Zombie Infection is a zombie-themed Third-Person Shooter released by Gameloft; in a manner similar to most of Gameloft's output, the game is released for mobile phones and loosely based on mainstream games, notably the Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead franchises.
Brazil, 2014 - Auricorp, the nation's number one resource extractor, rules over most of the country's industries and infrastructure. Auricorp's CEO, Rotwang, have his own private mercenary army, the "Freedom Fighters", as enforcers, and when the locals begins a riot over Auricorp's working conditions the Freedom Fighters are sent to maintain order.
In the middle of all the riots, former US marine Damien Sharpe is searching for his younger brother, Ewan, who's supposedly one of Auricorp's employees. Dropped into the middle of the city via helicopter, Sharpe finds out that somehow, it's full of... zombies?
A sequel titled Zombie Infection 2 is released in 2010, but it's played from a top-down perspective instead.
You're luoco! Now here's some tropes!
- Abandoned Mine: The first area where Alex is playable, she accidentally fell down a shaft and into a long-abandoned mine, filled with zombified miners. And needs to find an exit while shooting zombies left and right.
- Ambiguous Situation: Whether Sharpe's brother, Ewan, died or not, isn't made clear in the final cutscene. The game ends with Sharpe and Alex going on a new mission to find Ewan's whereabouts as the credits roll.Sharpe: For all I know, Blackhorn is a wretched liar. Ewan might be alive. I Need to find out!
- An Arm and a Leg: Shooting zombies in their shoulders or kneecaps will remove their appendages. There's even a delimbing bonus for severing body parts.
- Bat Out of Hell: Sharpe and Alex both have areas where they're attacked by zombified bats (Ipanema bat, maybe?). They're the only Airborne Mooks in the game, though as the bats are quite small and weak they die in a single shot using any weapon.
- Big "NO!": Damien Sharpe lets out one of these after General Blackhorn informs him of his brother, Ewan Sharpe's death. Complete with punching the floor in frustration.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: After regaining consciousness in an Auricorp test facility, Sharpe knocks out a scientist and borrows the guy's hand to bypass an electronically-locked door.
- Boss Banter: Blackhorn, the game's true villain and Final Boss, will periodically taunt Sharpe during the penultimate boss fight. Impressive considering he's in One-Winged Angel form, yet has enough sentience in him.Blackhorn: Embrace your inferiority!... Feel the wrath of a deity!
- Bottomless Magazines: Firearms collected by Sharpe and Alex have limited ammunition; however there are areas where they can access mounted miniguns and rain bullets on enemies like no tomorrow.
- Container Maze: The docks level is filled with containers, that Sharpe needs to navigate across while facing zombies. Sometimes containers will pop open and dispense extra undead.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Rotwang, the CEO and founder of Auricorp appears to be this, having developed a viral strain called the SV3A, came up with an antigen, unleashed it into the slums and have Sharpe's brother Ewan killed because He Knows Too Much. Turns out it was all a lie - it was Rotwang's subordinate and head of security, General Blackhorn, who covets the antigen, stole the SV3A and released it before holding Rotwang hostage.
- Crash in Through the Ceiling: Subverted in an early stage. Sharpe tries to infiltrate an adjacent house by jumping towards the opened skylight, but missed and made a hole through the roof instead. Luckily the room is small and he doesn't take damage.Sharpe: Ehh, close enough.
- Crate Expectations: Wooden crates are scattered all over the place, everywhere in the game. They can be destroyed by having Sharpe or Alex walk over and stomp them open, revealing health, ammo, new weapons, and various pickups.
- Dead Weight: The first boss is a visibly overweight zombie chef who lumbers at Sharpe, trying to attack him with cleavers. Said zombie tanks plenty of shots before going down, although because of its size it's a laughably slow Warm-Up Boss.
- Disney Villain Death: Blackhorn's first confrontation with Sharpe ends with Sharpe punching the former through a glass wall, into a shaft with a drop several hundred meters down. But it turns out Blackhorn had injected samples of the SV3A virus into himself, turning him into a monstrous One-Winged Angel monster.
- Elite Zombie: The zombified Freedom Fighters mercenaries who carries firearms. Despite their Zombie Gait, they still retain their accuracy from their human past.
- Endless Game: Complete the game at least once will unlock Survival Mode. Players can take control of Sharpe or Alex and battle an endless horde of zombies until they die.
- Forklift Fu: Near the docks' exit, a zombified forklift operator will trying ramming Sharpe with his vehicle. There are oil drums behind said forklift Sharpe needs to shoot at to blow up the operator.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Most of the game have Sharpe shooting zombies and occasional human mooks, until the stage in the docks where he suddenly faces the Sea Mutant boss - a Cephalopod-like kaiju as large as the harbor it's fought in.
- A God Am I: Blackhorn says this almost word-for-word when revealing the Freedom Fighters to be responsible for the apocalypse.Blackhorn: You know what else? While at it, we found a morphogen that can make whole nations devour themselves overnight! We shall rise as the new gods!
