General

Name: Dead Trigger
Developer: MADFINGER Games
Genre: 1st Person Shooter
Price: Free Android/Free iOS
Rating: 12+
File Size: ~300MB depending on device

Dead Trigger has had an interesting history. The game originated as a paid game, selling at $6.99 on both Android and iOS. Because of massive (and I mean MASSIVE) piracy on the Android side of things, the developers decided to convert the game to a free-to-play (F2P) game. Many F2P games totally suck: you download what looks like an amazing game, but you have to fork over loads of money on your parent's credit card to have any true fun in it. Dead Trigger is, in my opinion, a F2P game done right.

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Gameplay

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland crawling with zombies. Your job is to progress through the storyline and various missions to rescue other survivors and gather supplies. The storyline in this game kinda sucks, but come on, it's an FPS. The storyline doesn't really matter to me.

There are 3 main mission types. The first type is a kill-all-the-fricken-zombies type. You have a set goal of zombie kills that you need to achieve to complete the mission. The second type is to protect something from zombies. The protected items tend to be your van or a door. You must protect these items for a preset amount of time to complete the mission. The last type of missions is the biggest pain in the ass: you must run around and pick up boxes of supplies an return to your collection point and repeat. There is no zombie kill goal or time limit; your goal is to move swiftly and avoid zombies. I enjoy having multiple mission types rather than just a single kill-everything-in-sight mission type. The variety adds to the experience of the game, but they also get kind of predictable and repetitive.

While you progress through the game, you also gain XP points, which are used to level up. Advancing your level gives you free premium credits an unlocks more weapons and items for purchase. This is where the F2P element shines. The premium credits awarded for each level-up is pretty generous and the game never forces you to fork over real money for in-game money. Even if you really feel you must, a $5 in-app purchase gives you plenty of credits and will last a while. Dead Trigger does a great job of making this game F2P, but still making it fun.

Because this is a shooter game, an incredibly important aspect is guns. The gun assortment in this game is amazing. You can buy anything from a WWII era machine gun to a Colt M4 to an AK-47. In addition to guns, there's also a bunch of fun but untraditional weapons you can buy. There's a crossbow with insane accuracy and damage, a chainsaw for your zombie carnage, an "Alien Gun" which instantly vaporizes your target, and my personal favorite: The Brain-mill. This thing belongs in a class of its own; it is the love child of a law mower and a blender that grinds up zombies and spits them out in little pieces. Overall, weapon selection is amazing, and there will probably be even more amazing weapons added with each update.

Controls on this game are kinda hit-or-miss. I play this game on both my tablet and my iPod. On a 7" tablet, the controls are great: the placement is perfect, they are accurate and easy to use, an you feel like you have enough room to move your fingers around. On my iPod, it's a different story. The controls are just too small for my hands to use and all of the virtual buttons almost seem to overlap each other. Controls are not the greatest they could be on a screen smaller than 4", but that should not discourage you from trying out this game. If you're on a tablet, controls should be just fine.

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Graphics
Disclaimer: I am judging the graphics based on the performance of my N7 tablet. Your experience may vary.

Graphics are pretty awesome in this game. Zombies have fairly realistic texturing and look. Shadows render smoothly and quickly, resulting in a silky smooth graphics experience. Each zombie model is programmed with many different animations, so depending on where it gets shot, it an fly backwards, fall forwards, or lose its legs and continue crawling after you. My only complaint in the graphics area is that blood when using melee weapons does not seem realistic at all. The "blood" is pretty much just a disappointing red splotch on the screen feather than a shower of red droplets. I expect this to be fixed ion a future update. Overall, graphics are amazing, smooth as silk, and almos completely flawless.

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Overall

Score: 9.0/10, loosing points for smartphone controls.
Recommendation: I really think you should give this game a shot, especially if zombie shooter is your kid of game. Because it's free, just download it and try it, you've got nothing to lose.