Ahead of the Game – Survival Defense: Zombie is survival and defence against zombies, and is exactly as it says on the tin

• Auto-fight to survive waves of incoming undead
• Boost your squad with randomised skills
• Level up your heroes and gear between runs

It’s all about repelling the relentless undead once more in this week’s Ahead of the Game series, where we tell you all about a new mobile endeavour that’s playable in one form or another despite its unofficial launch. 

There’s no need for hand-holding when the mechanics are as simple as this – you start, you shoot, you survive. Don’t expect any kind of shock value here, either, which is exactly what Survival Defense: Zombie is offering this week with its roguelike tower defence.

That’s not at all a bad thing, of course – sometimes, all you really need is a reliable formula to stick to. If it ain’t broke, as they say – and this one definitely isn’t. 

Essentially, Survival Defense: Zombie lets you deploy your squad of heroes – each with their own skills and special abilities – to try and survive waves of relentless undead. You’ll eventually come face to face with the stage boss too, and if you manage to outlast all the hordes of zombies charging towards you, you’ll learn randomised skills to boost your combat prowess.

After each run, you get to upgrade your heroes, unlock more characters, and even boost your gear to make the next run easier (hopefully). It’s not an uncommon loop, but given its roguelike nature, I don’t doubt things will stay spicy with each new run. 

It also helps that the characters and their descriptions are all pretty adorable – my favourite so far, in particular, is humble Juli whom you really shouldn’t “just see him as a repairman”.

That’s because he can unleash powerful crowd control and AoE attacks when push comes to shove – I can’t tell you how many times his ice tractors bulldozed incoming zombies and saved the day (leaving me with a measly 200 HP out of 3000).

I suppose that just goes to show you can’t judge the proverbial book by its cover – just like you shouldn’t dismiss Survival Defense: Zombie as just another tower defence (although to be honest, you really can’t have too many of those).

So, how do you play Survival Defense: Zombie?

It’s currently got that “early access” tag on Google Play, so expect the occasional bug here and there, as well as more content to release in the future. At the moment, the early version, to me, is already enjoyable enough as it is, with ads that don’t disrupt the gameplay since they’re only optional when you want an extra boost or two. 

And since it’s free-to-play, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t give it a go yourself!