Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler’s Green is a first person shooter. Jack, a simple farmer, finds a stranger wandering through his property. This stranger looks horribly injured, but attacks Jack as soon as he sees him. As more zombies appear, Jack realizes that something horrible has happened and sets off to find out what is happening. He’s thrown into a nightmare world of the living dead. The only salvation is in one of the few remaining cities, Fiddler’s Green. Once you arrive there, you’re given a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you clear the remaining undead out of Fiddler’s Green you’ll be given a luxury penthouse and a ton of money. There’s just those pesky brain eating zombies to worry about…

If I had to choose the one thing that Land of the Dead is really good at, it would be establishing mood. Through an excellent use of sound and graphics Land of the Dead creates an extremely lonely environment. The sky is particularly disturbing. It’s a sickly purple color, like a nasty bruise. It stretches over the top of the screen, providing a constant reminder that things are going wrong all around you. The sound provides a throbbing, humming chorus in the background that sets you on edge and pulls the hair up on the back of your neck. The environments are perfect for a horror game and keep you tense and unsettled the entire time you are playing.

The character models look pretty good. They do a good job of representing the walking dead. Exposed rib cages, rotting body parts, and gore splattered clothing all make for some grisly looking enemies. The enemies will take damage as you fight them. They will lose limbs and jaws before finally being brought down. Unfortunately, there is very little variance in these character models. It is quite common to fight two or even three of the same enemy at one time. Since these are supposed to be individuals who have been turned into zombies the repetitiveness really detracts from the immersion of the game.

Shooting is very basic, just a standard point and shoot. As is common knowledge, with zombies headshots are the way to go. With a powerful enough weapon and a clean shot you can take a zombie out with one hit. For the most part, though, you’re just inefficiently blasting away at your enemies. Combat is a fairly simplistic affair as well. The close combat weapons have two types of attacks, the first is a quick attack, and the second is a stronger attack that would knock enemies to the ground. I found that the second attack was the only one I ever really used. While the first attack is faster, it is much weaker and lacks the crucial few seconds of time that knocking your opponent down buys you. For the most part combat consists of running forward, knocking your enemy down, retreating, and then doing the same. It’s very repetitive and gets old quickly.

Enemies have the ability to knock you down as well. While this sounds like an interesting idea, allowing you to be born down by the weight of enemies around you, it is poorly executed. Whenever you are stuck the screen will cock to the side and you will be momentarily unable to move, allowing your enemies to get free hits in on you. You don’t really get the sensation of being knocked over though; you get more of the sensation of just turning your head to the side. It’s an interesting idea, but needs more work to really accomplish what it’s trying to convey.

The biggest innovation in Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler’s Green has to do with a classic zombie avoidance tactic. If movies have taught me anything about surviving a zombie attack, it’s that you always have to seal the doors. For years this strategy has gone ignored in video games. It has become a crucial strategy in Land of the Dead, though. Shutting doors can buy you vital seconds to prepare for the imminent assault of the shambling dead. Although they will eventually smash down the door, it will give you a few seconds to prepare. You can also blow a hole through the door and fire at enemies on the other side while staying safe in the room. It really gives you the feeling of a zombie attack.

On the whole, Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler’s Green creates an atmosphere of horror, but the gameplay simply cannot back it up. At first glance it may seem like a shambling corpse, but look a little closer and you’ll see it’s just a kid in a sheet.