Corpse Craft Review

Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to raise the undead? Find out at the world famous Weardd Academy! This turn of the century flash game offers a darkly fun twist on puzzle games that fans of the real time strategy genre will love. Embark on an adventure to find out who burned the school down as you send your undead army to do battle with your classmates.

Corpse Craft takes the real time strategy genre, simplifies it, blends it with basic puzzling, and creates something wonderfully unique that is accessible to gamers of any skill level. All of the roadblocks to the RTS world have been removed for the average gamer. Instead of a massive map you’ll partake in a small battle that takes up no more than the window you’re playing in. Instead of traditional resource collecting, you’ll play a gem-matching game on the lower portion of the screen to earn what you’ll need to assemble your army. There’s no base-building, no tech tree evolution, no upgrading units – things have been kept dramatically simple. Just raise your army and click some gems. This is as bare-bones and casual as the RTS genre can get, and in the case of Corpse Craft it works beautifully.

Rather than matching gems manually, you’ll be clicking on gems that are already matched. The more like-colored squares that are connected when you click, the higher the pay off. This pay off comes in different colored points that you’ll spend on raising your undead army. One type of soldier may need 45 red points and 15 yellow to enter the battlefield, while another may need 10 green and 40 white.

Just as the scenery changes and they introduce some cool new character classes, the game comes to an abrupt stop. Corpse Craft, it turns out, is only half a game. To finish the story you’ll need to pony up some real world cash on a completely separate website. The whole situation kind of left a bad taste in our mouths. It’s one thing to openly admit from the start that your flash game is really just a demo or a trial version, but to get us so into the game and then drop the money grab on us felt like playing dirty pool.

Up until the money grab moment, Corpse Craft offered up a delightfully fresh spin on the real time strategy genre, complete with a playfully macabre Tim Burton style vibe. The imagery and themes aren’t over the top, but like any darker fantasy setting it’s probably not appropriate for everyone. If you’re looking for a simple flash game that can eat up a small chunk of your afternoon, this is definitely worth a once through. Just be prepared to want more than the free version has to offer.

The good

The bad

80 out of 100

Jim Squires

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Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.