History YMMV / DeadAheadZombieWarfare

* TierInducedScrappy:
** There's plenty of outright bad units in the game, but most of them still have their fans or just stay ignored. Same can't be said about Gunslinger, who is the second worst high-rate-of-fire unit in the game due to his lack of close quarters protection, unjustly slow speed, and poor damage output. You'll have hard time finding anyone who has at least some appreciation for him.
** Among units who perform well in [=PvP=], Polina receives the most scorn since she can take care of any opponent before they manage to close the distance in. Her special ability doesn't helps her case, as it allows Polina to fight against her main counters – bullet resistant damagers – by granting her 50% armor penetration. If you don't have Polina then don't even bother with high level leagues.
** Speaking of Skirmish, you are bound to attract hate to yourself for using just about ''anything'' that is overpowered in this mode. Among teams, the offenders are Builders and TMF, with Military deserving a special mention since their 5/5 build is especially infuriating. Tactical and Hunter item sets are frowned upon too.
** Private Rodriguez was the "both good and bad" example of this game before unit leveling system got overhauled. Ever since he's been reworked and later nerfed, very few people ''truly'' liked him. People who hated him for being too good complained that his switch from a shovel to a knife was unnecessary, and has turned him into a one-man army. Meanwhile, others complained that he sucks due to being unreliable, since the eponymous nerf gutted his aggro and made him randomly pause during fights.
** Although College team powers are fairly useful nowadays, their original version were infamous for being one of the worst synergies in the entire game. They were all centered around disabling the mechanic of dead units turning into zombies, which is rarely ever a real threat. The situation doesn't gets better when you realise that none of College members have dangerous on-death transformations themselves, and that all of the team's skins are premium.

** The Twins. Despite her being slow as molasses, she can easily back it up by being constantly on the move and possessing a double attack, with each hit doing ''80'' damage. Practically no unit in the game can take it more than once, even maxed-out Policeman. But the real worst part is that she has a whopping ''95%'' bullet resistance on top of a 500 HP pool, basically rendering your long-ranged Units (who will be your main damagers at that point) completely useless. There's basically no way to defeat Twins other than spamming as many melee Units as possible at her, or setting her on fire.

** While inefficient team synergies largely get the same treatment as bad units, College powers are the butt of all jokes among them. They are all centered around disabling the mechanic of dead units turning into zombies, which is rarely ever a real threat. The situation doesn't gets better when you realise that none of College members have dangerous on-death transformations themselves. That, together with all College skins being premium, makes it one of the most worthless synergies in the game.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Modern day ''Zombie Warfare'' is often criticized by the series' fans for being extremely grindy, with the situation only becoming worse after each major update. The situation only gets worse when you realize that the game is riddled with bad investment opportunities. It's uncommon to hear people blaming all this on Mobirate being trend chasers, but they tend to forget that the original ''Dead Ahead'' was also full of extreme grind for coins, and most of its arsenal pales in comparison to just a few overly efficient bikes and guns.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Long-time players tend to add Red Barrel to any deck they use, even if a mission they about to play has fire-resistant enemies. Policeman is also a very common go-to ranged unit, all because of his tankiness.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Modern day ''Zombie Warfare'' is often criticized by the series' fans for being extremely grindy, with the situation only becoming worse after each major update. The situation only gets worse when you realize that the game is riddled with bad investment opportunities. It's uncommon to hear people blaming all this on Mobirate being trend chasers, but they tend to forget that the original ''Dead Ahead'' was also full of extreme grind for coins, and most of its arsenal selection pales in comparison to just a few overly efficient bikes and guns.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Every time Mobirate introduces a new mechanic for units, few people take to it lighthly. And while they tend to have valid complaints, such as said mechanics being overpowered or requiring too much grind to acquire, they are also prone to preemptively considering the game ruined because of them. This happened with level-13 specials, team powers, and most recently with the overhaul of item and unit upgrade systems.

* ThatOneLevel: It's hard to overestimate how much veteran players hate Mission 136. Countless replays have proven that it's indeed the toughest level in the entire game, being even harder than the final boss (who is [[ThatOneBoss no less infamous]], but is at least cheesable). Basically, Mission 136 is a combination of all possible challenging wave layouts, ramped UpToEleven. A constantly incoming mook that's both sturdy, resistant, and hits hard? Check. Frequent damage sponges? Check. Two Charged Zombies coming at once? Check. Insectoids? ''Make it double''. Oh, and don't forget the relatively short delay between all of these, and needing absurd luck to get an alright headstart. Managing to beat this mission on three stars without use of buffs ''and'' any of overpowered team synergies is considered a major achievement for a reason. It's also worth noting that this is the second level of the only linear stage in the game, meaning that it's a massive unavoidable roadblock, only adding to the mission's infamy.

