The game includes several RPG Elements such as a level system to keep things interesting. Alone or with a buddy, you have ten (more on higher difficulties) levels of zombie killing action to get through if you want to make it to an helicopter evacuation on the other side of the city. Two new modes, called "The Solution" and "Last Stand", were later added for free to everyone who bought the game.
A sequel, Dead Pixels II, was originally slated for late 2019, but it has undergone delays.
No relation to the series of the same name (outside of being related to videogames).
Provides Examples Of:
- Action Girl: "The Solution" allows players to play as a female character. A few women can also be seen amongst the survivors in other modes of the game.
- A.K.A.-47: Eagle, Revolver, Bolt-Action Rifle, Pistol, etc. these are the kinds of names for the generic weapon types.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: If either player is killed in a co-op game they will rise as another zombie for the remaining player to kill.
- Annoying Arrows: Massively averted with the crossbow weapon, which usually deals between 130-150 damage per hit! (About 80-90% of the zmbies have less than 100 HP and only a few elite types have more than 200.) Basically, it'll take out most zombies in one shot and the
Demonic Spider zombies in a few shots. - Big Head Mode: One of the early unlockables is a big head mode for the player character.
- Bloody Murder: Late enough in the game the player will encounter zombies who can spit highly damaging blood at them.
- Body Horror: Some of the more mutated zombies.
- Boxed Crook: "The Solution" sends in crooks with a promise of a pardon.
- Bragging Rights Reward: A more recent update added in "awards" for the player unlock.
- Button Mashing: The melee attack button, which makes one attack when the button is pressed. If pressed at the maximum rate, you can take care of horde of zombies that approach, taking minimal damage yourself.
- Chainsaw Good: Chainsaws are extremely rare in story mode, but few things can carve through a horde like they can.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Ammo will share the same color text as the weapon it goes with. For example, the different types of shotguns all have orange text along with the shotgun shells themselves. Assault rifle ammo is light blue like many of the guns it goes with. This is really useful as it helps prevent the player from buying the wrong type of ammo when they go to a store.
- Combat Tentacles: One of the elite female zombies has these... and she can also spit highly damaging slime at you!
- Damage-Sponge Boss: All of them!
- Deliberately Monochrome: The player can earn an unlockable that makes the whole game black and white.
- Downer Ending: At the end of "The Solution" the player manages to escape and receives their pardon, but the zombies begin spreading rapidly until the whole earth has been taken over. Welcome to the planet of the dead.
- Easy-Mode Mockery: Fairly minor, but the award icon for beating the game on the lowest difficulty is a picture of the player holding a brightly colored water pistol in place of one of the normal guns.
- Elite Mook: The further the player progresses, the more special zombies begin to appear.
- Empathy Doll Shot: An item called "Cuddly Toy" can be found and looted from the areas the player visits.
- Eye Patch Of Power: Worn by one of the survivors at the beginning of "Last Stand."
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Weapons with non-zero penetration can hit multiple zombies at once.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Hurley and Nate, the two survivors you play as during "Last Stand" who distracted the zombies so that all of their friends could get away.
- Kill It with Fire: The survivors have things like molotovs and incendiary grenades while one of the zombie types actually is on fire, though it is pretty uncommon.
- This is actually the name of one of the new awards players can earn. (Set 150 zombies on fire.)
- Last Stand: Made by 2 heroic survivors during the mode of the same name.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Try using a chainsaw or grenade on a big horde of zombies. Even a weak handgun can cause total face explosion in just a few hits.
- Made of Iron: Even the weaker zombies can often take more than one blast from your shotgun to kill. Most elite zombies can take a dozen or more.
- Molotov Cocktail: One of the throwable grenade weapons.
- Post-Processing Video Effects: Has a film grain and invokes a sort of Grindhouse feel. This can be turned off in the options if the player so wishes.
- Ranged Emergency Weapon: Available in Last Stand, which is reasonable at the start but is weaker than a fully upgraded melee attack.
- Sequel Hook: "The Solution" ends with one. See Downer Ending above.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Not only does the character in the main game start with a shotgun, they come in a wide variety of types such as the Chambers Shotgun, Sawed-Off Shotgun, and Quad-Barreled Shotgun.
- Shout-Out:
- A few to Left 4 Dead.
- In "The Solution" the player saves using ink ribbons.
- One of the shotguns a player can get is called "Boomstick."
- Let's not forget that the names of several characters from Resident Evil show up on shops or as the names of guns throughout the game.
- The names are like brands in Borderlands 1&2, for instance the Redfield weapons (which are most likely named after Chris and not Claire) have High Damage and are generally Shotguns or Eagles, likewise the Chambers weapons are often low damage but high penetration.
- Another set of weapons bear the name of Kaysen as well as a store in the mall called FK Coffee whose symbol is an upside down Peace Mark
- What is clearly a gun store owned by a man named Andy can be see in the backround of some levels. Also the game has a pretty large mall area.
- Another store that can be seen in the background is called Stubb's Businessware.
- In the Mall there is also a store name C. Veronica and another named Max Books.
- One of the prisoners in The Solution is R. Kirkman, as in The Walking Dead
- One of the shops has a trader inside who is a man in a cowboy hat willing to pay a large sum of money for a Twinkie.
- Timed Mission: The last few levels of "The Solution" end up as this.
- 20 Minutes into the Past: Is set in the early 1980's.
- Your Head Asplode: Each zombie dies from a gory headshot that removes most of their skull.
- Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Massively inverted. The Flamethrower just might be the best weapon in the game.
- Zombie Apocalypse: This should be obvious.
- Zombie Gait: Played straight at first, then averted when the fast zombies show up. Even worse, the ones that can get across the screen in about a second usually also have really high HP or deal a lot of damage... or both!
- Zombie Infectee: One of the boss enemies is the "Infected Survivor", who is implied to be a human slowly turning into a full zombie. (This would explain why he attacks the player.)
