The Zombie Universe – In Games

Half-Life

My first encounter with zombies in video games was in Half-Life back in 1998 and although the infected scientists weren’t undead in the conventional sense, they were still zombified by head-crabs that had attached themselves to the unwitting fellows. Fortunately, they moved quite slowly and were easy to kill, but in later Half-Life games, infected variants were introduced which could outrun you, thus making the game a lot more challenging. Further zombie mutations followed, with some wearing suicide vests and others with swarms of parasitic head-crabs attached and those were pretty scary, not to mention, lethal.

Resident Evil 2 & 3 Remakes

Following the Half-Life episodes, I didn’t really take much interest in other zombie games until I came across the Resident Evil (2&3) remakes, which are more in the survival horror genre, and for a good reason – they are very scary games indeed.

Most of the time you’re wandering around an old mansion, figuring out clever puzzles, boarding up windows to prevent zombie incursion, or fighting off monstrous bosses with nothing more than your wits and a 9mm pistol. The atmosphere is always spine-tingling since you never know what’s around the next corner and I certainly wouldn’t recommend playing Resident Evil in the dark.

Dying Light 1 & 2

In true apocalyptic style, the Dying Light games pit you against both the undead and the actual living, because in an end-of-world scenario, it’s every man for himself. While the zombies in these games are pretty nasty, it’s the human enemies that are more dangerous and the main objectives are to capture enemy strongholds and convert them to safe houses into which zombies cannot enter. I enjoy that kind of challenge as opposed to true survival horror, perhaps because as I get older I’m more of a pussy, who knows? Dying Light 1 also has numerous DLCs, one of which lets you ride around in a powerful 4×4 buggy and I’ve had hours of fun running over the undead, thus rendering them completely dead without even leaving the comfort of my buggy. However, it’s not recommended to stop the buggy near a horde and simply gawp around, because you’ll get dragged out and eaten alive.

Zombie Army

I picked up Zombie Army 4:Dead War on Epic Games simply because it was cheap and I liked the idea of Nazis being resurrected from hell as the undead. The premise is outrageous of course and the Nazi zombies are ‘brought to life’ simply to drive the allies from Europe. I haven’t yet finished this explosively hilarious zombie romp and am currently riding a canal boat through an unknown city in occupied Holland, but I have to step ashore from time to time to open bridges and look for fuel. Naturally, that’s when the fun starts and the Nazi undead, not to mention zombie snipers are anxious to take chunks of flesh off me. I dip into it when I’m in the mood, like when the neighbours are having a very noisy party next door.

Dead Island 1 & 2

Dead Island puts you in a luxury hotel somewhere in the Pacific, just at the beginning of a zombie outbreak and your objective is well, just to survive and help others. Like many other RPGs, you get to loot the undead, collecting money and useful items which you can then use to upgrade/buy weapons. You also get to carry out numerous quests as part of the storyline and again, humans can be just as lethal as the undead.

Days Gone

Without a doubt, Days Gone is my favourite zombie-apocalypse game of all time, not simply for the amazing gameplay, but for the motorcycle, which has to be the star of the show. Using the actual geography of Oregon, I ride around the countryside rescuing human hostages, liberating enemy outposts, looting towns and villages, and trying my best not to come into contact with zombie hordes. Said hordes can be truly frightening, with thousands of the undead moving across the countryside. And they can climb, too, so strategy is the name of the game, where finding a blind spot they can neither climb up nor take chunks out of you, is key to survival. Again, upgrades and weapon maintenance are essential and not running out of fuel for your bike is also key, because finding yourself stranded at night, surrounded by hordes of zombies is not recommended.

What’s your favourite zombie game?

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