Android Games - Dead Trigger Review

I've been meaning to create a games category on this blog for far too long now. I originally wanted to write about Starcraft II - Heart of Swarm but I never had enough time for it. Because mainly my review of games are extensive and too detailed as I know how to write professional game reviews. Let me give you an example. I wrote a review for Diablo III and Telltale's The Walking Dead (only first 2 episodes were released at the time) for a gaming company that I applied as an intern. Diablo III review was 15 pages long with the text size being 11. It actually had more pages but I had to make cuts... As for Telltale's The Walking Dead review, it was 8 pages long with the text size being 11 as well. So maybe you can understand how detailed they were :D Anyway I decided to keep it more simple for the blog :D

I decided to start my games category with Android games particularly because ever since I started working I haven't had enough time to play games on my computer. When I bought my Galaxy S4 I became even more involved in Android games on my way to work so I had the chance to try out many different games in a wide variety of genres. I also know that finding good games for mobile platforms is not as easy as finding good games for other platforms like Playstation or PC. Also our lives are even becoming more mobile and I see everyone around me who can't spend a minute without looking at their phones. So mobile gaming has already left its mark in our lives and it will continue to do so in the future. So I will do my best to introduce great games for mobile platforms as I get to try them out.

My first review will be of the first apple of my eye among Android games. I just realised how ironic this sounds. "apple" of my eye among "Android" games :D When I first bought my new phone I immediately started doing some intensive research about the games I could download as my previous phone was completely rubbish in this matter. I was lucky enough to come across Dead Trigger a free-to-play zombie themed Action/FPS game developed by the creators of Shadowgun, MadFinger Games powered by Nvidia Tegra 3 graphics. I must warn you that it's a pretty addictive game with great features so if you don't want to get hooked on a game this much I suggest you stay away from it :D

When I checked out the screenshots of the game I couldn't believe my eyes because I didn't know that such graphics could be carried to the mobile platforms yet. It was a shock to see such detailed and refined graphics on my phone. The game supports Tegra 3 so if you've got a device that supports it you can have even better graphics. I should also state that the game was voted as "The Most Innovative Game", and "Best Game Graphics" by the gamers. I myself was among these voters as well. 

The plot of the game is pretty straightforward. It's the zombie apocalypse in Safe Haven and it is up to us to complete missions to thin their herd as much as we can and gather supplies such as medicine to help out the survivors in town. The progression in the game is something that us gamers are familiar with. We complete missions to gain XP and cash. As we level up we can buy new weapons and tools with the cash we earn.

The controls in the game are quite simple although it might need some getting used to for first-timers. I had some difficulty as it was the first FPS game that I've ever played on a mobile platform so when I first started the game I didn't even know how to move around, turn, aim and shoot; but the game presents a simple and easy-to-follow tutorial for its controls. We move back and forth by using the control at the far left end of the screen. In order to turn left or right we use the space above the shoot button at the far right end of the screen. This might be difficult for beginners mainly because you might shoot instead of turning so it might take a little time for you to get used to the exact locations of these buttons. Zoom button is just to the right of the shoot button. I never used this button as I thought it wasted my time. I couldn't work it to my advantage. Aiming is easy in the game so I never needed it either. One of the most important buttons of the game "reload" is just above the shoot button. The picture below shows the wrong locations for zoom and reload buttons. When you start a new quest this image shows as the mission loads but in the actual gameplay the location of these two buttons are the opposite.

But I wish it was like the way in the picture above because I think the positioning of the reload button gives the player a big disadvantage. When faced with a great number of zombies I tend not to check where the buttons are so I end up reloading after shooting only one bullet many times which has me lose a lot of time. Especially when you are using a shotgun, reloading takes a long time so this might become a life and death matter. It is also important to note that no matter how many bullets you shoot out, you'll always reload for a full magazine. For example your shotgun holds 8 shells and you shot only twice, when you accidentally press reload, it will load 8 shells instead of 6. The numbers are correct for the amount of bullets though. So you won't lose bullets or shells as it'll deduct 6 from your total number as it correctly should but the timing of reloading isn't correct. So even if you reload after shooting only 1 bullet the reload time will take as much as it would after shooting all 8 of them. This is normal for machine guns as they use larger magazines but I am talking about shotguns only as you manually put the shells in them one by one. I hope this will be fixed in Dead Trigger 2.

We have our UI on the top of the screen. To the left we have the pause button. Our radar that functions as the map is also located on the left side. On the right side of the map we can see our current health and the money we earned so far from that particular mission. In the middle of the screen we can see our objective as well as the timer (if there is any). On the right side of the screen we can see the weapon we currently use with its ammo count. If we are equipped with more than one weapon this is also where we can switch them.

