Zombies, Run! 2 coming to iOS and Android next month

I’m a huge fan of Zombies, Run! The original immersive app, which basically turns a real-world run into a journey through the zombie apocalypse, and helped me get fit and lose weight when it first came out last year.

I’ve been really looking forward to Zombies, Run! 2 since it was announced, and the great news is it’s nearly here. The updated version, which comes as a free upgrade for current players of the game, will arrive on both iOS and Android on 16 April.

If you haven’t heard about Zombies, Run!, it’s a bit like a radio play that takes place through your headphones as you run, with the story unfolding in between tracks from your playlist.

You play the role of Runner 5, and are sent out on missions to achieve certain goals and collect supplies along the way. Occasionally you’ll encounter zombie hordes and will need to run faster in order to outpace them. There are 23 main missions to play through, and when you’ve exhausted those, there are supply runs to try, a radio mode to entertain you, and even 5K, 10K and 20K race missions. Runs can be uploaded and shared online through the ZombieLink service.

The new version of the app comes with an additional seven free missions (four main ones and three side-quests) and then there will be an additional three missions released every week. These episodic missions won’t be free -- you’ll either need to buy them separately, or pick up a season pass -- but if you don’t want to do that, other free missions will appear from time to time.

Another change in the new version is the addition of a Base Builder. In the first Zombies, Run! items you collected on your runs -- like an axe, tinned food, bottled water or a sports bar -- were used to build up Able Township, where Runner 5 lives. You just drop the items on the relevant building, antibiotics onto the hospital for example, and eventually that building will be upgraded. The population of your base also grows.

In Zombies, Run! 2 you have much greater control over what the base looks like. You can add new buildings, upgrade or demolish existing ones and so on. The more you run, the more supplies you collect, and the more you can do in the game.

Zombies, Run! was originally crowdfunded through Kickstarter and generally retails for around $8 (it’s currently on sale at $3.99). It’s available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone, but the sequel won’t be making its way on to Microsoft’s mobile OS, because the developers say they can’t justify the time or money necessary to bring it to the platform.