The Rebuild Series

Review of the Rebuild Series

When I first came across Rebuild when it was originally ONLY offered as a PC – Browser based Flash game on a website like Kongregate (where you can still play Rebuild 1 & 2 FREE in your browser). Let me tell you, there wasn’t a whole lot like Rebuild out there. Created by Sarah Northway (For Tower Games, originally), the Rebuild game enjoyed cross-platform success over a span of nearly ten years that is well-deserved.

This turn-based strategy game takes place right at the beginning or in the middle of (depending on what version you play, they vary slightly) the zombie apocalypse. For some reason, you have come to find that you are immune to the virus. Naturally, that turns you into a leader and you seek to rebuild (hence the name) society and civilization by taking back zombie-infested facilities, recruiting survivors, and, eventually trading with (or murdering) other factions that you discover along the way. You move from city to city with a select group of survivors of your own choosing, clearing the way for your new metropolis. As you progress, politics and survival knowledge will dictate how well you survive or adapt to certain situations, how happy your fellow survivors are, and if other factions hate or adore you.

You can create and edit survivor’s using a limited character builder which allows you to change their look and name. During your character creation at the beginning of the game, you have the choice of different ‘career’s, ‘professions’, or ‘skills’ that you can select from that will decide how well you perform certain actions throughout the game.

No matter where you go and what you do, zombies become an increasingly dangerous and pressing problem. While you don’t have to ally with other factions to defeat them, having them on your side is much easier than fighter both them AND the zombie hordes, particularly later on. Some of the factions in this game are hilarious, such as the Chosen Ones in Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville, that worship the zombie virus and repeatedly commit ritual suicides so that they can become a horde of ravenous undead that will inevitably attack your encampment.

The battles in this game are passive and are completely based on the Fighter skill. You may select survivors to defend or attack tiles, scout, and scavenge them. Zombie hordes only appear once they’re close enough to be revealed, but you can always pre-emptively clear hordes from tiles before they amass into something more lethal.

While you may be immune, your fellow survivors are not. Death is a common occurrence in this game – for children as well – which undoubtedly adds to the realism but some may find this aspect of the game unnerving.

Because of the amount of variables in this game, the random generated maps, choices, survivors with unique skills and personalities, and the advancement of the game over time with the various version., I highly recommend it to those who enjoy strategy games and want something that they can play offline. This game is for sale on all platforms, including in browser format, and the sequels are available for purchase from the Rebuild home site as well as Amazon (At a discount!), Google Play, Itunes App Store, Steam, and on Kongregate.

Highlights

Multi-platform play on mobile, console, PC, Mac, and in browser based versions
Various endings, events, and random generated content or choice based scenarios
Turn-based or Timer based playstyle with Pause / Stop features for both fast paced and lazy game play
Customization and Mods available, games are still supported by the Developer
Offline, Free or One time purchase – no microtransactions or subscriptions
Not too graphically intense, easy to run and play on most devices
Different Difficulties for casual and challenging gameplay
Multiple sequels with upgrades to gameplay, content, choices, and additional outcomes / events in each
Support a female game developer!

What Could Have Been Better

Some devices may not display dialogue windows entirely, particularly wide screen or full screen devices like the Motorola Edge when playing the app version
The graphics progressively get better throughout the series, but still on par with standard Flash graphics. I personally enjoy this comic-book / flash style, but don’t compare it to more graphically intense survival simulators like the zombie apocalypse survival sim on Steam
Combat system is non-existent, entirely based on stats and RNG
Can be challenging even on normal or easy modes due to the randomly generated maps often lacking resources or buildings required for advancement
Can get somewhat repetitive. Each city often requires the same amount of challenges, allies / enemies, or has the same requiements to advance to the next stage

Pricing & Tech Specs

This game and all sequels can be purchase directly from the developer’s website https://rebuildgame.com/ using Paypal. It is a one time purchase and does not require a subscription and does not have in game microtransactions.

Rebuild 3 on Kindle / Amazon App store for $4.49

Rebuild on Kindle / Amazon App Store for $.2.99

Otherwise, Rebuild and its sequeals are available on Ios and Android for $4.99 and may be played on PC / Mac or in browser on Kongregate.

