Orbital Defense

Have you ever played a zombie defense flash game and wished it was a first person shooter? A game like this or this? In Orbital Defense, zombies come at you in waves, slowly growing stronger, and you can deplete your ammo if you don't prepare for it. Humans stick behind a short wall and use ranged weapons to take out the incoming zombies. At the beginning of the game, the humans choose a class from four selections, and are stuck with it until they die.

First Wave

At the start of a round, the zombies spawn on the upper side of Orbital's chasm. They can play with a couple of fusion coils until the game starts. A stack of crates grows for 45 seconds until it's long enough to make the jump. This time is marked by the appearance of a couple filters, and if you try to jump it before then, you'll have to suffer through a 30 second suicide respawn.

Zombie Bridge

Zombie Bridge at 45s

For the first wave, zombies have only normal shields, but after that they'll spawn with slowly draining overshields. Their shields will naturally drain to normal shield level, and won't regenerate at all if they're damaged - unless they hurt a human. Zombies have shield vampirism, allowing them to win extended firefights when both human and zombie have rapid-fire weapons. It'll never restore overshields, though.

First Wave

When humans spawn, they can move around the spawn area to find four different classes. In front of each teleporter, they'll see a weapon that the class uses, although they won't be able to pick it up. Once they go through a teleporter, a constantly respawning custom powerup will allow them to pick up weapons for a short amount of time. After they have the weapons they want, they should head through the other teleporter to reach the human base.

Choosing a Class

Assault Class

The assault class loadout is:
Assault Rifle
Shotgun
Trip Mine
2 Plasma Grenades
2 Firebombs
Machinegun Turret

And to use the turret, players should shoot the fusion coil. That'll break it off and allow you to pick it up.

Sniper Class

Snipers get:
Sniper Rifle
Battle Rifle
Deployable Cover
2 Plasma Grenades

Snipers can kill any zombie with two shots.

Rocket Class

Rocketeers get:
Rocket Launcher
SMG
Bubble Shield

Laser Class

Choosing the laser class will net you:
Flamethrower
Spartan Laser
Battle Rifle
Power Drainer
2 Frag Grenades
2 Spike Grenades

The laser class is great in early game, where it can torch anybody who comes close, but loses its power over time. Make sure not to drop your flamethrower before you want to - you won't be able to pick it back up.

Human Base

After grabbing weapons, humans should pop out of the teleporter and stock up on ammo at that little cache in the back. Although weapon pickup is disabled, you can still pick up the ammo that spawns over time. It only works for weapons with clips, though; once your turret or spartan laser is out of ammo, it's gone for good.

Post Up

Humans should set themselves up on or behind the short barrier. Players who leave its protection generally don't last long. And if the humans retreat too far, the zombies can actually move in to the humans' ammo cache and take the power weapons resting there. Zombies gain access to better and better weapons as time goes on, including long-range guns like the carbine and sentinel beam. Your only protection against such weaponry is that little barrier.

Last Man Standing

The last man standing gets a little bonus damage, but it's usually not enough to deal with the horde. More and more weapons spawn for the zombies, ranging from plasma pistols and spikers at the start to brute shots and needlers (definite power weapons) midgame to fuel rod guns and plasma cannons later.

Rocketed!

Orbital Defense makes for great fun with three or more people - I've played with three, four, and seven, most often three - and has a remarkable amount of variety. Players can score big points whether they're human or zombie (killing a zombie is worth 1 point, killing a human is worth 5 points), and the game captures the feeling of being overrun by zombies perfectly. "Oh s***, oh s***, there's too many for me to kill" is heard just about once every game, right at the end. You don't die because a zombie snuck up on you from behind, you die because you're not putting enough lead in zombies' heads.

Download Orbital Defense
Download Zombie Defense