GARAGE: Bad Trip Review
Written by Jonathan Lee, October 29, 2018, 8:00pm. Tweet to: @Writerscube
I don’t think it’ll ever get old. Blasting the crap out of hordes of zombies, taking on the apocalypse, and facing monstrously gross bosses. But what can get old is HOW you go about the journey of taking on the zombie apocalypse. Normally, you’re some military-trained expert or some really smart person who’s plunged into the zombiefest with barely a clue, but still smart enough to figure some really cool solution.
A Bad (Good) Trip Down Zombie Lane
But then enter GARAGE: Bad Trip, and the first thing you’ll notice is that this isn’t your normal zombie apocalypse story. You’re not some Chris Redfield, you can’t just punch boulders to victory. You’re not the size of a walking fridge with the muscles of the Hulk. You’re not even Lee from Telltale Games’s The Walking Dead, who was a normal guy but he had the smarts and guts to figure things out and bring together a group of estranged individuals.
Nope, you’re just an average Joe who wakes up in the trunk of a crashed car in the middle of the world gone to Hell. You don’t get special friends to swoop in to save you. You don’t have high powered martial arts gimmicks to save you. Until you find a gun, it’s just you, an axe, and your feet to carry you (and kick zombies with!)
And that makes it pretty great! There’s a constant desperation that you can feel for your protagonist while also still having the space to relish every zombie kill. GARAGE: Bad Trip is a really fun top-down shooter that keeps you on your toes while giving you all the varieties of undead to bash, shoot, and explode.
WHAT’S IN THE GAME
GARAGE: Bad Trip is a top-down action shooter, created by the developers at Zombie Dynamics. The control setup is typical for games of this type, and for both veterans and newbies, it is very easy to pick up and play.
A lot of zombie games, even when they’re designated as survival horror, tend to give you a good amount of different means to dispatch your undead foes. But even when I got later in the game, I found myself spending up quite a fair bit of my ammunition. Which is an excellent decision on developer Zombie Dynamics’s part. This makes for excellent pacing with the tension through gameplay, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And the game offers variety to keep the players on their toes. One moment I was trudging through wreckage and empty corridors, the next I was riding a motorcycle, running over zombies. Then I was in a burning subway. Past the zombie chaff that you’ll be blasting your way through, there are some gnarly big fights that you’ll be finding yourself. And of course, there’s a human military element to tackle. They too were fun to fight.
FINAL THOUGHTS
GARAGE: Bad Trip is a great way to blast off into a weekend. It’s entertaining and the visual characterization done gives the storytelling an impressive boost. The graphics are done in a visual style that flirts with retro while still bringing something fresh (and bloodily meaty) to the table. And you won’t find yourself bored while you take on the undead. The challenge stays with you, regardless of what new armaments come your way. With that said, I highly recommend fans of blasting undead and top-down shooters to give this game a try! You can find it on Steam right now for $14.99 (Pssst, there’s a 50% off deal right now if you get it by Noon of November 1st!) It’s the perfect way to celebrate the Halloween season too!
