Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler’s Green

Like the film from which it took its inspiration, Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler’s Green is a fairly pedestrian affair. The setup is basic: a redneck looks out the window of his remote farmhouse and sees some stranger lurching about in his sideyard. Turns out it’s one of them zombies that have been comin’ in out of the city and munching down on the simple folk. And so faster than you can say, “They’re comin’ to get us, Barbara!” this first-person-shooter has you grabbing your .22 long rifle from the attic and aiming for the head as the corn-pone drawlin’ character makes his way through the cornfields, over to a neighbor’s farm and on into the city toward a skyscraper called Fiddler’s Green. While there aren’t that many surprises, the game still maintains a sustained atmosphere of dread. The graphics are so-so (think about five-years-ago average), with the zombies flopping down like rag dolls when whacked right. Not exactly challenging, either. Still, for only about 20 bucks (for the PC version), sort of unpleasant—in a good way. Rated M for all the blood and guts and sprayin’ brain pans.