- Good All Along: Rotwang, the CEO of Auricorp and allegedly the man behind the virus outbreak, turns out to be a benevolent scientist developing a vaccine. Him abducting Sharpe is to develop an antibody to make Sharpe immune - the supposed resistance unit, the "Freedom Fighters", are actually a terrorist syndicate intending to steal Rotwang's SV3A sample and the antidote for their own purposes.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The coin-like "tokens" Sharpe and Alex collects on their respective levels. There's six each level, and collecting all of them unlocks new bonuses.
- Hanging by the Fingers: When fighting the Sea Mutant in the docks, suddenly the floor gives way and collapses to the side, nearly throwing Sharpe to the side. Sharpe managed to cling on the dock's edge and must dodge falling containers while dangling from his fingers, else he falls into the Sea Mutant's maw and gets Eaten Alive.
- Hazmat Suit: The final stages in Auricorp's labs have zombies wearing hazmat suits as enemies. Seems like their outfit does zilch in a full-scale viral outbreak.
- Hidden Villain: Blackhorn, the Freedom Fighters' leader and Rotwang's head of security, turns out to be the one behind the SV3A virus' theft, having found monetary potential with the antigen, as well as the real villain responsible for killing Sharpe's brother and releasing the virus into the slums.
- Laser Hallway: There's one in Auricorp's underground base, though the lasers don't burn - they're instead attached to sentry guns, touching the laser gets Sharpe shredded by automatic gunfire. He's supposed to infiltrate a control room, move the lasers, and trick the guns into destroying each other until there's a clear path to cross.
- Mission Control: In the first few stages before Alex becomes playable, she serves as Sharpe's navigator while observing him via GPS, feeding him details and information through headphones.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Befitting a Resident Evil ripoff, this game has a giant crocodile boss too, one large enough to chomp Sharpe and Alex in a single bite. Later in a sewer stage there are two degraded, regular crocodile enemies.
- One-Winged Angel: A trait borrowed from Resident Evil; Sharpe made it to Auricorp's exit in the last stage, only for Blackhorn to suddenly show up in a monstrous form, having injected himself with the SV3A to fight Sharpe one last time.
- Pistol-Whipping: If Sharpe or Alex are low on ammunition, they can use their firearms as improvised clubs against zombies. There's also a special animation for when they're grabbed by zombies, where they break free and use whatever weapons they're carrying to smack enemies in the heads.
- Raising the Steaks: There are zombie bats, zombie crocodiles, Rottweiler zombies (introduced in a cutscene mauling a civilain dead) and a single lion. However, 80% of the zombie enemies are human.
- Shovel Strike: Alex's stage sees her fighting zombified miners, many of them carrying shovels which they'll use to whack her with.
- Synthetic Plague: The zombie virus' origin turns out to be manufactured in Auricorp's lab, and stolen by the Freedom Fighters led by General Blackhorn - supposedly the security enforcers of the company, later revealed to be a terrorist syndicate. After obtaining the viral antidote, Blackhorn then orders the virus' release, leading to the games' main events.
- Unique Enemy: There's only one zombie lion the entire game, faced by Sharpe when he falls into the zoo's lion enclosure.
- Waking Up Elsewhere: After taking down the crab-zombies boss trio, Sharpe unfortunately inhales part of the venomous gasses excreted by the zombies and passes out. He then awakes in an underground lab in Auricorp.
- Wham Line: When Sharpe confronts Rotwang, and the latter reveals the truth behind the outbreak. Followed by Blackhorn and his men arriving (wham bolded for reference).Sharpe: Save it pops! The Freedom Fighters told me everything!
Rotwang: Oh... did they tell you, they are responsible for the outbreak?
Sharpe: You're lying!
Rotwang: Alas, I am not! Ten years ago, a certain government approached me about an ultimate warrior project, called "The Immortal". Soon, we found it to be extremely unstable and dangerous. We tried to get the project shut down, but... it was passed on to the Freedom Fighters. You saw the outcome...
[suddenly, Blackhorn and his mooks makes an entrance]
Blackhorn: Stick with show business, old man. That's a cute story... but you left out the best part. You couldn't figure out how to use the SV3A. In a single year we accomplished more than you ever did in a decade!
Sharpe: So it's true?
Blackhorn: Don't worry kid, you brought us here, you'll be rewarded. - Would Harm a Senior: Shortly after Blackhorn and the Freedom Fighters are revealed to be terrorists, when Rotwang tries taking a stand, Blackhorn socks Rotwang - an elderly man in his 90s with snow-white hair - across the face, with enough force to kill him.
- "X" Marks the Hero: It's not too obvious during gameplay, but in cutscenes (especially close-ups) the hero Damien Sharpe has an X-shaped scar on his left cheek.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The entire game revolves around one that occurred in the Brazilian outskirts, right in the middle of a riot. Sharpe and Alex are dropped into the urban area for different reasons, realize there's undead everywhere, and must fight to escape.
