Related Sections: Lists
The Ten Best Zombie Games of All Time
Videogamers love zombies. Zombies are ideal for guilt-free slaughter. You can kill a hundred of these guys, popping their skulls like bloated ticks, and no one will mind. After all, it's not like you're killing anyone, since they're already dead. Plus, zombies aren't the least bit cute, so they rarely get any sympathy. You mom or wife can come in the room where you're killing a thousand zombies and she'll go, "That's nice, dear".
In fact, zombies are a great way to subvert the German government. When the notoriously violent Carmageddon was released in 1997, the German ratings board was uncomfortable with a game about moving down pedestrians with Death Race 2000-style cars. They refused to certify it, meaning it couldn't be published in the country. So the developers just colored the blood green and said, "Ta-da! Look, they're zombies!" The ratings board fell for it and Germans were able to play Carmageddon.
And what better time than Halloween eve for a look back at zombies in videogaming?
After the jump are the ten best zombie games of all time.
10. Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Although this game was a wide ranging monster mash-up, zombies got lead billing in this Lucasarts game from 15 years ago. The title said it all, although the tense was a little off. Ideally, you would protect your neighbors so that the title never came to pass.
9. Alone in the Dark
This was the very first survival horror game. You were locked in a house with moaning shuffling zombies and not nearly enough bullets to take them all out. Although the scale was a bit off, it was a classic stab at what made zombies scary: there are just too many of them!
8. Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
This was the first games to take the side of the zombies by letting you play as a zombie. I didn't play it. In fact, I'm pretty sure no one did. But it's still a great concept, which goes a long way in the zombie genre.
7. Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
In this game, New York City is overrun by the parasitic alien being responsible for Spider-Man's black suit and the villain Venom. The citizen are turned into gibbering psychotic masses. SHIELD moves in with helicopters to patrol the streets and APCs to set up mobile rescue stations. If it weren't for Spider-Man giving the proceedings a comic book angle, this would be the definitive open-world zombie city simulator.
6. Half-Life
Are people with headcrabs latched onto their skulls technically zombies? I say 'yes', since they walk just zombies. In fact, the moan of the headcrab afflicted is an iconic zombie sound effect for videogamers. And as the old saying goes, "If it walks like a zombie, and if it talks like a zombie..." But to seal the deal, just stroll through Ravenholme in Half-Life 2. That's the videogame version of a zombie horror movie.
5. Halo
Okay, now it gets a little trickier. What about people afflicted by the Flood? They can still use guns. Are they zombies? The correct answer is, "Of course". What was cool about Halo zombies was how the game started out pitting you against aliens. Pretty straightforward. And then when you least expect it, zombies! Because that's how zombies get you. You let your guard down and there they are.
4. Resident Evil
In 1996's Resident Evil, zombies were ready for their close up. You remember the famous scene in which you approached someone hunched over a dead body, only to have that person turn around and reveal himself as a zombie eating a dead body. From then on, zombies were on the scene in all their gory brain-eating glory.
3. Saints Row 2
You probably didn't expect this one. But if you go to any TV in Stillwater, you can boot up Zombie Uprising, which is one of the best contemporary zombie slaughterfests you can play. Make careful use of the available weapons to stay alive as long as you can. Keep your fellow survivors alive, if only to distract the zombie swarms from coming after you.
2. They Hunger
This wasn't technically its own game, but it was one of the best portrayals of zombies in all of videogaming. Neil Manke's mods for Half-Life 1 were drenched in zombie-loving atmosphere, from the slow build up and dread to the inevitable moment you'd die because you picked the wrong time to reload. Zombies have a way of being able to take advantage of that exact moment.
1. Dead Rising
This remains the definitive zombie game, presenting them as ravenous inexorable hordes instead of shuffling clusters. It got everything right about who zombies are (Zombies are everyone! Zombies are you and me, but dead!), how they operate (enormous packs of hungry mindless beasts), how they should be killed (every which way!), and where they live (in a mall, duh). No game understands zombies better than Dead Rising.
