It’s very rare for this site to offer FREE games in-depth reviews since you really can “buy” and find out for yourself. With this game I just HAD TO do it.

Zombie Farm (FREE*)

We initially told you regarding this game about a week ago and basing on the views the article got, we thought we’d give it an in-depth look. It’s finally time to dispel some misconceptions regarding this beyond awesome game, give you tips and make this post function as a bug report list as well.

This review will break off from the normal review process we have where we divide topics into 5 divisions. We’ll look at the main gameplay first, then defend the in-app purchase system and lastly, create a running list of some bugs that you may encounter.

Gameplay

Just like FarmVille, the first component of the game is to plant seeds. Seeds vary in harvest time speed and cost. A tomato can be harvested in 4 hours while a radish takes 12 hours and so on. Beyond the plants that give you money, you NEED to plant zombies as well.

An army of AT LEAST 8 zombies is needed to fight of Old McDonell which GIVES YOU BRAIN if you win some fights. This is the BIGGEST misconception about the game. People think you ONLY have to use real $$$ to get brain when in fact, the game itself is generous for brain. Some zombies take longer than others to grow and some have special defense and offense.

The second component of the game is the Old McDonell Plants Vs Zombies style of gameplay where you fight off McDonell’s farmers to win some gold and maybe even some brain. The key here is to send TWO zombies at a time. You cannot DEFEND against the items McDonell throw to damage you. Be alert.

In Defense of the IAP System

Some items are purchasable through coins and some through brain. The game WILL NOT continue to level up PAST level 10 UNTIL you buy AT LEAST 1 brain. If you continue to play, you obviously like the game so why not pay for one brain/$0.99? This is a good system. The initial problem was that this was  NOT stated on the description and now it is.

With regards to the cool items costing brain instead of coins, WHO SAYS you need to purchase these items? Create a FaceBook account and play FarmVille and tell me if EVERYTHING can be bought by coins. I thought so! This is just the game is structured. Live with it OR don’t play at all!

Bugs

• The game mostly crashes when you fight Old McDonell. This is either good or bad. Good because you regain ALL the zombies that died. It’s bad because when you’re winning, you have to start again and WAIT 2 hours to fight (regular fight interval).
• Facebook crashes. I’ve NEVER crashed because of Facebook but if you are, it doesn’t seem your alone as some iTunes reviewers have reported it.
• IF YOUR ARMY REACHES the number 16, do NOT harvest the 17th and 18th zombie UNTIL you fight McDonell. I guarantee you at least ONE zombie will die so you can harvest the 17th. The reason? ALL zombies that are harvested PAST the 16th will JUST DIE.

Conclusion

The game does have some bugs in it as seen above HOWEVER, the overall design and the near flawless FarmVille-like implementation of the game make me see past these bugs. If you seriously like FarmVille, you’ll be addicted to this game fast. On some days, I actually think this is better than that game since you get a second component to the game outside of just farming.

Until an official FarmVille or ngmoco’s We Rule come along, this is going to have to do. I completely like the game and I think you should try at least a couple of levels to get a feel of it. Should you not like it, no. harm. done.

Suggestion

How about let us visit our friends’ farms and how about some achievements and rewards for completing such tasks: planting 100 tomatoes, harvesting 1000 plants etc etc? Just a thought