* CharacterTiers: The game's unofficial wiki has these for both PvP and PvE. Skirmish top-tiers include units who are very difficult to kill in a single hit, or are capable of landing easy kills themselves. Best options for main game are usually extremely versatile, or have a unique attribute that allows them to outshine all other similar units.

** Among units who perform well in PvP, Polina receives the most scorn since she can take care of any opponent before they manage to close the distance in. Her special ability doesn't helps her case, as it allows Polina to fight against her main counters – bullet resistant damagers – by granting her 50% armor penetration. If you don't have Polina then don't even bother with high level leagues.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Every time Mobirate introduces a new mechanic for units, few people take to it lighthly. And while they tend to have valid complaints, such as said mechanics requiring too much grind to acquire, they are also prone to preemptively considering the game ruined bceause of them. This happened with level-13 specials, team powers, and most recently with the overhaul of item and unit upgrade systems.

** If a unit performs exceptionally well in Skirmish, expect them to receive a lot of hate. Polina gets it the worst, since she can take care of anyone before they manage to close the distance. Her special ability doesn't helps her case, as it helps Polina to fight against her main counters, bullet resistant damagers, by granting her 50% armor penetration. If you don't have Polina then don't even bother with high level leagues.

** Marine is the "both good and bad" example of this game. Ever since he's been reworked and later nerfed, very few people ''truly'' like him. People who hate him for being too good complain that his switch from a shovel to a knife was unnecessary, and has turned him into a one-man army. Meanwhile, others complain that he sucks due to being unreliable, since the eponymous nerf gutted his aggro and made him randomly pause during fights.

*** Pooches. They usually come in groups, can reach your bus in a blink of an eye, and sprint around in a sporadic pattern so your Units will have trouble targeting them. Luckily, they only appear in Location 2 (and certain Location 1 challenges).
** Insectoids are very fast enemies that can pounce in the air, completely out of range, to reach and damage humans. Seems manageable enough, until you realize they only target ''ranged'' units with this attack, and posses DPS rivaled by nobody but Prisoners, which means that melee fighters will have hard time dealing with them too.

** Cranks. They have astronomous health, are [[LightningBruiser deceptively quick despite their sheer size]], and can easily gut your Units in about two to three strikes. There's no way to deal with them other than use concentrated fire.
** The Big Blues – extremely slow enemies with enormous 1200 health pool. On its own, it's actually not a big problem. But then you find out that they can ''regenerate health'', and stun your units just like their smaller contemporaries. To top it off, they usually come in swarms. For an enemy designed to be a BeefGate rather than an actual threat, these things are too good at their job.
** The Twins. Despite her being slow as molasses, she can easily back it up by being constantly on the move and possessing a double attack, with each hit doing ''80'' damage. Practically no unit in the game can take it more than once, even maxed-out Policeman. But the real worst part is that she has a whopping ''95%'' bullet resistance on top of a 500 HP pool. There's basically no way to defeat Twins other than throwing bodies at her, or using fire.
** Slobs – inflated epidemiologists dressed in hazmat suits that make them fireproof. Another meat shield, this one is infamous for its poisnous on-death explosions, which makes it difficult to keep them away from ranged units by spamming fighters.

** There's plenty of outright bad units in the game, but most of them still have their fans or just stay ignored. Same can't be said about Gunslinger, who is the worst high-rate-of-fire unit in the game. You'll have hard time finding anyone who has at least some appreciation for him, and even then it'll likely come down to using him as filler for the 2/2 Jailer synergy.
** If a unit performs exceptionally well in Skirmish, expect them to receive a lot of hate. Polina gets it the worst, since she can take care of anyone before they manage to close the distance. Her special ability doesn't helps her case, as it helps Polina to fight against her main counters, bullet resistant damagers, by granting her 50% armor penetration. If you don't have Polina, then don't even bother with high level leagues.

