By Jeann Wong
With the upcoming release of Dead Rising 2, it’s time revisit why we love zombie games so much. Zombie games are common in survival horror and shooters, but have also infected other genres such as beat-em-ups (Zombie Revenge), tower defense (Plants vs Zombies), and driving games (Zombie Drivers). Those brain dead monsters aren’t exactly cuddly, but why are they so appealing? Listed below are reasons why zombie games are so awesome.
Zombies are almost always the same in each game. They are slow, dumb, and eat human flesh. Since they are infected, they have pale skin, bloody face, ragged clothes and rolled out eyes. If you play a zombie game, you already know what to expect from these creatures...until you stumble across special zombies.
Because normal zombies are slow and brainless, it’s scary when you encounter a special zombie. These zombies are smarter and faster, not to mention incredibly fearsome. Like the pouncing hunter from Left 4 Dead 2, to the powerful Nemesis from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, its always interesting dealing with the different zombie mutations in game.
Zombie outbreaks usually happen in the world we are living in. Zombies can be found anywhere there are people. The setting in Dead Rising is a shopping centre, the front lawn in Plants vs Zombies, and the airport, hospital and forest in Left 4 Dead. Some of these are some of the worst places to be when the zombies attack, making things scarier for the player.
The first thing that comes to mind when there is no escape are the weapons you can use against zombies. Zombie games usually feature a host of melee weapons: chainsaws, baseball bats, swords, crowbars... you name it. Dead Rising 1 & 2 is wholly focused on this as every single object in the game can be used to fight off zombies.
Zombie games are perfect for survival horror because there are usually so many of them and so little of you. Most of the human population has either been eaten or infected, and they usually make fun targets for a whole range of things.
Games often give you the chance to attack and kill zombies in many different ways. There’s the obvious shooting and decapitating, but you can also set them on fire, run them over, and blow them up. Although zombies don’t have a brain, they still bleed and become corpses.
Some zombie games are so ridiculous that they actually turn out to be fun. Dead Head Fred on the PSP lets you control a zombie to steal the heads of enemies to perform different attacks. Zombie Wranglers on Xbox Live Arcade lets you wrangle zombies by vacuuming them up Ghostbuster style. Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ lets you take the place of the fairy tale character as she takes on hordes of zombies with firearms. Whatever the setting of the game is, zombies always make the perfect target.
They can come out of nowhere and attack you wherever you go, which is why zombie games make excellent survival horrors. It’s never certain that safe zones will still be that way by the time you get there, and most of the time you have to travel through dark and confined spaces.
If you are so lucky to find other survivors in your zombie game, they can help you to survive the zombie apocalypse. It’s even better when these survivors are your friends, such as the multiplayer games of Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, Killing Floor and House of the Dead.
Seeing zombies dressed in human clothes and appearing in compromising situations is hilarious. They’ll often do things which we’ll never dream of doing, such as vomiting on one another and piling up inside a toilet stall. Dead Rising 2 even features drunk zombies sucker punching each other. Fat zombies are also priceless.
