iOS App of the Week: Dead Island: Survivors

Dead Island Survivors

Dead Island: Survivors is a mobile spin off of the popular zombie survival game from Techland. It is not a direct sequel, which is still in the works, according to Twitter. The official Dead Island account confirmed that Dead Island 2 is still in development, and that more information will be released at a later date.

Until then, fans can play Survivors on their iOS or Android devices. Survivors is a free-to-play tower defense title set in the Dead Island universe. Players must defend their island using a variety of traps, guns and barricades. The game sets itself apart from standard TD games by allowing players to smash zombies with their hero. Players can also use select areas of their environment as traps. This makes the game more accessible to gamers who tend not to like TD titles because there is too much sitting around.

You can smash zombies by dragging your hero around with your finger and tapping your screen to attack. Special moves can be performed by swiping on your display. Being able to bash zombies while your gun turrets blasts them apart is a lot of fun.

Traps are marked by gear symbols that you can tap to activate. For example, you can tap the water main to blast zombies into the ocean while they're crossing a bridge.

The rest of the game is like any other freemium title. It has premium currency and timers. Players can wait or pay to open loot crates they won for completing a level. If you don't mind thoughtless tapping, and the usual freemium tomfoolery, then Survivors is a decent time waster.

Dead Island: Survivors is available for free on the App Store. It includes ARKit support so you can "meet heroes and zombies in the real world."