Atom Zombie Smasher has been in my Steam account about as long as I’ve had one. I held out for as long as I could, but eventually games on CD started demanding I install Steam to run them. So, I caved and soon after got Portal along with a handful of digital-only indie games like Audiosurf, Uplink, and Blendo’s zombie tower-defense game.
It was basically all over for my free time from then on.
Which is why it’s wild, more than a decade later, to be reminded of Atom Zombie Smasher’s existence by it being patched. This 15th anniversary update isn’t going to transform the top-down rescue sim—where the zombies are tiny pink squares—into The Last of Us 3, but it does add a horde of little changes.
For starters, where before you could slow time down to 10%, now you can drop it all the way down to 1%. That’s so slow you’re basically making Atom Zombie Smasher turn-based, a change I approve of in any tactics game.
Other updates include the ability to deselect units with the Escape key and the removal of seams around cutscene vignette art. When you’re on the Behind the Scenes screen, the scroll limit now works properly to prevent scrolling too far and ending up viewing the game as if seen from a passing aeroplane.
Additionally, a Mac-specific startup bug has been fixed, outdated social buttons have been removed, and a secret reset key—one that was never supposed to ship—has been disabled. If Atom Zombie Smasher does crash on you now, a form will pop up to help you address the problem.
This anniversary update is a nice reminder that even older indie games can still receive support and improvements, keeping the gameplay experience fresh for longtime fans and new players alike.
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/atom-zombie-smasher-a-15-year-old-game-just-got-updated-out-of-the-blue-on-steam/
