Disruptor Beam has a new free-to-play survival game coming up for release soon. It is titled The Walking Dead: March to War, and it's available for pre-registration on the Google Play Store as we speak. Luckily I've gotten my hands on the APK and have tested it out in order to show everyone what can be expected when it is officially released.

I would like to briefly mention that The Walking Dead: March to War is currently a beta title still in testing. Due to its unavailability in my region, I have sideloaded the APK (version 0.4.0) to test the gameplay. There may be a few more adjustments to the title before it officially launches, so please take that into consideration when reading this hands-on.

From the outset, it's clear that Disruptor Beam has spent a lot of time on the graphical design of The Walking Dead: March to War. Everything about the appearance of this game exudes a gritty post-apocalyptic style that is very polished and not often found in this type of free-to-play titles. From the detailed hand-drawn characters to the desolated looking 3D backgrounds, visually The Walking Dead: March to War is superb.

The thing is, when it comes to gameplay, The Walking Dead: March to War is mostly a Clash of Clans clone where you tirelessly build up your base, recruit new AI team members, and fight with rival players on the world map. In all actuality, it is a lot more similar to Vega Conflict, a game that bills itself as a sci-fi themed real-time strategy MMO. So if you are familiar with either of those titles, you should have a good idea of what to expect here.

Mainly you will be tasked with building up your base and its team by searching for materials and survivors. These survivors can have a lot of different roles, ranging from gatherers to fighters. You will send these survivors out to the map to grab materials and even fight with other players. Now at first, you may think the gameplay seems pretty convoluted, with how many different actions you can perform, but luckily it holds your hand the entire time, telling you what you need to do next, where to go, and what to upgrade. For me, this takes all of the fun out of the gameplay. You never have to rely on your wits, since you can just look at the screen and have it tell you each and every move you need to make before too many wait timers pile up and you have to put down the phone until they are done.

Now, as you would expect from a free-to-play title, there are plenty of wait timers tied to each of your actions, so there is always a cost to virtually every decision you make. Do you want to go and scavenge, then be ready to wait a while for that action to complete? Do you want to upgrade a building in your base, well you guessed it, you are going to have to wait for that to complete too. This type of gameplay is of course nothing new to Android, though it is at least wrapped up in a nice appearance and story.

Speaking of story, it is worth pointing out that it isn't all that bad. If you are a fan of the show or comic, then you should get a kick out of running into your favorite characters in The Walking Dead: March to War and following along with how they tie into the overarching story. This should supply players a bit of fan service for their troubles of slogging through the wait timer filled gameplay.

And of course, what is a wait timer filled game without in-app purchases to go along with them. As you could guess The Walking Dead: March to War contains IAPs that range all the way up to $99.99 per item. These IAPs are used for purchasing bullets, the primary in-game currency. You will use these bullets for just about everything, and especially for speeding up those wait timers. Frankly, I feel we should all thank the devs for supplying us with a way to pay real money to remove the false roadblocks they purposefully placed in the title. Just kidding, it is an atrocious mechanic that is not only lazy, but super exploitive.

So yeah, if you are looking for a new Clash of Clans clone with a Walking Dead skin, then you can pre-register for The Walking Dead: March to War by clicking on the Play Store widget below. By pre-registering, you will be notified upon its release, which in all honesty is pretty helpful. While the art and story are presented in a pleasant fashion, the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. If you enjoy casual games that you play passively every few hours or days, then sure The Walking Dead: March to War will be a fine experience. But if you are looking for actual gameplay that rewards you for skill over what's in your wallet, then yeah, you will want to skip this one when it does release.