When it comes to videogames it seems that zombies are the new black, as developers realise that it doesn’t come much better than sending hordes of deranged undead back to the cold dirt from whence they came. That said this isn’t the case in Infected as the zombies featured are more your 28 Days Later-brand of brain-muncher than the crawl-from-the-grave-and-join-Michael- Jackson-for-a-bit-of-a-dance variety. Far from Alex Garland’s disease-ravaged London the action here takes place in New York City at Christmas and as the opening sequence plays the ‘infected’ emerge and begin to put the biggest dampener on Christmas since you discovered that the Santa suit wasn’t the only thing your Dad likes to dress up in (no? Just us then). This opening sequence certainly sets the tone for the whole game and takes no time in establishing Infected’s twisted sense of humour. While the game’s plot is a little convoluted the aim is simple: infiltrate the city, kill the infected and make it out the other side alive. It all sounds very shallow and the truth is it is; once you’ve cleared the first few missions you’ll have experienced most of what the game has to offer. In certain missions you’re required to clear overrun areas or rescue a set number of civilians, but every single objective boils down to vaporising swarms of zombies. Here’s where we’d usually stick the boot in and really take Infected down to Chinatown, but it’s not that simple, as whilst developer Planet Moon may have opted for a simple premise it has added enough additional elements to keep you playing.

A solid weapons and upgrade system makes disposing of zombies a real blast and the completion of each mission earns you cash to add to your armoury so the more kill combos you pull off the tastier your weapons become. Popping zombies causes a certain amount of splash damage to their brethren, linking them together and making it possible to cause massive chain reaction kills with a single shot. Despite weapons upgrades seeming fluid and organic the same can’t be said for the cumbersome character control that requires an incredibly wide birth to turn in.

All of Infected’s 35 missions are fairly similar and rarely last more than five minutes a piece, great for a quick pick-up and play session but rather repetitive for extended periods of play. The game also has a medal system to encourage you to go back and beat your best, but once you’ve killed every zombie and seen each corner of the city there’s little incentive to return. Like a crafty one night stand with that ropey looking girl from the pub, this is frantic and fun while it lasts but when it’s all over you probably won’t go back.

Keith Hennessey