After the Apocalypse

After the Apocalypse, when zombies are a nightmare of the past or a hope for the future.

Zombie themed stories often take place according to a timeline, like most stories. For the Zombie Gift Guide, we have divided them up for our media related products depending on if they start when zombies are just a fad, when zombies are a problem, and where zombies are a normal, every day occurrence (or inconvenience) using these categories

Before the Outbreak – These types of stories give us the sense of everything being mostly okay until it’s not. Fear the Walking Dead is a great example of this category.
During the Outbreak – These stories take place in the middle of things, like The Walking Dead. Rick wakes up at the peak of the zombie pandemic, or whatever is really turning people into zombies.
After the Apocalypse – Most zombie outbreaks ARE the end of the world, but rarely do they actually end the world as we know it. Fido and Warm Bodies are good examples of this category.

This category applies to use of zombies in media specifically, as zombie products are as timeless as the seemingly immortal rotting corpses they’re designed after.

ZOM 100 – Manga and now Anime!

ZOM 100: Manga and now anime!

Anime / Sprinters / After the Apocalypse

ZOM 100 has been a super-popular manga for a long time (one of the few straight-on zombie manga out there), and it's finally becoming an anime as well -- early August on Netflix, in a dubbed version, yet.

Here's the trailer. Mark your calendars. And take a look at the manga while you're at it ...

Click Here to Buy the Manga!

https://zombiegiftguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Zom-100-Bucket-List-of-the-Dead-Official-Trailer-English-Dub-1080.mp4

The Rebuild Series

Review of the Rebuild Series

Summary

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.

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...

ZNation

ZNation:

A Wide, Wild, Well-Remembered TV Series That Still Holds Up

TV / After the Apocaypse / Shamblers

The big debate at ZGG International HQ is whether ZNation is a tragedy/thriller or a comedy/thriller or just a mishy-moshy combo that doesn’t know its own mind. And the generally agreed-upon answer: it don’t matter. There is some great zombie-action and some bizarre, “Did they really just do that?” laughs to be had in its five seasons and 68 episodes. And unlike its spin-off/prequel, Black Summer, it can still be purchased.

The “government experiment gone wrong” trope that’s at the center of ZNation gets a fun little twist here, in that the one escapee of the guv’s experimental zom-vax project slowly turns into an icky and fascinating hybrid of both human and dead-guy over the course of the series. And that’s only the beginning of things getting weird. It’s a shame that SyFy ended it when they did, but with a large and vocal fan base, the possibility that the series could return in some form or another is very real. Until then, enjoy its rich and wild legacy.

Click Here to Buy!

Ex-Heroes

Ex-Heroes: A great series of Super-Heroes v. Zombies novels

Movie / Shambler / Years After the Apocalypse

What comics fan hasn’t asked themselves, Who would win a fight between Superman or the Hulk? By the same token, what comics or zombie fan hasn’t wondered how the cape types would fare against the walking dead if it ever came to that.

From 2013 to 2016, novelist Peter Clines had a hell of a good time answering that question while building a whole pantheon of convincing stretch-suiters along the way, in a series of novels from Broadway Books that are, quite basically, Superheroes vs. Zombies taken to the logical extreme. It's called the Ex-Heroes Series.

They’re fast, frequently funny, often bloody and both exciting and tragic, as we follow the superheroes who fight a losing battle against the hordes of the shambling dead and their extremely noisy teeth – your basic virus-based biters that have taken over whole cities, whole countries, and left the last few humans cowering behind a dwindling number of walled compounds. Many of the characters continue from book to book – books with totally cool names like Ex-Patriots, Ex-Communciation, and our personal favorite, Ex-Purgatory. And plenty more die heroic and occasionally pointless deaths. There’s no true ending to the timeline, and we can always hope for more, though Clines has gone on to best-seller status with his non-zombie-ish Threshold series. Still, you can spend plenty of happy hours following the dark adventures of Stealth, Zzzap, The Mighty Dragon, and the rest.

Pretty much anything by Peter Clines is worth the read. You can check out his full repertoire here. Exactly what you’d expect from the one-time prop master of Psycho Beach Party.

Click Here to Buy!