Zombie Survival Hold the Line

About this game

The screen is dark and gridded, like an empty parking bay at night, and a lone survivor stands in the middle of it. Zombies shamble in from all four edges, and the survivor turns to face them and starts shooting on his own. Your only job is to keep him moving, which sounds simple until the horde arrives all at once.

The auto-aim does the aiming for you, so the whole game is movement and positioning. You are deciding which gap to slip through, which ammo crate to detour for, and when to retreat towards the middle rather than get pinned against an edge.

What you actually do

Drag anywhere on the screen and a virtual stick appears under your thumb; push it in a direction and the survivor walks that way. On a keyboard, WASD or the arrow keys do the same job. While a zombie is close enough, the survivor automatically faces and fires at the nearest one, so you never touch a fire button.

Zombies drain your health simply by touching you, and your health bar sits at the top of the screen. Clear a whole wave and you get a short breather before the next one spawns, bigger than the last. Later waves add fast green runners and heavy, high-health brutes. Defeated zombies sometimes drop ammo, which switches you to a shotgun with limited shells, or health, which patches you back up by a quarter.

Tips that make you better

• Keep circling. Standing still lets the horde surround you from every side at once.
• Stay clear of the screen edges, since being cornered leaves you nowhere to retreat.
• Detour for ammo and health drops, because the shotgun clears a crowd fast and health buys you another wave.
• Thin out the fast runners first, since they close the distance quickest.
• When the screen fills up, retreat to a gap and let your auto-fire clear a path.

Who it is for

Players who want an action game where decision-making matters more than pinpoint aim, and anyone who likes the tension of a horde closing in without the stress of manual targeting. Each run is short, which makes one more attempt easy to justify, and the rising wave count gives every session a clear peak to beat.

It also suits players who want tension without the pressure of aiming under fire.

Playing it on a phone

The virtual stick appears wherever you place your thumb, so there is no fixed control to hunt for, and nothing needs to be installed. It pauses when you leave the tab, and it runs comfortably on a mid-range Android without straining the battery.

A short run is easy to fit between other things, which makes the game surprisingly hard to put down.