iOS App of the Week: Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville

Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville is basically a remake of the original free-to-play zombie survival game from developer Sarah Northway. Being a remake means that Gangs of Deadsville is similar to the original but a lot bigger and badder. The iOS version features better graphics and more features, such as the ability to hunt for food, and being able assign survivors to defend individual buildings instead having them just guard the entire town. Fans of the original will definitely want to check out this version as it offers a deeper and more challenging experience. Gangs of Deadsville is more like Rebuild v.3.0 instead of a sequel.

For those who have never played Rebuild it is a resource management title where the goal of the game is to rebuild society while trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. As the head of your town you must keep your group of survivors alive by feeding them, keeping them happy and building enough defenses to survive random waves of zombie attacks. You also must expand your town by scouting locations, clearing zombies out or buildings then reclaiming those buildings by expanding your town's borders. You can collect food by reclaiming farms, scavenging or hunting but all of these tasks are dangerous since they require sending members of your group out into the zombie infested city.

Each survivor has special skills such as fighting, leadership, scavenging, building and research. You can increase the skill level of your survivors by equipping them with tools and weapons, giving them a companion such as pets, and by training if you can find a school house to reclaim and add to your town. Survivors can also die in many ways, and some will even run away when they are not happy. Survivors with strong leadership skills can recruit other survivors living outside of your town to join your group, but you need to have enough buildings to house any new recruits that you acquire.

Zombies are not your only problem in Rebuild, the game also features rival NPC gangs that can be friendly or hostile, and you will have to worry about disease and other random problems thrown your way. There are a variety of ways to win the game, you can research a cure for "Zombieism" or even create a cult that embraces the zombie disease. The original had around seven endings, which you can read about here but it will spoil Rebuild 3 since most of them are the same.

There is a lot to juggle in Rebuild 3 but that's what makes the game so much fun. The little extra details are what set it apart from other resource management titles. For example, one way to keep your group happy is to reclaim a bar and assign one person to be the town bartender, but doing so means you'll lose some manpower which is important for defending buildings and doing other important tasks like scavenging. There are also little fun extras like deciding if you want to gamble supplies on casino game and so on.

Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadville is available on the App Store for $4.99. It supports all devices running iOS 7.0 or later.