Dead Trigger uses two types of currency. Cash and gold. Cash can be easily earned in-game. You can earn cash by completing missions. Zombies that you kill can also drop small sums of cash. It is even possible to find cash in briefcases during certain missions so be on the lookout for them. Even if you can't successfully complete a mission, you'll get a cash prize. It is also possible to earn cash in the casino. I'll be talking about the casino later in this post. However, gold is the currency that is bought with real money. You can also earn gold by completing bonus missions. You can only complete one bonus mission a day so the process of earning gold through this method can take ages. You are also awarded one gold for each time you level up. So it is pretty slow to earn gold. But good news is that you can easily advance in the story mode of the game without buying this currency. As for arena you will need the upgrades that can only be bought with gold.

There is a variety of missions in the game. Most of them are secondary. We usually get one main quest at a time but certain missions we can have two or even three at the same time. There are four different secondary mission types in the game. They are all symbolised with a different icon as you can see from the city map below. But it is harder to classify main ones because they are quite different from one another. Especially as you near the end of the main quests line they will become longer and more difficult. Don't forget that there aren't any checkpoints so if you die near the end of a mission, you are going to have to start from the beginning. When you start the game for the first time, most main quests will seem similar to you especially map wise but as you advance in the game maps will become much more complex and difficult. You'll pull levers, open doors, use elevators, get an ID to open laboratories to secure certain objects and so on at the later stages of the main quest line. So I can safely say that the playability of the game is quite high.

Let's talk more about the different types of secondary missions now. The skull icon represents offensive missions. In these missions you are usually given a number of zombies to kill in order to complete them. These missions are not timed so you can take your time. You are also placed in a wide area so if you are just a bit careful you can easily complete these missions without getting any damage in order to get extra awards. I find them to be the easiest missions among the secondary ones.

The shield icon represents defensive missions. In these missions you have to defend barricades, doors leading up to the survivors, supplies or generators. These missions are timed, you are usually given a 2-minute-timer to defend the doors although in the later stages the timer will increase. Only one zombie can attack one door at a time and you get maximum two doors in a mission. During certain missions it can even be one door only. At the start of each mission, doors have 100% health. They lose health as they get attacked by zombies. Defensive missions are successfully completed if neither of the doors are destroyed when the timer ends. First time I ever played a defensive mission was a disaster because I was missing the following key information:  After you defeat a zombie that attacks a door, you can repair the door by staying at a close proximity. Believe me, missions became much simpler when I found out about this :D

The box icon represents missions that require you to gather certain supplies. These missions are not timed but they are pretty difficult. They may also take a long time considering the layout of the map. In these missions you simply repeat the act of finding and returning boxes to a certain location in the map. The number of boxes that you need to secure changes as well. It can be 3,4,5 or even 6. The spawn locations of the boxes vary so you might need different strategy for each of them. Because as time passes the zombies will grow in numbers so you might have to figure out different routes to reach the boxes to have the zombies on your back so you can make a run for it. For the last 2 boxes I usually carry out this tactic because it is riskier to try to kill them all  as even more of them will spawn by the time I kill all the rest which would mean that I could be surrounded from all 4 sides again. So making a run for it at the later stages in these missions is the best strategy but if you don't remember the map this might lead to your defeat.  I find these missions to be the second hardest ones.

Last but definitely not least, stopwatch or timer looking icon (don't know what else to call it really) represents survival missions. In these missions you are given a specific duration of time to survive. These missions are usually 3 minute long and you are positioned in a very limited space. So it is quite difficult to maneuver especially when a lot of zombies spawn at the same time from different locations simply surrounding you. I find survival missions to be the most difficult ones in the game particularly because of a very limited space to move around to dodge attacks or come up with a plan. Most missions you just have to stand still and kill zombies that are out to eat you from 4-5 different spawn points. You don't even have enough room to take a step back in these kind of missions. Of course all these features make these missions to be the most challenging, thrilling and exciting ones.

After completing a mission the game presents us with the basic statistics like how much XP and money we gained, which weapon we mainly used and which other tools we used the most, how many zombies we killed and how much it took us to complete the mission and so on.

You won't be disappointed when it comes to zombies in Dead Trigger. When it all comes to the specifics there are 3 types of monsters but the way these monsters attack or the pace of their movements change so it adds a bit of a variety.

First type of zombie is just regular zombie. They can be one-shot with a powerful weapon, especially a headshot is the most effective method. But you can also shoot their legs to cripple them. Some regular zombies have ranged attacks but most of them are melee. Their pace can change as well so some of them will be sprinting towards you while some of them will be too slow. There are many different-looking regular zombies. Some are female, some are fat, some are thin, and most of them have different faces and clothes so you won't get bored of them that easily. You'll find even more unique looking zombies in arenas. For example some of them will look like Santa or Olympic athletes, or some will be wearing a pumpkin on their heads depending on the arena you choose.

