If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that at one point, I was doing some running. You might also remember that I stopped talking about it. A lot of that has to do with the fact that running bores the absolute dogs out of me. I can’t keep doing it every day or every other day without some kind of constant impetus and my own good health is not enough of one.
So I got excited when I heard about Zombies, Run!. It’s an app for the iPod and the iPhone (scheduled for Android for a Spring release date). It’s the zombiepocalypse and you’re Runner 5. You go out and scavenge supplies for the tiny community of Abel. The difference between this and any other zombie game is that you actually run to get the supplies. As you run, your device uses GPS or the accelerometer to keep track of how much you’ve run. You pick up supplies, dodge zombies and try and complete the mission before you’re eaten.
I started playing it today using my iPod and I had a few issues.
Since an iPod obviously can’t link up to a satellite, I have to use the accelerometer, but it looks like either the software or the accelerometer is way too sensitive. I’d be standing still and notice that I was continuing to run in game. I ignored that and just kept going. Since at this point, it’s not tracking stats yet, it doesn’t really bother me if it’s not completely accurate.
The second issue is the storyline. The first couple bits of plot don’t really feature a lot of running, so I was running while my character was in a helicopter. It was only after I’d gone a few blocks that the radio operator told me to get as far away from the zombies as I could. This is a bit of nitpick, but it kind of took me out of the story a bit. I wish I’d known so I could just have sat on my ass and made helicopter noises for the first part.
I’m going to run through the first two missions before I write up a full review of Zombies, Run!, but I’m tentatively enjoying it. It got me to run a mile for the first time in almost a year, so that’s good.
More later.
Dylan Charles
dylancharles.net 
How are the zombie chases with the ipod? I read somewhere that the experience is much different without the GPS functionality. I’m wondering if it’s worth it for me to get it now, or if I should wait until May when I can use my Android with the GPS.
There aren’t any zombie chases at the moment for accelerometer mode. When I turned it on, there’s a message stating that this is an experimental feature and that the zombie chases require GPS mode to work. You might be better off waiting for the android version, unless they come out with an update before then that allows zombie chases during accelerometer mode.