*Rebuild 2 is essentially the mobile version of Rebuild 1, available for purchase on the Rebuild Website and for PC / Mac download on Steam. with Steam workshop support for mods

This game can run on any PC or Mobile Device running any of the operating systems above, Windows XP Minimum requirement for XP. Can also run on Chromebooks, Netbooks, and Browser based computers / laptops without modern processors.due to the adjustable rendering settings.

Final Thoughts & Review

The Rebuild Series hasn’t disappointed me since its last release (Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville) back in 2015. I still find myself downloading and playing this game on and off, playing through on different difficulties and trying new stategies with each new game I start. For the replayability of this game it is well worth the price and, since you can basically play it anywhere (except consoles), you can enjoy Rebuild at home or on your lunch breaks at work, save the game, and return to it as you please.

The variables, randomly generated events and content, strategies, and storyline are intricate and engaging enough to make it worth every penny (and more.) I highly recommend this game to strategy nerds and those of you who also enjoy choice based games, survival simulators, or RPGs. If you’re an FPS or MMORPG fan, however, this game may be too slow-paced for you.

There is a lot of written content and most of the events that are triggered are done so in a comical way versus using cinematics or cut scenes to tell the main story. If that is your cup of tea, you will absolutely love Rebuild.

Evil Dead Rise

Movie / Stroller / One-on-One

The Evil Dead "franchise" (God, how we hate that term!) has wandered all over the map in plot, tone, and mythology, from energetically terrifying (like Evil Dead 2) to wonderfully goofy (like Army of Darkness) to consistently enjoyable, if not exactly groundbreaking (like Ash vs. Evil Dead). And though Evil Dead Rise has little or no direct connection to the plot of characters of the core story or the 2013 remake, it has some of the same manic energy and gleeful gore of the core films -- a welcome return to form.

Now we've got at least three separate Evil Dead 'threads' that could continue: Ash's original and continuing adventures (Come on, Bruce! More!) ... whatever happens next to ** of the 2013 remake ... and now the 'mother and daughter team (we know, we know) of deadite-destroyers from Evil Dead Rise. And we want it all.

Life After Beth

Life After Beth (2014)

It's All About Aubrey

Movie / Stroller / One-to-One / Zombie Romance

Aubrey Plaza’s deadpan, off-kilter, unpredictable manic energy seems perfectly suited for horror in general and the Zombie World in particular. And though Life After Beth had a whole bunch’a problems, Plaza – as usual – never fail to impress.

As one critic put it, “It's an age-old story. Boy loses girl. Boy finds girl. Boy realizes girl is undead.” And that basically sums up the premise. Conceived by writer/director Jeff Baena (Horse Girl, I Heart Huckabees), who also by pure coincidence happens to be married to Aubrey Plaza, the story doesn’t follow any classic zombie rules. Beth herself – killed by a snake bite – remains coherent for a long time, though increasingly hot-tempered and violent, until things get truly out of control in the third act.

Not a big hit, not terribly well-received, it seems to have more in common with “bedroom community” zomromcoms like Fido or Warm Bodies than it does with Night of the Living Dead. But Plaza carries it well and – for the most part – makes it work. She’s also aided and abetted by an astonishingly strong supporting cast, from Dane DeHaan to John C. Reilliy to Molly Shannon and Cheryl Hines and Paul Reiser and Matthew Gray Gubler and Anna Kendrick – Anna Kendrick! -- as the ‘final girl,’ of a sort.

Some good laughs, some memorable moments (love that refrigerator!) and a ‘must-have’ for the Aubrey Plaza completist, this one’s worth a few drinks and a lounge on some quiet Saturday night.

Click Here to Buy!

The Best of Bruce Campbell (Zombie Edition) on his 65th Birthday

The Best of Bruce Campbell, Zombie Edition

Bruce Campbell turned 65 in late June, and he sent out a great pic to remind us of just what a legend he is – not just in Zombie World, but all over the place. Speaking zombierifically, here are some of the high spots worth looking at as we celebrate @GroovyBruce in all his glory:

It all began with Evil Dead 2 (1987), where deadites and Ash and his chain-saw arm all first appeared – each one unquestionably a zombie icon (Evil Dead , the first one, was just… a preview)

It was a few years before Ash would return in Arny of Darkness (1992), when Ash was pushed into some skewed version of the Middle Ages to fight a whole different kind of deadites with his boomstick. By far the funniest (intentionally) of the whole ED set, and filled with more good memes than all the others combined.

