By Chase Burgess

Ever since Call of Duty: World at War included a Nazi-zombie game mode, the gaming world has exploded with zombie themed games involving the Axis super power. Deadly 30 takes a retro approach to the Nazi-zombie idea.

Deadly 30 is 2-D side-scroller developed by two-man team Ignatus Zuk and Gonzalo Villagomez, and published by Headup Games.

The objective of the game is simple, survive for 30 nights. However, surviving those 30 nights is much easier said than done.

The game is set in World War II and has many locations to travel to. The locations range from the Black Forest of Germany to snowy mountains that appear to be in China or Russia

Throughout the game there are three character that you can play as. You start out as an American GI but along the way you find a female Nazi officer and a Russian soldier that team up with you. Each soldier has their own weapon that they specialize in, the American uses a machine gun, the Nazi uses a shotgun, and the Russian uses rifles. Each weapon has upgraded versions of them that you unlock as you level up your character. Transition between the three character is simple and seamless.

Scavenging for spare parts becomes an exact science as you try to balance venturing into the wild while not venturing so far away that you cannot reach the relative safety of your base before nightfall. Although there is no penalty for being out of your base at night, surviving becomes extremely difficult.

There is a bit of a story as you progress, but the story is only seen through short cut scenes that occur every so often between nights. Overall the story is very weak and definitely feels like an afterthought.

Every now and then you can see some comedic relief shine through during the cut scenes, but it’s generally limited to childish jokes. More subtle humor comes in the fact that most zombies tend to resemble a zombified Adolf Hitler, and that one of the upgrades for your base is an M60 machine gun. The game isn’t scared to be very light-hearted. The American’s favorite phrase while mowing down the hoards of Zombies is “Damn I love my country,” and the Nazi female officer has a frying pan for a melee weapon.

An important aspect of the game is the upkeep of your base. Throughout the game you collect spare parts that can be used to buy new items such as barricades or turrets, which can also be upgraded. These spare parts come from killing zombies, destroying vehicles, destroying chests and successfully surviving during the nights. If you neglect your base’s defenses during the day or during a heated battle, you will quickly find yourself in a very tight situation

The graphics and control scheme takes you right back to the games of the 1980s. The controls are very simple and feel just the classic Contra games.

The difficulty curve is very steep, and the strength of the zombies drastically increases with each passing of a level.

Deadly 30 is available for download through Steam on PC, Mac, and Linux at the very reasonable price tag of $4.99. If you don’t mind having no real storylines, or having a steep difficulty curve then Deadly 30 is a fun game and worth a pick up for any zombie aficionado. Deadly 30 gets a 3/5.