History VideoGame / RoadOfTheDead

''[[http://www.zombiegamesroom.com/road-of-the-dead Road of the Dead]]'' is an UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash game on Website/{{Newgrounds}} about John Creasman, a car mechanic who must escape a city currently suffering from a ZombieApocalypse. He must also charge through military checkpoints that save his progress. It is playable [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/550714 here]].

* GeneralFailure: The unnamed military commander seems to have no plan for fighting the zombies besides setting up fences and shooting them, ordering his troops to hold their positions and "maintain current strategy", even as it becomes clear that "current strategy" isn't working. He gets worse as he gets [[VillainousBreakdown increasingly frustrated]] by their failures to stop Creasman; at one point, he tries to order his men to fall back to a new position, only to be told that they just came from that location.

* MeaningfulName: The city ends up in roughly the same condition that the last American city to be visited by a General named Sherman ended up in too.

--->HQ: [[spoiler: [[Base to [[GodzillaThreshold Phantom Eagle,]][[NukeEm is the load ready and hot for a drop?]]]]

--->HQ: [[spoiler:[[Base to [[GodzillaThreshold Phantom Eagle,]][[NukeEm is the load ready and hot for a drop?]]]]

--->HQ: [[spoiler:[[Base to GodzillaThreshold Phantom Eagle,]][[NukeEm is the load ready and hot for a drop?]]]]

--->HQ: [[spoiler:[[Base to GodzillaThreshold Phantom Eagle,]] [[NukeEm is the load ready and hot for a drop?]]]]

--->HQ: [[spoiler: Base to [[GodzillaThreshold Phantom Eagle,]] [[NukeEm is the load ready and hot for a drop?]]

--->HQ: [[spoiler: Base to Phantom Eagle, [[NukeEm ls the load ready and hot for a drop?]]]]

* ActionDuo: The core mechanic of the sequel, with the player controlling one soldier with the keyboard and another with the mouse simultaneously. Cocheta Solomon's more emotion-driven and idealistic (consequently he's ''not'' in a good place right now), and clumsier to handle, as he has superior firepower but reload times that've birthed many a game over. Diane Rosewood is less volatile. They comment on ongoing events, which in practice means they yell at each other every ten seconds and it's a honestly intriguing bit of game design that this adds to the experience instead of getting old in a minute.

* BadassBoast: John in the first game. "I'm not stopping! You hear me?! [[DefiantToTheEnd I'M NOT STOPPING]]!"

* ActionDuo: The core mechanic of the sequel, with the player controlling one soldier with the keyboard and another with the mouse simultaneously. Cocheta Solomon's more emotion-driven and idealistic (consequently he's ''not'' in a good place right now), and clumsier to handle, as he has superior firepower but reload times that've birthed many a game over. Diane Rosewood is less volatile.

--->'''Creasman:''' ''"A freaking helicopter?!"''

* LuckBasedMission: Early in the second game, soldier zombies can be this. They have a random chance of ignoring a hit, and when you have low stats and only the weakest weapons a soldier happening to NoSell two or three shots in a row is death sentence. It quits being this fairly quickly as you level up.
* LudicrousGibs: Part of the artist Sickdeathfiend's style.
* MadeOfIron: The player characters can survive being shot a few times by M-16s and ''the main weapon of the AH-64 Apache'' - a ''30mm chaingun''.

* TheOperatorsMustBeCrazy: In 2nd game after General Sherman's certain announcement, Cocheta realizes the city is about to be nuked. The protagonists try to call for evac using the radio, but the overburdened female dispatch's only response is a nervous "Please hold." Twice.

* TooDumbToLive: The civilians. They keep running in front of your car or in your line of fire. Using your horn helps sometimes, but not always. (Anyhow, why they hear your horn, but not your machine gun, is beyond anyone's guess). They are even too stupid to enter a safehouse if they are right in front of it. You have to stop to get them in your car, and then in the safehouse. The civilian drivers are worst. You might think it is a good idea to stop if a military Humvee firing a roof mounted machine gun crosses your road, but they prefer to ram it.

