The Walking Zombie 2: Shooter

Review by eFreeware

Plenty of mobile shooters assume you have a stable connection and other people to play with. If you mostly play in short bursts, on a commute with patchy signal, or on a tablet that rarely sees Wi-Fi, that assumption gets in the way. The Walking Zombie 2, from developer Alda Games, takes the opposite approach: it is built as a single-player experience you can play offline, with the shooting backed by a story and character progression rather than by lobbies.

It has been installed more than 50 million times and holds a 4.4 average from roughly 1.59 million ratings, which is a lot of feedback for a game first released in June 2019. It is free to download, carries ads and offers in-app purchases. The pitch is a post-apocalyptic world where you were born after the outbreak, immune to the virus, and therefore the one person who might be able to do something about it.

What follows is a look at how the game is put together, what the developer says it includes, and which players are likely to get the most out of it.

A shooter that behaves like an RPG

The clearest thing about this game is that it refuses to be only a shooter. It is a first-person game with guns, grenades and melee weapons, but it also has the structure of a role-playing game: quests, experience, skills, perks, equipment you buy and sell, and a character who gets stronger as you go. You are not dropped into a match and reset afterward; you are moving through a world with a continuing story.

That combination is what distinguishes it from a straightforward mobile FPS. The developer describes a classic single-player post-apocalyptic shooter, and the RPG layer is what gives the shooting a reason to continue beyond the next firefight. Progress shows up as better gear and new abilities rather than as a score at the end of a round.

The setting supports the same idea. Zombies control the world in large numbers, but they are not the only threat: bandits, cultists, gangs and corrupted politicians are listed among the people whose hostility your actions can provoke. A world where other survivors can turn on you is more interesting than one where every human is a friendly quest-giver.

Karma, quests and a story with a past

The karma system is the most distinctive piece of the design. Good and bad deeds are meant to open different options and encounters, which suggests that choices carry weight beyond a single conversation. The developer also frames the story around your character's origins: you carry immunity to the infection that transforms people and animals into zombies, which makes you both a weapon and a symbol of hope, and the plot follows the search for the truth about your birth and for a way to create a cure.

Quests are the main engine here. There are story missions and a large number of side quests, including optional missions for a zombie hunter named Ace. Settlements contain traders, so the loop of taking on work, earning, and spending on equipment has a place to happen. It is a familiar structure, and the appeal is the volume of things to do rather than novelty in how they are delivered.

Work on new content continues, with more story arcs and mechanics planned. That matters for a game of this age: it suggests the world is still being extended rather than left as it was at launch.

Weapons, enemies and the shape of a fight

Combat covers the expected range. You use guns with different types of ammunition, grenades and melee weapons, and you heal with medkits and food. You fight several kinds of zombie walkers, along with bandits and big mutant bosses. Weapon skins are included as a cosmetic layer on top.

The variety of enemies is what keeps the fighting from becoming one long repetition. A crowd of walkers calls for a different approach than a bandit with a gun, and a boss mutant is a different problem again. Since the game is offline and single-player, the challenge comes from the encounters the developer has placed rather than from other players.

The developer's own summary of the game mentions a survival squad, which fits the way equipment and protective gear accumulate over time. You are not choosing a class at the start so much as building a character out of what you find, buy and earn.

Cars, crafting and the world between missions

Cars and trucks handle travel across the world map; they are faster than walking and can hold extra loot from the dead in the trunk. That detail says something about the intended rhythm: you are not only fighting, you are moving between places with a load of supplies and deciding what to carry.

Crafting and building are optional and tied to the open-world portion of the game. Crafting tables in houses you purchase let you make things such as gas and ammunition. Buying property and producing your own supplies is a different kind of progress from simply finding better weapons, and it gives the world map a purpose beyond being a route between quests.

There are also mini games. They are a small part of the package, but they fit a game that is happy to change pace between long stretches of shooting.

What the recent update adds

The most recent update reworks boosters, adds rewards from Daily Quests and a Zombie Pass, and lets players earn gold for free. For anyone who has played before, that is a meaningful refresh of the reward side of the game; for a new player, it means the progression systems described above are the current ones rather than the launch versions.

The update is also a reminder that this is a free game with ads and in-app purchases.

That is worth keeping in mind when deciding how to approach it. The offline single-player campaign is the core of the app, and the reward systems sit around it.

Built for a particular player

This game is for someone who wants a long single-player campaign in a bleak setting and does not want to depend on a connection or on other people being online. If you like the idea of leveling a character, choosing perks, buying equipment from traders and working through a large number of quests while shooting zombies in between, the structure here is exactly that.

It also suits players who prefer a stylized look over photorealism. The polygon graphics style is a deliberate choice, and it gives the game a consistent identity rather than trying to imitate a console shooter on a phone screen.

The karma system and the branching encounters it creates will appeal to anyone who wants their decisions to register in some way. The developer's framing of good and bad deeds as opening new options suggests the world reacts, which is more than many shooters of this type attempt.

A long offline campaign worth trying

The Walking Zombie 2 is a free, ad-supported game with in-app purchases, and its strongest argument is the combination of a first-person shooter with RPG progression and a story, all playable without a connection. The developer has kept adding content and recently refreshed the reward systems with boosters, Daily Quests, a Zombie Pass and free gold.

I would suggest it to players who want a single-player zombie game they can return to over weeks, who enjoy leveling and equipment as much as shooting, and who value being able to play offline. The karma system and the optional crafting and building give that loop more texture than a straightforward shooter would have.

The scale of the install base and the 4.4 average suggest the approach has found its audience. If you are looking for a long-running, self-contained zombie RPG shooter rather than a competitive online match, this is a reasonable place to spend your time.

What's new

Big update is now released. Enjoy Walking Zombie 2, better than ever! * Try out new reworked boosters * Get your rewards from Daily Quests * Get your rewards from Zombie Pass * Earn gold for free