Capitol Defender

Content warning: graphic violence against zombies, with blood. You can reduce or turn off blood in Settings.

It is seven in the evening on the West Front of the Capitol, the sun has just set beyond the Monument, and the dead are coming up the Mall. You are a police officer with a service pistol and a line of barricades at the foot of the grand stairs. The elected officials are sheltering inside; your post is out here. Hold the line through twenty-five waves until the sun comes up and help arrives.

Every kill earns money, with a bonus for clean headshots. Between waves the supply tent is open: repair or replace the barricades, and buy ammunition, armor, medical kits, grenades, floodlights and, as the night goes on, ten weapons, from a revolver and a pump shotgun to a bolt-action rifle with a telescopic sight and a heavy machine gun on a tripod. Counter-snipers can take the Capitol's roof behind you for the rest of the night. The dead were tourists, joggers, office workers and park staff: walkers are slow, runners are not, brutes tear through fencing, crawlers are hard to see and bloaters burst. Some still wear helmets and body armor.

How to play

• Your post is the terrace, the steps and the plaza behind the line. You can turn all the way round and walk anywhere inside it: step up to the barricades to look over them at the dead tearing at them, back up the steps when they break through, and turn to face anything that grabs at you from the side, from behind or at your feet.
• With a mouse and keyboard, the mouse turns you and looks up and down; W, A, S and D walk, and Shift with W runs. Fire with the left button; hold it for automatic fire. Hold the right button to raise the sights, and fire over them with the left button or Space. R reloads, G throws a grenade where you look, 1 to 9, 0 and - or the wheel change weapons, B moves a fire selector and Shift holds your breath behind a scope. The arrow keys look too. Every key can be changed in Settings, Controls.
• On a phone or tablet (a phone turned sideways), put your left thumb down anywhere on the left half to walk, and push it past the stick's rim to run. Drag on the right half to look. Your right thumb has Fire, which also turns you as you slide it, Aim and Reload; Weapon (hold it for the list of guns), Grenade and the fire selector sit along the top edge. The buttons can be moved and resized in Settings, Controls.
• With a gamepad, the left stick walks (click it to run) and the right stick looks. RT fires, LT raises the sights, the left face button reloads and RB throws a grenade.
• The heavy machine gun stays on its tripod on the terrace: walk to it to take its grips, and walk away to let go.
• Aim for the head. Headshots kill fastest and pay a bonus. Legs slow the dead down. Rifle rounds can pass through one body into the next.
• Watch the barricades. The dead that reach the line tear at it, and reach over or through it for you if you stand within their arm's length. When a section falls they come over it and up the steps toward you, wherever you are.
• Pause with P, Esc or the pause button. Full screen, blood, music and sound levels are in the menus and Settings.