Dead on Sight Review (iPhone, iPad)

Hard rock music, a sniper rifle and a ton of zombies to take down: this is the setting of Dead on Sight for iOS, a zombie shooting sniping game for those who like to keep the dead back in their graves. Or somewhere near.

It all starts in the town of Resurrection (ooh, cheesy!) where the dead start coming back to life and locals… well, locals don’t seem to care too much as they continue to roam around the town, keep talking with their neighbors and completely ignore the zombie threat. It’s up for you, brave hero, to send bullets through the brains of the dead in a sniping only game where not all things make sense, but some of them are fun, at least.

I can’t help it but notice that there are indeed a ton of things that make no sense in Dead on Sight: why on earth wouldn’t the people hide as soon as the zombie alarm is called? Why on earth wouldn’t the ton of police officers roaming the streets pull out their guns and start shooting dead guys down again? Why on earth are one second slow just to be running like cheetahs seconds later? And where on earth did our hero find that sniper with infinite ammo?

There probably are more things to criticize regarding story and setting in Dead on Sight, but I won’t do it. Probably the best way to enjoy this game is to ignore the lacking script and focus on what it does best: delivering zombie shooting action.

Using touch controls, you have to scour the city streets and shoot the zombies down: they spawn randomly and they are hungry. Pinching helps you zoom in or out, tapping the bullet button shoots and this is what you do over and over again, freaked by the constant alarm sounds of zombies climbing ladders (yes, this is one of the things they are capable of doing) or getting ready to break into a house.

It’s just you and your eagle eyes here, which makes the game incredibly challenging. There are just a few relatively short missions in the game, but the game has no save option, so if you fail at any given point, you have to start all over again. It is frustrating and enraging at first, but totally makes sense when you start learning zombie patterns, you can give them more bullets straight to their brains and you realize that the campaign is, actually, extremely short.

But there is some degree of fun in Dead on Sight, especially once you get used to how things work and can handle that sniper rifle quick and precise. One of the best things about the game is its visual presentation and the blowing limbs part that really made me chuckle. Because you won’t always hit a zombie right between their eyes and you might hit a leg or an arm, it doesn’t mean you won’t have fun: all limbs blow away and if you take down a zombie’s legs for example, they will start crawling on the ground, still searching for human flesh. A really nice touch here and probably one of the best parts of the game.

There are a bunch of minigames that you can unlock by completing achievements, but I really didn’t have the skill to unlock them all, nor the patience to replay the chapters over and over again hunting for achievements. There was an endless zombie mode that sounded fun, so those who really love the game should definitely give it a try. I was only able to unlock a tin can shooting minigame that wasn’t that hot.

All in all, Dead on Sight could be considered a fun game for the right crowd. Personally, I wasn’t blown away by it – I enjoyed more the style of the comic book story and the visual more, but there is definitely some potential here. With some extra meat on the bone and some smarter AI, we could have a really nice game here!

iTunes link: Dead on Sight
Final rating: 6.1