By Cubit at 9:46 AM ON 10/30/08
I wish they had released Dead Rising on the PC. Think of the Mods!
By salwon at 10:01 AM ON 10/30/08
Dead Rising needs no mods. If there's a better feeling than running over zombies with a lawnmower, then I don't want to know about it.
By Greg at 11:05 AM ON 10/30/08
I'm a bit disappointed with this post. A real geek would have taken the time to fully analyze what exactly makes a zombie, preferably on a Friday night to give him something to do. So if you would have taken this time then you would have realized that several of the games on the list are in fact, not zombie games.
Zombies are dead folk that happen to still walk or crawl around, and in general, have personal hygiene issues. Stupid people who mill around because of a lack of something better to do may be zombie-like, but are not technically real zombies. Nor are people who act stupid because of religious or drug fervor. So cultists (was that the door?) and PCP'ers (not PVP'ers) again are zombie-like, but not technically zombies, although many hippies are hygienically challenged.
That brings us to the other issue of one life form taking over another life form. Any geek worth his salt, who goes without saying has watched most (ok all) episodes of Star Trek (and its variants), knows that this is a symbiont and NOT a zombie. Typically it's an alien who has infected the host and has taken over. There is a minor similarity in that the host may for all intents and purposes be dead given that the symbiote can generally not be removed with the host remaining alive, but this does not make the host a zombie, although like the hippie hygiene does decline rapidly.
As to the actual list, how could you not list BOTH Resident Evil 1 AND Resident Evil 4? You have another Capcom game, Dead Rising, as number one which I haven’t played because I don’t do Xbox, but given the developer, I’ll easily take your word for it. So it can’t be guilt of listing the same company too many times, Capcom deserves it. Maybe it’s franchise guilt. But can you honestly say that RE1 or RE4 represent the other? They’re really starkly different games that bring zombies to the geek in unique ways. I could forgive just giving Capcom the number one position and giving all their zombie variations honorable mention, but to not even give a nod to RE4 in the RE1 mention? For shame.
And though I have yet to play it, I noticed or failed to notice any Dead Space, though I don’t know if these are technically zombies or symbionts yet. Should I take the lack of mention to mean you’re taking too many breaks and haven’t played it yet or don’t think it makes the list?
By Rob at 1:21 PM ON 10/30/08
How can you say nobody played Stubbs the Zombie? I'm offended. That's the sole reason I bought an XBOX and it was worth every penny.
By Anonymous at 3:03 PM ON 10/30/08
That's Cool
By Bellicose at 4:14 PM ON 10/30/08
Deadrising truly is the best zombie game. You get to use almost everything in it as a weapon. I loved it when I found a bee and just smash on the ground and watch all the zombies' heads explode and step on the larva that come out.
By Chrissey at 4:29 PM ON 10/30/08
Ok, first off... lets just say that the list is kinda on the crappy side.
And most importantly shouldn't we be considering what exactly it takes to qualify you as a zombie?
I feel that with this question in mind we should have had a better list from the get go...
By Arioch at 8:20 PM ON 10/30/08
But Greg, the zombies in RE4 are no zombies per your definition, but symbiontic cultists (of sorts). So you're arguing against yourself, really.
By Tom Chick at 8:40 PM ON 10/30/08
Greg, can I just say your post was exactly the kind of post every blogger like me hopes for when we write these lists? Also, can you come over to my house and hang out with me so we can play Monster Madness co-op and talk about the finer points of zombies? What are you doing this weekend?
You rock!
By eddie at 9:24 PM ON 10/30/08
Stubbs the zombie rebel with out a pulse was indeed a fantastic game. (just finished it last week) I was laughing my ass off all the way through! My fav was when you'd rip the arm off a cop. They'd scream "Argh that was my favorite arm"
By Persona7 at 12:51 AM ON 10/31/08
Very Great choice, this past week I have been having Resident Evil Marathons on my wii.