** Witches, not-so-affectionately called 'Bitches', very much lives up to their [[VideoGame/Left4Dead namesake]] by making the players groan in despair every time one of them enters the scene. Although they go down in one or two hits, they are extraordinarily fast and can shave off half of your bus's health within five seconds. If that's not enough, the moment they spot a Unit, they scream and charge with ''triple'' the usual speed at the bus.
*** Technically, every single "runner" type enemy is this, as they are usually sent to force the player to start sending out units. Most of them can be dealt with easily, though.
** Pooches. If you hate runners, then these things will be the bane of your existence. They usually come in groups, can reach your bus in a blink of an eye, and sprint around in a sporadic pattern so your Units will have trouble targeting them. Luckily, they only appear in Location 2 (and certain Location 1 challenges).
** Insectoids are fast enemies that can pounce in the air, completely out of range, to reach and damage Units. Seem manageable enough, until you realize they only target ''ranged'' units with this attack, as well as possessing DPS rivaled by the Witches. Say goodbye to your stacked long-rangers! In addition to all of this, they appear in the very first mission of Location 8, alongside...
** ...the Cranks. Crikey, the tears of casual players can be visualized the moment these things appear. They are tougher than anything the player has faced beforehand (packing a whole ''1400'' HP), is [[LightningBruiser deceptively quick despite its sheer health,]] and can easily gut your Units in about two to three strikes. And like the Insectoids, they too appear in the first mission. Have fun!
** The Big Blues. Extremely slow enemies with a whopping ''1200'' HP. ''And'' they can regenerate health. Did I mention they usually come in swarms? Oh, and they can stun your Units on critical hits too, which means, you can kiss your melee Units goodbye. For an enemy designed to be a living obstacle than an actual threat, these things are annoying.
** The Twins, ''holy shit''. Despite her being slow as molasses, she can easily back it up by being constantly on the move, packing a considerably high health of 500 HP, and possesses a double attack, with each doing ''80'' damage. That means, in the span of about a second, she can do up to ''160'' damage, basically two-shotting any Units you have up until that point.
** Slobs. [[FatBastard Big, bloated sons-of-bitches]] dressed in hazmat suits that are not only durable, fireproof (meaning you can't even use your Red Barrels for easy damage) and act as a meat shield for others behind them, but on-death, they blow up and poison everything in a wide radius, most likely the melee Units that you just send out to kill them. Unless you have Medic or a Medkit on hand to keep them alive, the Units coated with their blood will eventually die, thus wasting your hard-earned Courage points.

* ThatOneLevel: It's hard to overestimate how much veteran players hate Mission 136. Countless replays have proven that it's indeed the toughest level in the entire game, being even harder than the final boss (who is [[ThatOneBoss no less infamous]], but is at least cheesable). Basically, Mission 136 is a combination of all possible challenging wave layouts, ramped UpToEleven. A constantly incoming mook that's both sturdy, resistant, and hits hard? Check. Frequent damage sponges? Check. Two Charged Zombies coming at once? Check. Insectoids? ''Make it double''. Oh, and don't forget the relatively short delay between all of these, and needing absurd luck to get an alright headstart. Managing to beat this mission on three starts without use of buffs ''and'' any of overpowered team synergies is considered a major achievement for a reason. It's also worth noting that this is the second level of the only linear stage in the game, meaning that it's a massive unavoidable roadblock, only adding to the mission's infamy.

* UglyCute: While some of the zombies can easily shift into pure BodyHorror territory, most of the more humanoid ones are this, since they basically look like someone splattered green paint on them. This, combined with their big eyes, vacant expressions and the way they gawk at seemingly nothing with their mouths open only served to endear than to horrify.
** The Free Hugs zombie is basically this. Completely harmless (no kidding, she won't even attack your bus), standing still with an adorably-dumb stare with the 'Free Hugs' sign still sticking to her chest, many a player have expressed their feelings of not wanting to kill her, despite doing so nets you ''50'' Rage points. No wonder she's the mascot of the first ''Dead Ahead'' game. This is reflected in the fact that your Units and the enemy's Units don't register her as a target.
* SequelDifficultySpike: ''Dead Ahead'' was far from a cakewalk, but it was something that anyone can pick up and play. This is not the case for ''Zombie Warfare''. Aside from the complete GenreShift into a strategy tower defense, enemies are now much more varied and unpredictable than the first game's, with many, if not all of them, being fully capable of becoming a giant pain in the ass to deal with, given the chance. There are more complex mechanics to juggle along this, too, like the Courage and Rage points, Unit cooldowns and that you have to finish a mission within a certain amount of time, lest your bus gets overrun with a massive horde, forcing you to restart the level.

* DifficultySpike: Depending on player's knowledge of the game, their first spike might happen as late as the beginning of Stage 6. In the worst case, every new world serves as one.

** Slobs. [[FatBastard Big, bloated sons-of-bitches]] dressed in hazmat suits that are not only durable, fireproof (meaning you can't even use your Red Barrels for easy damage) and act as a meat shield for others behind them, but on-death, they blow up and poison everything in a wide radius, most likely the melee Units that you just send out to kill them. Unless you have Medic or a Medkit on hand to keep them alive, the Units coated with their blood will eventually die, thus wasting your hard-earned Courage points.

