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Containment: The Zombie Puzzler

73%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
replayability, grinding
73% User Score Based on 388 reviews

Platforms

PCPCAndroidiPhoneWindowsWindowsLinuxLinuxMac OSMac OSMobile PlatformiPadPhoneTablet

About

"Containment: The Zombie Puzzler" is an action-puzzle game where you surround zombies with survivors of the same color to eliminate them, while avoiding infection. The game features fully animated character tiles that interact with each other and the environment, and unique storytelling through in-world text. It offers a real-time/turn-based gameplay experience in a pulse-pounding campaign and multiple survival modes.

Containment: The Zombie Puzzler screenshot
Containment: The Zombie Puzzler screenshot
Containment: The Zombie Puzzler screenshot
Containment: The Zombie Puzzler screenshot
Containment: The Zombie Puzzler screenshot
Containment: The Zombie Puzzler screenshot
Containment: The Zombie Puzzler screenshot

73%
Audience ScoreBased on 388 reviews
story30 positive mentions
replayability8 negative mentions

  • Containment: The Zombie Puzzler offers a unique twist on the puzzle genre with its engaging zombie-themed gameplay.
  • The game features fun mechanics and a good sense of humor, making it an enjoyable experience for casual gamers.
  • It provides a brief but entertaining campaign with interesting storytelling elements and various power-ups to enhance gameplay.
  • The game is very short, with many players completing it in under an hour, leading to a lack of replay value.
  • Gameplay can become repetitive quickly, as the mechanics lack depth and complexity, making it less engaging over time.
  • Visuals and sound design are unimpressive, contributing to an overall feeling of mediocrity in the game's presentation.
  • story
    86 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story is generally considered basic and clichéd, often described as a weak backdrop to the puzzle gameplay. While some players appreciate the humor and the attempt to weave a narrative between levels, many find the writing amateurish and the overall plot unengaging. Despite its shortcomings, the story serves as a light flavor that adds some context to the gameplay, though it is not a primary reason to play the game.

    • “A fun puzzle game with an interesting storytelling method.”
    • “Unfortunately I became hooked right away and managed to complete the 'campaign' in just over 3 hours. I was addicted, the storyline added humor to an already quirky little game, and was a nice way to move through the puzzles; it was better than just watching loading screens.”
    • “The game plays like an interactive story: finish one puzzle, the camera pans over scenes from the city and text describing the survivors, then onto the next puzzle.”
    • “The 'story' (if one even goes so far as to call it that) is just text you can read while the camera slowly moves from level to level and bloats the length noticeably if you play it all at once, not to mention the text itself is something you could come up with if you took a course in 'how to make a barebones zombie plot'.”
    • “Story is boring, generic and weak, so basically there is nothing to play for.”
    • “The levels are tied together in a 'story mode' format, and to be frank, the story is pretty rubbish, and terribly amateurly written.”
  • gameplay
    84 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay in "Containment: the Zombie Puzzler" features a simple tile-matching mechanic where players swap survivors to surround zombies, offering an initial sense of engagement. However, many reviews highlight that the gameplay quickly becomes repetitive and lacks depth, with basic mechanics and a lack of polish leading to a tedious experience. While some players appreciate the casual nature and occasional fun mechanics, the overall consensus is that the game fails to maintain long-term interest or challenge.

    • “Containment: the zombie puzzler offers a unique twist on the puzzle genre with its zombie-themed gameplay.”
    • “The gameplay is fun, but while I can easily see it being incredibly addictive to some and giving them dozens of hours of play in survival mode, reaching personal bests, it's something I beat (the campaign), it entertained me for a few hours, but I don't see myself replaying it.”
    • “It's an easy game to learn, but grows in challenge as you become used to the gameplay mechanics.”
    • “While the core puzzle mechanics in Containment: The Zombie Puzzler are engaging initially, they quickly become repetitive and lack the necessary complexity to keep players engaged in the long run.”
    • “The mechanics are dull and the whole game lacks polish.”
    • “Stale gameplay, repetitive, challengeless.”
  • graphics
    56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of "Containment: The Zombie Puzzler" are characterized by a simple, minimalist art style that some players find charming, though many note that they are dated and unimpressive. While the visuals are functional and feature decent detail in character models and zombie types, they lack the polish of modern games, evoking a nostalgic feel reminiscent of early 2000s titles. Overall, the graphics serve their purpose within the context of the game, but they do not stand out as a highlight.

