[3] The game was made available on Steam on May 17, 2007[4] and was later removed, but it became available for purchase again in March 2021 following an update which fixed several major compatibility and stability issues.
[6] Set in the retro-futuristic version of 1959, the game follows Stubbs who rises from his grave as a zombie and decides to get his revenge by eating brains of the inhabitants of the Pennsylvania city of Punchbowl.
Crowds of zombies serve as a great shield when approaching enemies armed with ranged weapons and are needed for sowing the necessary chaos and confusion into a difficult melee.
As Stubbs continues his path of destruction, he comes across Otis, the paranoid, trigger-happy leader of a local redneck militia called "The Quaker State Irregulars" who believes the Zombie outbreak is part of a Communist infiltration mission.
Stubbs follows Otis back to his farm where he gives a rousing speech (consisting of only the word "Brains" in various cadences) to his fellow Zombies in a parody of the war film Patton.
Enraged by seeing his mother murdered and learning the truth of his conception, Andrew attacks Stubbs from behind a forcefield, partially destroying Punchbowl in the process.
As Punchbowl is destroyed by a nuclear strike in an effort to contain the outbreak, Stubbs and Maggie sail off in a small rowboat and "live" happily ever after.
The company's founder, Alex Seropian had previously co-founded and worked with Bungie and used the production as an experiment to determine how he would run an independent studio.
This decision brought difficulties when the hiring process wasn't properly overseen, leaving the team with a shortage of producers and lack of cohesion.
[13][12] Due to this, an excessive amount of time was spent determining which contractors would require training to use the engine, as well as how long they would receive instruction.
[14] Humor became a key aspect during the developmental stage, with Seropian claiming that the team wanted to go "beyond just amusing dialogue in a cut-scene".
[14] Character dialogue and game mechanics were designed so that "funny results" are directly based on the player's action, preventing them from becoming repetitive or stale.
[22][26] The game's environments were described as "nicely varied", noting that "places like Punchbowl, the city of the future, are extremely well designed and appropriately cool looking.
IGN emphasized the "futile cries from civilians and armed foes" and "squishy, scalp-munching sound effects" as elements contributing to a higher quality than the game's visuals.
[26] Detroit Free Press gave the Xbox version a score of all four stars, saying, "The chaos that ensues is as lighthearted as a blood-soaked zombiefest can be.
"[29] CiN Weekly gave the same version a score of 78% and said, "Sure, it's not the most action-packed or finely tuned game, but there are enough clever attacks and humorous elements in Pulse to keep you playing through to see what other goodies - or appendages - they'll toss your way.
"[34] However, The Sydney Morning Herald gave the game three-and-a-half stars out of five and called it "a brief ride and the action can become repetitive, but the sharp humour keeps you smiling.