** The Free Hugs zombie is basically this. Completely harmless (no kidding, she won't even attack your bus), standing still with an adorably-dumb stare with the 'Free Hugs' sign still sticking to her chest, many a player have expressed their feelings of not wanting to kill her, despite doing so nets you ''50'' Rage points. No wonder she's the mascot of the first ''Dead Ahead'' game. This is reflected in the fact that, your Units and the enemy's Units don't register her as a target.
* SequelDifficultySpike: ''Dead Ahead'' was far from a cakewalk, but it was something that anyone can pick up and play. This is not the case for ''Zombie Warfare''. Aside from the complete GenreShift into a strategy tower defense, enemies are now much more varied and unpredictable than the first game's, with many, if not all of them, are fully capable of becoming a giant pain in the ass to deal with, given the chance. There are more complex mechanics to juggle along this, too, like the Courage and Rage points, Unit cooldowns and that you have to finish a mission within a certain amount of time, lest your bus gets overrun with a massive horde, forcing you to restart the level.

** Witches, not-so-affectionately called 'Bitches', very much lives up to their [[VideoGame/Left4Dead namesake]] by making the players groan in despair every time one of them enters the scene. Although they go down in one or two hits, they are extraordinarily fast and can shave off half of your bus's health within five seconds. If that's not enough, the moment they spot a Unit, they screamed and charges with ''triple'' the usual speed at the bus.

** Pooches. If you hate runners, then these things will be the bane of your existence. They usually come in groups, can reach your bus in a blink of an eye, and sprints around in a sporadic pattern so your Units will have trouble targeting them. Luckily, they only appear in Location 2 (and certain Location 1 challenges).

** Slobs. [[FatBastard Big, bloated sons-of-bitches]] dressed in hazmat suits that not are only durable, fireproof (meaning you can't even use your Red Barrels for easy damage) and acts as a meat shield for others behind them, but on-death, they blow up and poison everything is a wide radius, most likely the melee Units that you just send out to kill them. Unless you have Medic or a Medkit on hand to keep them alive, the Units coated with their blood will eventually die, thus wasting your hard-earned Courage points.

* GuideDangIt: The game contains a lot of mechanics that isn't explained in-game anywhere.
** The Firefighter and the Empty Barrel have a unique explosion immunity, but it is not mentioned at all.
** Pepper also have a hidden Fear resist, but like above, it isn't mentioned.
** How the Egg enemies work. They are immune to all bullets when they are inactive, and will become "active" once damaged by melee damage (either with a melee unit or dropping a barrel) When it's activated, it will lose it's immunity and start spawning Energy Spheres. Only the last part is ever explained in it's Zompedia page.

** The Big Blues. Extremely slow enemies with a whopping ''1200'' HP. ''And'' they can regenerate health. Did I mention they usually come in swarms? Oh, and they can infect your Units too.
** The Twins, ''holy shit''. Despite her being slow as molasses, she can easily back it up by being constantly on the move, packing a considerably high health of 500 HP, and possesses a double attack, with each doing ''80'' damage. That means, in the span of about a second, she can do up to ''160'' damage, basically two-shotting any Units you have up until that point.

** The Free Hugs zombie is basically this. Completely harmless (no kidding, she won't even attack your Units), standing still with an adorably-dumb stare with the 'Free Hugs' sign still sticking to her chest, many a player have expressed their feelings of not wanting to kill her, despite doing so nets you ''50'' Rage points. No wonder she's the mascot of the first ''Dead Ahead'' game.
* SequelDifficultySpike:

** How the Egg enemies work. They are immune to all bullets when they are inactive, and will become "active" once damaged by melee damage. (With a melee unit or dropping a barrel.)When it's activated, it will lose it's immunity and start spawning Energy Spheres. Only the last part is ever explained in it's Zompedia page.

** Witches, not-so-affectionately called 'Bitches', very much lives up to their [[VideoGame/Left4Dead namesake]] by making the players groan in despair every time one of them enters the scene. Although they go down in one or two hits, is extraordinarily fast and can shave off half of your bus's health within five seconds. If that's not enough, the moment they spot a Unit, they screamed and charges with ''triple'' the usual speed at the bus.

** The Big Blues. Extremely slow enemies with a whopping ''1200'' HP. ''And'' they can regenerate health. Did I mention they usually come in swarms? Oh, and they can infect your Units too.

* SequelDifficultySpike:

* GuideDangIt: The game contains a lot of mechanics that isn't explained ingame anywhere.
** The Firefighter have a unique explosion immunity,but it is not mentioned at all.
** How the Egg enemies work. They are immune to all bullets when they are "inactive",and will become "active" once damaged by melee damage. (With a melee unit or dropping a barrel.)When it's activated,it will lose it's immunity and start spawning Energy Spheres. Only the last part is ever explained in it's Zompedia page.