There weren’t a whole ton of indie mobile games at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. It’s just the way the trends are going, friends. But we found a few, and of the ones we saw I think this one might have the best chance of really hitting it off with our readers. It’s called Immune Simulator Type Z, and it’s a very cool roguelite strategy game that is coming to Steam later this year and mobile a little while after. I went hands-on with it, and I’ve got a video and some old-fashioned text to hit you with.
The basic story set-up of Immune Simulator Type Z isn’t going to blow anyone away with its creativity. There’s been some kind of zombie apocalypse, and you’re a survivor. You have to make your way through each stage of the game by completing certain goals. Stages take the form of a board filled with various cards including your own player character. You have twenty-five energy points and ten hit points to start with. The energy determines how many turns you can take before you collapse. The hit points determine how much damage you can take before you’re dead. So, you know, be careful of those.
Each turn you can move in one of the cardinal directions, interacting with whatever card you’ve moved into. Sometimes that’s a monster, which will pit your power against theirs and leave one of you dead. Maybe it’s a health kit, giving you more hit points. Perhaps a battery, giving you more energy. Weapons, armor, other survivors, and more can appear on the board. There are also random cards that will give you some kind of surprise. Some of those are good, some are bad. One that I grabbed activated a rush of zombies, making them all aggressively move towards me on each turn. Another one poisoned me. Another time I was made temporarily invincible. A nice bit of random spice.
As mentioned, the goals for each stage will vary. Sometimes you’re tasked with defeating a set number of monsters of a certain level. Other times you’re gathering supplies, or rescuing survivors. Once you’ve completed whatever the stage asks, a flag will appear on the field. If you can grab that flag, you’ve finished the stage and can move on to the next one. And that is pretty much that.
You really have to make every move count. There are times where you’re flush with hit points and armor and are feeling pretty good about your odds of survival, but one wrong move can turn things completely on their head surprisingly quickly. It’s especially difficult when you have objectives that require you to pick up objects next to other objects, as you have to plan your moves carefully to set up those situations. There’s a lot to chew on here.
I had a lot of fun in my brief time with Immune Simulator Type Z at the Tokyo Game Show. The premise and title make you think it’s going to be the same old thing, but playing it reveals a rather enjoyable strategy game. I’m looking forward to whenever it releases on mobile. From what the developers said, it’s going to hit Steam first and should be coming before the end of the year. They weren’t terribly clear on how long it would be until it came to mobile after that, but they assured me that it will be. Something to look forward to.
