty). Their animations and presence in the game seem...rushed. When you die, your bloody body lies on the floor and is munched on by zombies, but the girls magically disappear.

Also, even if you ride the sidecar bike, the girls don't actually sit in the sidecar...the sprite is recycled and they sit behind you on the seat, which makes no sense. Pretty lazy.

Final score : 6.5/10

Dead Ahead, which I think could be polished and tweaked even more... has really renewed my faith in endless runners and shows what can be done with a tried and true formula with a few clever changes.