Towards the beginning of May, we learned that Playforge was hard at work on Zombie Farm 2, a sequel to the company's original Zombie Farm, that started as nothing more than a major game update but eventually became so substantial as to require the release of an entirely new app. Now that the game is ready to launch on your iPhone or iPad, we've had a chance to go hands-on with the final product and have found that while the gameplay remains perhaps a bit too similar to really call Zombie Farm 2 a true sequel, there are still plenty of changes and upgrades to try out.
First things first, dedicated farmers from Zombie Farm won't have to lose their progress to enjoy the upgrades here, as you'll be able to import your progress over from the first game, albeit with the possibility of some confusion. That is, if you never created an account in the first Zombie Farm (or simply never created a password), you'll need to re-download the app and do so before being able to import your progress into Zombie Farm 2. Once you've completed that process, you'll find your Brain (premium currency) total has been multiplied by 10 in an effort to regain balance in this new game's economy.
Another major change is the complete removal of crop wither and the introduction of a "freshness" meter. Crops will stay fresh for up to 3x the original growth time of a crop, and will give you the full harvesting profits if you come back to them within that time period (for example, a crop that takes four hours to grow will stay fresh for 12 hours). If you happen to forget to harvest your crops or simply go a few days without playing the game, you won't come back to spoiled crops and wasted money, you'll just receive half of the crop's coin value when you do eventually harvest the items. Furthermore, zombie hunger has been scrapped and instead "replaced" by a Focus feature, which sees each individual zombie being given a focus rating that determines how focused they'll be on attacking during invasions, as opposed to being distracted. The removal of hunger also means that your frequency of invasions relies solely on the in-game timer, rather than waiting for zombies to become hungry as in the original Zombie Farm.
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Other changes include the ability to plant mutated zombies outright (Tomato or Carrot Zombies, for instance) and then use Zombie Pots to make mutations that still aren't available in the store (say, a Tomato Carrot Zombie with a tomato head and a carrot sticking out of its eye), the removal of the Life Force system and Lifeless Zombies (making decorations purely decorative), and the conversion of Insta-Hunger Boosts to Concentration Boosts (this makes sense, since Zombies can no longer become hungry).
For all of these changes (which include technical differences like a much more streamlined menu system), the level cap of 40 remains the same and the game's loading times are still a bit long when compared to other mobile social games. Putting it simply, the changes here will probably be appreciated by Zombie Farm's loyal fan base, as they do improve upon the original game's formula. However, if you didn't like the original game, these changes are unlikely to make you a fan.
Click here to download Zombie Farm 2 on iPhone or iPad --->
Are you excited to get your hands on these upgrades and improvements in Zombie Farm 2? Have you already tried this new and improved version of the game? Sound off in the comments!