Gatefire

Gatefire is a free browser zombie shooter that plays like the gate runs from phone game ads, from the first stage to the last. A squad of soldiers marches across a long red suspension bridge over the sea while hordes of the dead come the other way. Your soldiers run and fire on their own, and every bullet flies straight ahead. Empty stretches speed up smoothly, returning to normal before the next gate, supply or enemy reaches its action window. Most weapons hit the nearest target in their lane; Laser pierces up to three zombies and Plasma splashes nearby zombies. Gates and tire stacks block direct fire. You never aim - you choose where to stand, and where you stand is what you shoot. There is nothing to install and no account.

Every ten equal-rank soldiers merge into one unit of the next rank: ten Level 1 recruits become one Level 2, and ten Level 2 units become one Level 3. The total recruit power stays intact, and larger units carry stronger shots. There is no 80-recruit gameplay ceiling; the visible squad stays compact while later gates offer hundreds and thousands. Merges animate on the bridge, with rank markers on the units. The army belongs to the current stage; permanent upgrades remain between stages. Enemy leaders show their level and remaining health, with later waves gaining health and dealing losses measured against larger armies. Three kinds of things share the bridge. Gates are blue and red panels across the road with a big number on them; every bullet that hits a gate fills it, and each time it fills the number goes up by one, so a +3 you keep firing at becomes a +11, and a red -1 can be shot all the way up into a plus before you walk through it. Walking through a gate adds that number to your squad. Not every gate adds: a x2 or x3 gate multiplies the squad, which beats a plus once the squad is big; a red ÷2 gate halves it, though enough fire cracks it open into a +1; and a gold FIRE RATE gate adds no soldiers at all but makes the whole squad shoot faster - an alternative to growing the squad. Tire stacks stand in one lane with a health number and a gold prize spinning on top: shoot the stack down and the prize is yours - more soldiers, a better gun, an airstrike, a jeep or a tank that drives beside you and fires with you. Linked pairs are a choice: break one stack and the other reward leaves the road. Airstrikes wait until enemies enter range before launching. Run into an unbroken stack and it costs you soldiers. And then there are the zombies, which walk, run and crawl straight at your squad; every one that reaches you takes a soldier with it.

Because the bullets go straight, everything competes for the same guns. Standing in front of the blue gate makes it grow but leaves the tire stack whole; sliding over to the stack wins the prize but the gate stays small; and when the horde arrives, the squad has to face it. Most stages start with Rifle; tactical stages provide a starting weapon. The gun prize climbs through Rifle, SMG, Minigun, Laser and Plasma within a stage, with faster, short yellow SMG bursts, rapid Minigun fire, a purple Laser that pierces up to three zombies with falling damage, and green Plasma that splashes up to three nearby zombies. Each weapon has its own firing sound and tracer, and the squad changes uniform from blue to green army to black special forces as the guns get heavier. Merged units also take the selected combat role: Rocket splashes nearby enemies for 25% extra damage per target, Sniper ignores 80% of enemy armor, and Medic saves 35% of incoming losses up to 20% of current recruit power once every six seconds. From stage 6, role controls appear at the first merge, then collapse to the selected role; tap it to choose again; before that, merged units fight as Rockets. These roles activate at rank two and above; rookies keep their normal shots and the selected weapon keeps its own firing behavior. Between stages the coins from every kill buy permanent Power, Rate and Recruits upgrades, so the next stage starts with a stronger squad. Every cleared stage ends on a bonus road: a single column of ten boxes, marked x1.2 to x5, leading to a treasure chest, and the soldiers are the ammo. Each box shows how many soldiers it costs and each one costs more than the last; the whole squad fires into the box ahead wherever it stands, shrinks as it shoots, and every box it breaks bursts into coins. The last box it breaks multiplies the coins of the stage, so a squad that grew well on the road earns more, and the soldiers spent there do not count as lost. The last box is far tougher than the rest: only a squad with top upgrades on its best run breaks it and reaches the chest, whose lid blows open for x10.

