2013: Infected Wars is yet another video game where you shoot zombies. Even though it’s a very tired theme, there are so many zombie games that one is bound to be good every now and then. Action Mobile Games has a neat little iOS game on their hands and they’re charging a premium price for it — $6.99 is a pretty bold move on today’s App Store, especially from a previously unknown dev team.

Infected Wars takes place in an alternate version of 2013 where Al Qaeda has released a virus that has turned humans into zombies. Al Qaeda intended to “send the West back to the Stone Age” and exploit the resulting power vacuum by establishing a New World Order. The infected outnumber the remaining humans, but pockets of survivors have formed settlements across the globe. Groups of highly trained mercenaries explore the deadly ruins of civilization that lie beyond the relative safety of the settlements to recover crucial supplies and defend the settlements so that they can be relatively safe in the first place.

You play a generic, nameless mercenary who is simply called “mercenary” by the man on the other end of the radio. The generic character is probably the easiest thing to critique about the game’s graphics and story — he’s kind of just a boring dude who you don’t really care about beyond the fact that you’re in control of him. The zombies and environments, on the other hand, are detailed and interesting. The Unreal engine is certainly responsible for how smooth the game runs despite how good its graphics are. Infected Wars is far from the best looking of iOS titles, but those that use Unreal almost always look more realistic than those that don’t.

The infected come in many different flavors. The standard human zombies are typically slow with the occasional runner. The running zombies are a bit of a pain as they are difficult to outpace, but they certainly put the pressure on, especially in large numbers. There is a somewhat limited variety of human zombies — if you’re being attacked by five there’s a good chance they only represent two or three unique character models. A host of other zombie types spice it up though, with infected creatures such as ferocious dire wolves and spike-toothed “toads” that are loaded with paralytic venom. Other bosses and baddies are equipped with chainsaws, armor, spiked clubs, and gatling guns.

The game’s audio is very hit-and-miss for me. The gameplay is preceded by a surprisingly lovely song that plays on the main menu. It’s a mellow rock track with vocals — which is why I say “surprising — you just don’t hear vocals very often in game soundtracks, especially those for zombie games. The soundtrack during gameplay switches between music that is boring and repetitive and music that is intense and engaging. I really didn’t like the repetitive tracks, but perhaps they made the exciting music even better. The zombies sound good and their groans are very useful for knowing when you’re about to be slashed from behind. The voice acting for the guy on the other end of the radio (the voice you’ll hear saying the most actual words) is overdone and over-produced. The radio effect ends up being grating and annoying instead of cool. Finally, the guns sound weak in general — though headshots are confirmed by a very loud and satisfying crunch, even if you take a zombie out from hundreds of feet away.

The campaign is spread across eight missions and can be played in single-player or two-player co-op. Two players have the distinct advantage of extra firepower and the ability to revive each other, leaving the single-player comparatively more intense. The game is really hard. You earn money by killing zombies (bonus money for headshots) that can be spent on better guns or reviving your character after death. Of course, revival puts you all the way at the beginning of the current mission and you lose not only your progress on the mission, but also the guns you had purchased too. You will keep your money though, so you can practically use a few revivals. They get more expensive each time, so eventually you’ll reach a point where you can’t afford recovery. At this point, the only option is to start another campaign.

There are four classes to level up in by dealing damage with the different weapon types. When you level up, you’ll earn permanent bonuses to stats like damage, maximum ammo, and fire rate. These levels are persistent across the entire game, between all single-player and multiplayer campaigns. That said, players of all skill levels will likely spend a lot of time playing the early missions until they become more familiar with the game and they level up their character classes a few times. Grinding isn’t inherently a big problem, but I fear most players will get frustrated with how many times they’ll wind up playing the first mission. I definitely reached that point.

Infected Wars uses a third-person over-the-shoulder view, which puts the camera right behind your character and off to his right side. It makes it really hard to tell when zombies are behind you or anywhere to the left of you (even in front of you on the left side). While the over-the-shoulder view is very immersive (only a first-person view is more immersive), the fact that your character blocks so much of the screen means you’ll be doing lots and lots of spinning in circles to keep track of the plentiful undead. Spinning around so frantically kind of breaks the immersion, but it also makes things more intense. Then again, I get the feeling that players more skilled than I would slow down a bit and play more tactically — the difficulty demands it.

Controls are always one of the biggest concerns for touchscreen shooters. Infected Wars does okay with a simplified set of virtual controls. The left third of the screen is used for a floating virtual stick that controls music. The other two thirds are used for a floating virtual stick that controls aiming. Tapping anywhere in this area will perform a single fire, while a button in the bottom right is reserved for rapid fire. A button in the middle lets you zoom in for increased accuracy and reduced recoil, but makes you move slower. Buttons in the top corners reload your weapon and access the menu.

The menu can be opened at any time and provides access to inventory management, the shop, and pauses the game in single-player. Your inventory shows your gold, money, health, armor, weapons, and ammunition. Gold is the premium currency that can only be gained through in-app purchase while money is earned by taking out zombies. Gold can be used to replenish your supplies (money, health, armor, and ammo) as well as to buy permanent upgrades to stats like reload speed and clip size. New guns (and other weapons like grenades) are purchased with money. There are 14 weapons in the game, and all of the paid ones are much more powerful than the default pistol. Of course, the default pistol has unlimited ammo while every other weapon’s is limited. The purchasable items that restore your health, armor, and ammo can also be found hidden in the nooks and crannies of each mission, though you’ll have to play very conservatively to make it through the game on the hidden ones alone.

2013: Infected Wars is a pretty good game. If you have experience with dual virtual stick shooters, you should have no problem adapting to the controls. The multiplayer is a slick addition and I really appreciate that cooperative players have access to the full single-player campaign (though 4-player co-op would have been way cooler than just 2-player). It lagged a little, but it was still very playable. Eight missions sounds like a short campaign until you experience just how long and difficult the stages are. The environments are open enough that you can backtrack to the beginning at any point in the stage. The App Store description mentions a need for tactical skills to survive. The tactical skills I found most useful consisted of two different strategies: (1) find zombies, fire backwards while backtracking until the zombies who are chasing you die and (2) find huge arena-like room with tons of zombies, run in circles until they are huddled together, fire backwards while running in circles until the zombies who are chasing you die. Of course, things get a little more complex when you deal with bosses and more advanced zombies, but the principles remain the same and you’ll be doing lots of firing backwards while backtracking or running in circles.

At the end of the day, despite being a supporter of premium over free-to-play, I think the price Action Mobile is asking for Infected Wars is just too high. Having a pay-to-win in-app purchase system that feels like it’s straight out of a free-to-play game is kind of a slap in the face to players who are willing to pay the $6.99 admission fee that typically signifies a “premium” experience. Only the most hardcore of players are going to have the skills and patience to get past the first few missions without spending more hard money, so keep that in mind as you decide whether you’re going to pick this one up or not. If you are that type of hardcore player who loves challenging shooters, I think you’re going to really like this one as long as you’re okay with replaying the early missions a lot. That goes double if you have a buddy to play with.