Andrew Newton reviews The Walking Dead: Aftermath…

The Walking Dead: Aftermath, from Ares Interactive and Swift Games, brings the popular franchise to mobile gamers, but this time in another direction by giving it a Vampire Survivors-style roguelite formula. It’s an interesting combination that works well, despite some of its other ideas feeling a little too familiar.

The gameplay is exactly what fans of the genre would expect. You’re dropped into a countryside or ruined town environment swarming with walkers and tasked with surviving for a set amount of time while levelling up and selecting from randomised upgrades. Before long, your character has become more powerful, tougher and quicker as hundreds of enemies close in from every direction. It’s a formula that’s become increasingly common over the last few years, but there’s still something undeniably satisfying about watching your character evolve into a walker-slaying machine.

Each playable character comes with their own weapon, such as Rick Grimes’ iconic revolver. But as the story progresses, you’ll have the chance to unlock additional characters with different weapons that can be used to either take to the battlefield or in support.

Fortunately, each battle doesn’t just use waves of identical walkers as new enemy types will begin to appear with each chapter, forcing you to adjust your strategy. Booby-trapped walkers will explode when they’re defeated, larger undead take more punishment, and bloated charging walkers can cause significant damage if you’re not careful. Then there are the enemy survivors, armed with rifles, shotguns, and melee weapons, who bring a change of pace by adding ranged attacks and making battles feel a little more chaotic.

The storyline is also broken up with several additional game modes that unlock as you play, including Boss encounters and resource runs, which provide a way to gather materials needed for building up the base. They’re not groundbreaking additions, but they do help the grind through chapters from becoming too repetitive.

Outside of combat, The Walking Dead: Aftermath feels more like one of the many free-to-play 4X strategy games already available on mobile. Between missions, you’ll spend time expanding your settlement, upgrading buildings, improving equipment and recruiting survivors. These management systems work ok, but they don’t feel as exciting as the action itself. The roguelite combat is entertaining and injects a fresh dose of energy into the more stale genre.

Visually, the game captures the look and feel of The Walking Dead, with recognisable characters (from the TV series, not the comic) and bleak environments filled with walkers. Less impressive is the soundtrack. The music quickly becomes repetitive to the point where you will go to the settings menu to mute it.

Being a free-to-play mobile title, it’s not surprising that they will put lots of things to buy with real money. There are multiple premium currencies, bundles, and characters all wanting your hard-earned pennies. However, all these opportunities to spend real money, don’t feel like you’re forced to. You can enjoy the game without spending a penny, although paying does make progression considerably faster if you’re the impatient type.

The Walking Dead: Aftermath succeeds because of the Vampire Survivors-style roguelite genre so addictive. The chaotic action, constant upgrades and ever-growing enemy hordes make for an enjoyable game that’s easy to lose time with. The base-building elements are less interesting and feel like they’re there because they’re expected to be there, fortunately, they never overshadow the game’s strongest feature.

If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, there’s plenty here to keep you entertained, with familiar characters and plenty of walker-slaying action. Those with little interest in the franchise may still find themselves enjoying the Vampire Survivors-inspired gameplay, even if the settlement management eventually begins to wear thin.

Rating – 7/10