The Zombie Genre

[WarriorSoldier]

Dude I can and will keep on playing zombie games until I can no longer game. Then I will just look up zombie gameplay. I love Day Z, a mod, becoming a game. So epic and lets just hope to see more variety of zombie games in the near and far future.

 

[SpaceTiger]

I agree, we need less "bloodshed all the time, combos and more gore" games and more stuff like The Walking Dead video game, except open world with choices and just using normal items you will find in the real world and real world locations. Dead Rising was fun, first one though, the second got boring really fast. Plus, it was like far cry with zombies. Not too bad but, give us something realistic, something with tons of drama and twists. Oh and a main character that's like Rick.

Exactly. There should be a strategic element to zombie games, build defenses, salvage supplies/do supplies runs, explore the next town over, find other survivor clusters, different concentration of zombies in different areas, roaming hordes that have to be controlled or else they get out of control--all of that is pretty zombie survival game 101 in addition to what BBGold mentioned.

...needs to be more diversity in the zombie game genre and not leaning heavily towards kill all zombies/shoot all zombies because after awhile it just becomes "What's the point of doing zombies if it's just this again?" from a creative standpoint. Financially zombies will always sell, but they're like the fart/cheap shock jokes of creative direction in games.

 

[Ghost_of_Crash]

Zombie games could do with more...meat to them. They're just skinnings of FPS and other action games with more aggressive enemies...it's more sizzle than steak in most of them.

I believe a scale has been established with Walking Dead/State of Decay at the survival end and Dead Rising/Dead Island at the swarmgasm end.

This should be an official scale just for zombie games, really.

 

[RobDaCool]

I believe Zombie games, and movies, have been done to death. No pun intended

 

[SpaceTiger]

They really have. I remember zombie movies that made the box office and got advertising were few and far between--and usually George Romero-style. After 28 Days Later and the Resident Evil games people went apesh** with zombie stuff.

 

[Tomba]

I think with PS4 and X1 the zombie genre will get better, actually. It won't be dominated by one dimensional zombie killing games and there will be an actual balance of sorts. Would you say the zombie subgenre...infected other gaming genres?

 

[orz]

The Walking Dead series were amazing, more story-telling and decision making than actual game-play though. I believe there are 2 different versions out though using The Walking Dead name though so be careful and get the one that everyone is talking about!

 

[Linkzelda41]

To answer OP’s question, one of my steadfast responses would be the Resident Evil series. It’s clear the series went from actually being scary and more of using cognitive skills to get through rather than the shoot and run style it is currently, but there’s so many things that made it distinct.

Of course, Resident Evil 4 HD for the PS3 wouldn’t really be a zombie game for any elitist seeing how “Las Plagas” wouldn’t be part of some major virus outbreak, but that game really scared the hell out of me. Especially the Regenerators, they’re like the innate psychopathically adorable teddy bears you don’t want to hug, or else they’ll welcome you with spikes impaled through your body.

As for other Resident evil games, Code Veronica, and Resident Evil 0 for the Gamecube makes having less zombies and more of a scare factor done decently compared to those gargantuan swarms where you just hope you have enough ammo to survive. And “The Last of Us” kind of had potential with being considered a full-fledged zombie game, though it was more of what would happen in an embryonic stage before a massive outbreak would occur.

Though with the ending of the game (won’t spoil it for anyone), if it’s presentable for something like the PS Now system being implemented in the future, maybe a sequel where the setting is post-apocalyptic can really make the game shine (if it ever becomes multi-platform). But for me, the Resident Evil series is just something I automatically think when I hear the word zombies.

Not because of hardcore favoritism, but how most of the time the gamer is pitted against overwhelming circumstances and has a bit more realism to it. Resident Evil 4 was the epitome of “secret agent man,” and how they changed it completely with 5 and 6 seemed like Capcom was descending into a nasty downfall.

So I guess how people conceptualize the zombie genre is because of several reasons they’re attached to:

- Post-apocalyptic scenarios where existence would precede over essence. Massive swarms and the whole “last of humanity” motifs and trends that may satisfy elitists as the epitome of survival
- Pre-apocalyptic scenarios where it’s likely to have some kind of nuclear attack to end the spread or failing to cause reason #1
- Or it’s slowly becoming an epidemic, but only in smaller remote regions where characters conveniently stop it from spreading out.

But other than that, I feel most games, especially Indie games would have to have a better narrative to make themselves distinguishable to concepts you see all the time.

 

[Gamer_Fries]

I bought DayZ Standalone and while I have spent a good deal of time playing it since I bought it I think it is kind of lacking in the whole zombie thing seeing as I maybe see one or two every couple of cities. Also the only other good zombie games I can think of are the Walking Dead and Dead Rising, even though you do not like that one, so I guess you should just get Walking Dead and the second season.

 

[Tomba]

Yeah, get Walking Dead if you have a PS3 aaaand State of Decay if you're rocking 360 and Steam.

 

[Ghost_of_Crash]

I really hope they go further with State of Decay and make a sequel. I know they were intending an MMO on the series and were waiting to be green lit last time I checked.

 

[Stuck_X_Button]

The studio behind State of Decay said they'd only be doing Xbox One games, so there will be more State of Decay.

 

[SpaceTiger]

Kind of still hoping there will at least be something for Steam from Undead Labs. I love State of Decay and I'm sure UL will deliver more zombie survival goodness, but their stuff alone isn't really enough to move me towards getting an Xbox One.

 

[Valentino]

I love zombies and I'll never get tired of the genre, though I don't have any recommendations that people haven't already mentioned. Resident Evil Remake, 2, 3 and 4, Walking Dead by Telltale, L4D and RDR: Undead Nightmare are up there as some of my favourite zombie games. I couldn't get into Dead Island the first time I played it but the second go around I had a lot of fun. I was never much of a fan of Dead Rising either.

 

[NuclearDragon]

I need to give Walking Dead a try. I was never a huge fan of Resident Evil. Love Dead Rising and Dead Island. So much dead.

 

[SpaceTiger]

I also have to give Walking Dead a try. I've been hearing a lot of great things about it.

 

[Ghost_of_Crash]

You two should really get to Walking Dead, it's a great game.

 

[xToastedBagelsx]

Walking dead is awesome even though it's like a interactive drama lol the story is great