    • “The aesthetics are nice, the different zombie types and character models have a decent amount of detail.”
    • “Really good mechanics, an awesome graphics style, and even the campaign mode is actually really entertaining!”
    • “Good graphics, great sound, and a puzzle concept that grows on you the more you play.”
    • “The graphics are dated, but the aesthetic packaging is good.”
    • “The graphics remind me of the video game dark times in the early 2000s.”
    • “The graphics aren't exactly state of the art.”
  • music
    24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players noting a lack of variety and creativity, while others appreciate the atmospheric qualities of the soundtrack, particularly during intense moments. Many find the sound effects limited, and some prefer to mute the game and use their own music instead. Overall, while there are highlights in the music that enhance the experience, the general consensus points to a need for more depth and variety.

    • “The music builds as the zombies take over.”
    • “I like the music, the atmosphere, the story text, and the game itself.”
    • “The setting is well-realized, the text is well-written, the music fits nicely and you will be in for a few clever twists.”
    • “There's no music and few sound effects.”
    • “You stop caring about the story in the first 5 minutes, gameplay is still the same, atmosphere is none, music as well... why would you waste your time with this?”
    • “Starting to look dated, not terribly creative, no music, and limited assets for sound effects.”
  • replayability
    16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, "Containment: The Zombie Puzzler" has limited replayability, primarily due to a lack of compelling achievements or unlockables and its repetitive gameplay. While the main campaign offers around three hours of playtime with some route variations, many players find the experience short-lived and lacking in depth, resulting in minimal long-term engagement.

    • “The main campaign lasts around three hours, but there are multiple route splits that ensure some replayability.”
    • “The absence of compelling achievements or unlockables diminished the replay value significantly.”
    • “In conclusion, Containment: The Zombie Puzzler offers a brief burst of puzzle-solving fun but falls short in terms of content, replay value, and overall depth.”
    • “Short-lived puzzling: Containment: The Zombie Puzzler offers brief entertainment but lacks depth, replay value, and long-term engagement.”
  • atmosphere
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The atmosphere of the game receives mixed reviews; while some players appreciate the well-crafted zombie-apocalypse setting and atmospheric music, others feel that the overall experience lacks depth and engagement, leading to a disconnection from the story. The campaign's narration is noted as a strong point, enhancing the atmosphere for some, but others criticize the gameplay for being repetitive and uninspired.

    • “Game music: if I remember correctly, this was actually really good, atmospheric zombie music.”
    • “I also have to mention the campaign's narration - it's visible on the road as you move from board to board - it's really well written, gives quite an atmosphere :)”
    • “You stop caring about the story in the first 5 minutes; gameplay is still the same, atmosphere is non-existent, music as well... why would you waste your time with this?”
    • “But: while you can certainly replace the zombies and survivors with gems or fruits or whatnot and you’d have the same puzzle aspect, the zombie-apocalypse atmosphere the designers created for 'Containment' can very well stand equal to other 'serious' zombie fiction.”
    • “The atmosphere is lacking, making it hard to stay engaged with the game.”
  • humor
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is described as charming and unique, effectively complementing its engaging puzzle design. Players appreciate the blend of fun and dark comedy, particularly enjoying the humorous consequences of their mistakes, alongside a fittingly unpolished voice acting that adds to the overall experience.

    • “Extremely fun puzzler with a good sense of humor.”
    • “Containment is a blend of great puzzle design with a sprinkle of charm, humor, and bad voice acting that fits the unpolished aesthetic.”
    • “This game has unique humor and a good story.”
  • grinding
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players generally find that while the game does not require extensive grinding for progression, achieving certain milestones, particularly the zombie kill achievements (5,000 and 10,000), necessitates significant grinding. Overall, the gameplay can become tedious, and the story, while better than expected for an indie puzzle game, does not significantly enhance the experience.

    • “The story isn't the best (though better than you might expect from an indie puzzle game) and gameplay does get tedious pretty fast.”
    • “For any achievement hunters, many of the achievements for this game are easy to get, however, there is quite a bit of grinding for the zombie kills (5000 and 10000) ones.”
    • “With how much I've played this game just normally trying to beat everything and not even grinding, I have killed 3,207 zombies.”
  • stability
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The stability of Containment is mixed; while some players report a smooth experience with no glitches during extended gameplay, others have encountered significant bugs and frequent crashes that detract from the overall enjoyment.

    • “It's heavily buggy given the number of crashes I experienced, but when I was actually playing, I enjoyed the simplicity of the game.”

Buy Containment: The Zombie Puzzler

20h Median play time
25h Average play time
15-40h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 6 analyzed playthroughs

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