I still do not get why we do not have a huge open ended sandbox Dead Rising type game in a city or something...Seriously.
By NickSRH420 at 10:08 AM ON 10/31/08
I cant believe Saints Row 2 made the list and Doom 3 didnt. Who made this list and what were you smoking?
By Greg at 1:05 PM ON 10/31/08
@Arioch, LA LA LA LA LA LA LA, I can't hear a word you are saying.
@Tom, I was going to spend some time thinking about the difference between goblins and hobgoblins, but turning into a werewolf in Monster Madness sounds good. I'll be over at eight.
By antlong at 4:36 PM ON 10/31/08
actually stubbs the zombie did great numbers and was released on 3+ platforms.
dick.
By antlong at 4:41 PM ON 10/31/08
upon further review, this whole post sucks. absolute trash. a headcrab doesnt make someone a zombie, wtf kind of moron would think that.
By Doenan at 2:16 AM ON 11/01/08
I believe this list was released a little to hastily, considering that Valve's title "Left 4 Dead" has yet to be released. But considering all the hype and money poured into it's marketing campaign, it's bound to have at least made this list, had it been released.
By doomduck at 5:40 PM ON 11/02/08
Hey, What about Doom and all it's renditions and lets not forget Quake! Where would most of these other games be, if not for ID.
By Razgriz2099 at 12:32 AM ON 11/03/08
Wait for Left 4 Dead to come out Nov. 18th, it will own all zombie games to date. It has up to 4 player online co-op and versus, however I forget what the player limit is there. The game is made by the same geniuses that created Half-Life and Half-Life 2.
By land of the dead road to fiddlers green at 7:17 PM ON 11/26/08
i want dat game
By lowguy at 6:34 PM ON 01/04/09
what about left4dead
By lowguy at 6:36 PM ON 01/04/09
it very fun.
By TheGabe at 1:55 PM ON 01/05/09
Half Life does not contain zombies, nor does halo. From the way you described that spiderman game nor does it.
And although I hate to say it Dead Rising could have been so much better. The gameplay admittedly is amazing, but the save system is utterly broken.
Well written, but terrible list.
By ille at 1:00 AM ON 01/07/09
hi there,
you forgot to mention the most amazing zombie mod for half-life: zombie panic:source!!!
this game is pure fun and free
By games at 3:00 PM ON 01/16/09
The best zombie game I've ever played is Dead Rising made by the guys from Capcom. As you may already know Capcom is usually known for the Resident evil series and being the God of zombie games ever. In Dead Rising you play as Frank West, a freelance journalist that got a tip that something big is going on in a small town called Willamette in Colorado. When you finally arrive at the town, you find out the millitary has quarantined the entire area, so no one will ever get in or out. Fortuneatly you are in a helicopter and manage to get in. You soon find out that something is turning people into zombies, and you decide to take cover in a mall for 72 hours until your helicopter comes back to pick you up. While in the mall, you have to survive from the thousands and yet thousands of zombies that are flooding the entire town, while trying to find out what happend and helping survivors. If you like playing games that involves zombies and much much blood Dead Rising is an absolute must! Trust me...you won't regret playing it!
By tru3pr0d1gy at 10:27 PM ON 01/21/09
half these games have no zombies ur a fucking tard kill urself now please
By DUDE at 9:57 AM ON 02/19/09
you need to add Call of Duty World at War, Nazi zombies is a really great thing i would take off Saints row 2. this list is way wrong in many ways too the only thing i agree with is dead rising.
By 3 words at 1:08 PM ON 03/04/09
Hunter the reckoning
To the retard above I think you'll find 7 have zombies in which is more than half
By nimmyrx at 11:17 PM ON 03/07/09
resident evil is the best zombie game ever, and halo aint a zombie game
nimmyrx:
resident evil is the best zombie game ever, and halo aint a zombie game...More »