Bubba Ho Tep (2002) deserves a mention as well. Let’s not get into the whole, “are mummies zombies?” thing – not here, anyway! -- but it’s clearly an alternate-universe story about at least one impressive character – and maybe others? -- returning from death (or never really leaving in the first place). If you haven’t experienced this half-hidden classic about an old, old man who may or may not be Elvis Presley in a fight against an abandoned mummy in an old age home, joined by a black man who claims to have the brain of John F. Kennedy – yes, we know, it’s odd – then you have not truly lived. Based on an equally toothsome (literally) novella by the equally legendary Joe R. Lansdale, this cracked gem will live in your heart and your brain for a long time.

There were video games and cameos and a crazy amount of work for the years in between and after, but Campbell didn’t return to Zombie World until relatively recently, with three seasons of the remarkably energetic series, Ash v. Evil Dead (2015-2018) Ash is older and maybe a little wiser (or at least world-weary), but not too wise to keep from getting caught up in yet another round of deadites from the Necronomicon. The series is reinforced by a great supporting cast, including the awesome Lucy Lawless for most of the episodes. We can always hope for more.

And most recently, a very different Bruce Campbell – complete with a truly ugly walrus mustache – joined with a strange new crew to fight an entirely different kind of zombie outbreak in Black Friday (2021). This time he’s a doughy late-middle-aged guy who has to be dragged kicking and screaming into defending the Walmart-like ‘big box’ store he’s sworn to manage and defend on – you guessed it – Black Friday. It’s clever and fast-paced, and it’s nice to see Campbell back facing the risen dead, even as he embraces his age (especially since he played an even older version of himself in Bubba Ho Tep, twenty years earlier).

Meanwhile, Evil Dead and the character of Ash himself have spawned multiple spin-offs and a near-infinite amount of merch. Apart from the 2013 remake of Evil Dead and the recent well-received ‘side story, Evil Dead Rise, there are graphic novels, posters, and even door mats and decals. Among our favorite Ash-centered items:

The Evil Dead Canvas Art Print is 16”x24”, printed on canvas rather than paper. Waterproof, moisture-proof, and durably colorful. You can even request alternate sizes with a single email.

The Evil Dead: 40th Anniversary Edition Graphic Novel. Mark Verheiden, a long-time comics writer and part of the Ash vs Evil Dead creative team, teamed up with innovative and exciting comics artist John Bolton in this slightly brain-blasting “expansion” of the film. And this fancy 40th-anniversary edition even includes an afterword from Mark Verheiden. (Other versions are available too, including an ebook version).

And from the far outfield:

The Ash/Evil Dead Decal, a 5.5” tall silhouette decal. Great for cars, laptops, tablets, skateboards, or a close personal friend. Available in a variety of colors.

Funko POP Pop! Evil Dead Ash Figurine
How can he look so innocent and yet be so deadly? Even the chainsaw is cute! 3.75”, styles may vary slightly. Whether this is your first or your fiftieth FUNKO, any Evil Dead fan has to have it.

Fear the Walking Dead

After the Outbreak / Shamblerz / TC Series

Fear the Walking Dead has been an up-and-down experience from the very beginning, way back in 2015. After a promising start (those first few episodes, covering the first few days of the outbreak, still hold up surprisingly well), the series follows a single, troubled Los Angeles family in its flight from the walkers, its separation and reunion, and the introduction of some alternately fascinating and damn boring characers along the way. Yes, it went down some fairly murky and unsatisfying paths and, at the same time, brought in some strong and intriguing characters that have gone the distance, especially Morgan (Lennie James), recruited from the ‘parent’ series, The Walking Dead, and Jenna Elfman in a surprisingly successful dramatic turn. And after seven broadcast years, and far more than in TWD years, after the infamous “time jump” between Seasons 3 and 4, only Season 1's supermom Madison (Kim Dickens) and mysterious, dangerous barber-assassin Daniel Salazar (Ruben Blades) are here for the final days.

You can watch any or all of the first seven seasons here, on Hulu, and rent or buy all the released episodes of Season 8 here, on Amazon Prime.

Meanwhile, this is far from the end for the Walking Dead universe, with the series featuring the continuing adventures of Darrell and a visit to new walker-infested New York City for Negan and Maggie. And who knows what-all else?

We’ll keep you informed...