Second type of zombie is the SWAT zombie. As the name suggests these zombies are heavily armoured so it is quite difficult to kill them. I find shotguns to be the most effective weapons against these ones. SWAT zombies only have melee attacks but some of them can be quite fast so be aware. You need to be extra careful when you see one of these spawn because if the area is crowded you might find it best to take the regular ones down first because a SWAT zombie will only go down after at least 6-7 shots. I didn't find headshots to make that much of a difference with them. So just spam the shoot button when you see one of these.

Third type of zombie is the Hulk zombie. These are like mini bosses and you only encounter them near the end of the main quest line. They have both melee and ranged attacks and they have a high health pool so they are tough to kill but the good news is that they are very slow. Thus you can easily kite them. So don't let their huge form scare you. There are certain missions where you will be facing 4-5 of these at the same time so keep kiting them and killing the other zombies on your way so you'll have enough ammo and space to take them out one by one.

Our primary weapon against these monstrous creatures are of course our guns. When you are low on ammo do not panic because a zombie you kill will eventually drop extra ammo. We can also use other items like turrets, mines, laser cutters or grenades. But when all fails and a zombie gets its hands on us how do we get out of it? Of course by going oldschool with our fists. When a zombie has you in its grasp circles will start to appear on the zombie's head, we simply have to be quick to press all of these circles in order to free ourselves, we'll also have killed that zombie in this process. Though if we are too slow it will mean our death.


Now let's take a closer look at the map of Safe Haven and find out about what the buildings in the town can offer us:

Let's start with the building that we'll frequently be visiting in the game. Of course I am talking about the "shop". Shop offers us a wide variety of weapons and tools that we will need in order to survive in the most difficult missions. From a weapon point of view, shop can offer us a great deal of different weapons. From machine guns to pistols, shotguns to uzis, crossbows to chainsaws. There is even a classic: Winchester. These weapons can be upgraded as well. In the shop you can buy other essential tools to help you like grenades, land mines, turrets, mortars. You can also buy other upgrades for your character like extra slots to carry extra weapons, extra ammo supply, additional health or improved radar and many more. Most of these upgrades can only be bought with gold but the first extra weapon slot and additional health can be bought with cash. You can unlock new items and upgrades in the shop as you gain levels. Apart from a powerful weapon, what you will need the most is some bandages or medi kits. Because there is no other way to heal yourself in the game without them so be sure to always have some bandages on you before starting a mission.

After we use the shop we are going to need to equip the items we purchased. That's when we visit "equip". In this building we can see our character sheet and equip the weapons and the items we want.

Another most important building in town is called "New Hope". In this building we can see the statistics of our game. We can also create an account in order to back up our game so we won't lose any of our progress if something were to happen to our device or we had to reinstall the game. We can also add friends to our list and see their progress.

Another fun aspect of the game comes from its "casino". You earn casino chips daily by logging into the game. For each day you log in you are awarded 3 casino chips. In the casino if you hit the jackpot you can earn 200 gold. Apart from this grand prize you can also earn rewards like cash, bandages, turrets, medi kits or even more casino chips. The awards you get are in accordance with the fruits. Each fruit gives different rewards which means you can only win these specific awards by matching 3 of these specific fruits. These rewards aren't random, so each time you match 3 cherries your award will be 1025 cash, not turrets or medi kits.

Next building in town offers the player more playability especially after all the main quests are completed. "Arena" is a place where you can fight to the death against zombies. Think of it as a survival mission but the time is endless. In the arena, zombies will attack you in waves. As you complete each wave you will be given 15 seconds to catch your breath. But beware, your character will not be healed. You can only use medi kits or bandages and you can only carry a handful of them so you need to use them wisely and avoid as much damage as you can. The number of zombies you have to kill to complete a wave will keep increasing as you reach new waves. As you also advance in waves more and more powerful zombies will spawn. Your best arena score will be saved so if you complete the main quest line and get tired of doing the secondary quests, you can always try to beat your best score in the arena.

Here is a gameplay video of Dead Trigger:

Overall Dead Trigger satisfies its players to a great extent in terms of graphics and playability. Tegra 3 graphics are of top quality and it is a great experience to play the game with the highest graphics settings. The diversity of zombies, items, maps, weapons, and different mission types certainly add more to the gameplay. However it is quite slow to earn gold but the game makes up for it by making the progression in the story line possible without buying it although it might be a necessity to be able to advance in the Arena. The Arena feature certainly keeps one busy making it impossible to get bored of the game. It is also a good thought to give the players a chance to save their progress in the game with the use of New Hope. The story of the game is powerful as well so I suggest you read the intro for each mission to be more involved in the story line. The creators of Shadowgun certainly hit a home run with Dead Trigger and I can't wait to try out Dead Trigger 2 to write its review.

My rating: ★★★★★