* DroughtLevelOfDoom: The Highway in the sequel. All that's up there are ammo refills and weapons crates, and wrecked vehicles are choking up a ''lot'' of the road. For those whose engines take critical damage, there are water barrels scattered across the stage, but they're rare.

* PlotHole: After John is identified on the radio early on in the first game, it's established that the unnamed commander knows he is making his way towards the tunnel to exit the city and emphasizes that ''nobody'' is getting out, with even General Sherman trying to stop you after he takes command. Yet when John gets there,[[note]]which if the player did a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT-XOZKT-tA no-death run]] from start to finish, would take John around 25 to 30 minutes[[/note]] it's left completely unguarded with not even a single humvee in sight, allowing him (and presumably other civilians) to escape with only a few seconds left to spare.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: A certain checkpoint reports being swamped by undead moments before you arrive. When you get there, there's only a small smattering of undead, if even that, due to the random placement of enemies and obstacles.

%%* ActionGirl: Diane in the sequel.

* AllThereInTheManual: If you play the GaidenGame you'll know how the zombies came to be.
%%* ArcWords: "Maintain current strategy."

* DarkestHour: In the sequel, [[spoiler: Cocheta realises that the city is about to be nuked and starts desperately calling everyone he can to try and get a transport out, to no avail.]] The situation appears truly hopeless until [[spoiler: he manages to get through to General Sherman.]]

%%* DeathByTransceiver: Oh, rest assured there's ''plenty'' to go around in these games.
%%* {{Determinator}}: John, and Cocheta and Diane in the sequel.

* AFatherToHisMen: [[spoiler:In direct opposition to the unnamed military commander, General Sherman cares about his troops far more.]]
** [[spoiler:He orders his to fall back when positions become overrun whereas the previous commander is more 'stand your ground at all costs'. Even going so far as to as to tell his troops that rescue is on the way, even though there is no way for transports to get to them before the nuke hits. You can hear the emotion in his voice as he does so.]]
** [[spoiler: In the sequel, he puts his own life on the line to save Diane and Cocheta (even if Cocheta has to convince him first).]]

* NukeEm: [[spoiler:The military is forced to resort to this when the outbreak proves too much for them. Sadly it doesn't work at all.]]

* TheOperatorsMustBeCrazy: In 2nd game after General Sherman's certain announcement Cocheta realizes the city is about to be nuked. The protagonists try to call for evac using the radio but the overburdened female dispatch's only response is nervous "Please hold." Twice.

* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: Creasman has a brief one in the sequel's story.

** The sequel's timespan is much greater which means there are several discrepancies in the event order. General Sherman takes command quite early - long before Cocheta and Diane get on the higway where John happens to overtake them. Also in the final stand aboard Sherman's chopper he has none of the lines he had in the first game shortly before the city was nuked.
** In the post-credits scene in the sequel John has brown hair, where as in the first game he has black hair.

* ThreatBackfire: Played with one certain threat the Hellfire pilot yells at you in the first game. Considering John is is going to die anyway if his escape fails he doesn't care much if his vehicle will be intact after his demise:

** In the sequel, the player can pick up the civilians and drop them off at safe zones for bonus points.

* ActionDuo: The core mechanic of the sequel, with the player controlling one soldier with the keyboard and another with the mouse simultaneously. Cocheta Solomon's more emotion-driven and idealistic (consequently he's ''not'' in a good place right now), and clumsier to handle, as he has superior firepower but reload times that've birthed many a game over. Diane Rosewood is less volatile. They remark on significant events, which adds up to yelling at each other about every 10 seconds, and it's a honestly intriguing bit of game design that this adds to the atmosphere rather than being a complete PITA.

* DevelopersForesight: In the sequel, if the player reloads their weapon while a zombie is clinging to the hood, the character doing the reloading may swear or worriedly say things like "Come on, come on!".