The first ten stages have authored sequences, followed by seeded supply runs, gate gauntlets, crossfire and siege operations. Six tactical stages provide a starting weapon and a different route: Laser against a column, Plasma against a packed pocket, alternating fronts, red-gate repairs, an armored column and supply choices. After stage 30, POWER gates boost bullet damage, Weavers zigzag across the road and Chargers mark a lane before rushing. Wardens bring armored escorts; the Overlord at stage 72 alternates lane attacks and summons Chargers. Later chapters combine these routes with more gate and supply choices. Each new thing arrives alone first: the first x2, ÷ or fire-rate gate sits next to a plain plus, and a new zombie type gets a wave to itself before it starts mixing with the others. Walkers come first, then runners that sprint, the brute - a purple giant with its health written above its head that marches in front of the wave and takes four soldiers if it reaches you - armoured zombies behind riot shields that halve your bullet damage, bloaters that split into two crawlers when they die, and leapers that jump over your fire and can only be hit on the ground. A giant mutant with layered health over its head blocks the bridge at stages 9 and 15, a hive mother that keeps spawning zombies at 21, a titan that grows to match your firepower at 27, and a double-lane boss at 30. Some later fights send a second boss in behind the first. Bosses mark danger lanes before attacking: move the entire squad out of the marked area, then return to shoot the blue chest opening: a successful dodge rewards 2 times damage during the recovery window; otherwise the opening gives 1.5 times damage. The hive drops acid into alternating lanes, the titan strikes a wider lane, and the final boss marks two lanes at once. Later stages add rows of two red gates where you must shoot one into a plus, a collapsed stretch where only a single red gate is left, triple gate rows, night runs lit by lamps and tracer fire, and a stage where supplies drop onto the road from the air.

The first stages are a learning band, not a test: a player who never touches the screen still clears stage one, and the first two gates carry a short built-in tutorial. The second gate row of stage one is a x3, so the squad bursts past twenty and shows its first merge within the first minute, and stage three ends with a small Mini Mutant, a first taste of a boss fight long before the real one at stage 9. It arrives with its name across the screen and a red arena tint, hops between three lanes and has a glowing core on its chest: shots on the core deal more damage than shots on its body, so you follow it across the road. At half health it sweeps every lane but one gap, marked green, and a slam you fail to dodge costs about a sixth of your largest squad. After each of the first three stages the end card counts down from three and carries on by itself; any tap on the card stops the count, and it never runs on a defeat. When you can afford your first Power upgrade, the upgrade button pulses and the card says so. Losing the whole squad banks half the coins earned in that attempt; your existing savings stay intact, and you can retry the stage. The defeat card shows your squad power as a share of what the stage is built for, with a one-tap button for the cheapest upgrade toward it, and after two defeats on the same stage the next try starts once with a free reinforcement at the recommended power. Nothing is ever bought with real money, and your stage, coins and upgrades are stored on your own device. Stages 2, 4 and 5 each add one choice: a tire stack in front of one gate (break it or charge the gate), a big x2 with a red skull tag and a head count that hides a zombie pack sized to your doubled squad, and a rush of crates where you pick soldiers or the next gun. Everything works with one finger on a phone - drag on the road to steer - and on a desktop with A/D or the arrow keys and P to pause. Runs were tuned against a model of a realistic player: a first playthrough of the earlier campaign informed the opening difficulty, and the stages after the hand-made 72 were tuned to stay at least as hard as the late ones. Play time still needs real player testing.

There is no stage list: every clear opens the next stage, and the stages never run out. After the Overlord at stage 72 the march goes on with stage 73 and beyond, which bring back the late roads of stages 43 to 72 in a fresh order on every lap, with tougher waves and bosses, never the same road twice in a row, each under its own stage number. A returning player opens on a home screen with the stage sign and big Upgrades and Daily Op buttons, and the first swipe on the road closes it and starts the stage; the small house button beside Next or Try again on the end card, or the house button at the lower right during a run, brings that home screen back. The home sign and the victory card also name what is coming up next - a boss, a new region or a new unlock. Each clear records your best star result: one star for clearing, another for preserving at least 70% of your largest squad, and another for the stage mission. Both live rules sit in the lower-left corner during the run, and each star on the result sign is named under it. Missions include collecting supplies, defeating most of the horde and dodging a boss attack. Crossing a checkpoint ends the run. Gates show their charge progress and the selected gate previews the squad it will leave you with, so you can judge a plus against a multiplier as your numbers change. The upgrade shop pauses the run while you choose, and drag sensitivity can be adjusted in the menu.

Once stage 4 is cleared, a Daily Op opens next to the campaign: one extra mission per day, built at the difficulty of the stages you have already beaten but with a twist that changes every day. It might be a Night Siege lit only by lamps and tracers, an Airdrop Run with supply crates falling onto the bridge, a Shield Convoy of armored zombies with the Laser in your hands, Crossfire from both flanks, a Blast Alley with the Plasma gun, golden Power gates, a Supply Dash or a single-file Needle Route. The first clear each day pays a large coin bonus that grows with every day in a row you come back, the end card tells you which twist is coming tomorrow, and replays are always free.