The basic aiming controls were a bit insufferable, every twitch of the mouse or small adjustment causing the whole screen to move seemed unnecessary. More of a floating aiming reticle could’ve reduced motion irritation (let alone motion sickness) and perhaps to allow you to pick your shots more. They’ve reduced the gameplay down to simple avoidance and firing in the right general direction, with the slow bullets giving constant feedback on your accuracy.

The posse mechanic has some really cumbersome bits, primarily in how their position is glued to your every turn. Shooting off a zombie that’s affixed itself to an ally was nearly impossible, since as you spun to aim your allies would swiftly move to retake their 8 and 4′o’clock positions behind you.

Altogether I found it hard to play through the whole demo, the only exciting goal was getting new henchmen but since the full game only has 2 more to gain I’m not even remotely tempted to purchase. There were some fun bits where I had to take on lots of zombies and the purely avoidance-based gameplay became challenging and more complicaetd, but over all it was just too simple, too easy to learn, there was very little skill to develop or hone.

There are tons of simple, arcadey games out there and too many people making new ones. I’ve played worse games, XNA-based ones off XBMarketplace mostly, it doesn’t compare that poorly to similar games, it’s just a really tired mechanic. Refining everything down to be as simple as possible while still being playable just isn’t going to make you stand out.

KG