Zombies, Run! Day 1

I've begun an experiment today.  Over the course of the next 35-40 days, I will undertake a daily mission in Zombies, Run! for Windows Phone.  Kim and I had used the app on her iPod and had loads of fun.  Since then, it has finally made its way to Windows Phone.  I will chronicle my journey and that of the people of Abel as I work my way through the 35 missions.

The first thing I notice is that the app doesn't like to retain some of the settings.  The game volume stays at one level, despite adjusting it several times.  Also, it will not play music on shuffle.  For music to play, a playlist must be created in the Zune software and then transferred to the phone.  I wasn't aware of this until I noticed 15 minutes into my run that it wasn't playing music.

After crash landing in the forest outside of Abel, I began to make my way to the hospital to gather supplies. As I walked, I heard the guttural moans of the dead.  They were close, but I couldn't tell how close.  Along the way I picked up an axe.  It seemed that many more items were collected with the iPod versus my Windows Phone, but regardless, items were still collected.  I thought that perhaps I wasn't swinging my arms enough, so I promptly corrected that and bore a striking resemblance to this guy.

Like a boss.

As I was enjoying my leisurely stroll through the woods, I received an alert that zombies were 10 meters behind me.  Zombies are a slow lot, and I didn't want to exhaust myself right away, so I began a brisk jog.  Seconds later, I receive another alert that they're six meters behind me.  I pick up the pace and suddenly they're five meters behind me.  I break out into an all-out sprint with a panicked look on my face as I hear the horde of the undead closing in.  Others on the path can only look at me with confusion as I run for all my worth away from this zombie menace.  After sprinting for 30 meters, I receive a message that I've dropped my supplies (consisting of one axe) which distracted the zombies and allowed me to escape.  I know that this is a fitness game, but I didn't expect to start against zombified Kenyan runners.

Motherfuckers are crazy fast.

After narrowly escaping and letting my heart rate return to something resembling normal, I realized that my music didn't play once.  I fiddled with the settings and resumed my run, waiting for it to kick in.  The zombies were waiting.  I immediately received an alert that they were 90 meters away.  I did my best impersonation of Forrest Gump and managed to put them behind me.

Replace the rapist rednecks with invisible zombies and you get the idea.

After successfully getting away, I slowed back down to a saunter and the items came flooding in.  A bat, batteries, a USB flash drive, a first aid kit, a sports bra...all good stuff.  I soon realized my music still wasn't playing.  I paused my session and fiddled with the settings.  I came to the conclusion that it would not shuffle the music on my phone.  I resigned myself to create a playlist when I made it back home.  I launched the app again and found that my progress in the first mission had been lost.  Rage and frustration were understatements as I had lost a half hour of progress and would have to start all over.

After getting back home, I was able to spread the supplies to Abel, even though I hadn't reached the settlement yet.  Four new faces found their way to the town even if I hadn't.

I've since put together a haunting playlist consisting of music from Alan Wake, Dead Space, and Call of Duty's zombie modes.  We'll see if tomorrow pans out better than today.  Stay tuned.