There are Few things in life which are more fun than the mass indiscriminate killing and scramble for survival that a zombie game can bring – it’s the reason why these games sell so damn much, after all. In celebration of our undying obsession with all things undead. We’ve complied for you the 3 greatest zombie games of all-time.
Dead Space 2
Harking back to Ridley Scott’s genre defining Alien, the Dead Space series has taken survival horror to the uncharted territories of space and has – rather surprisingly – offered up some of the best zombie-games in years. In Dead Space 2 – the finest moment in Visceral Games’ intergalactic horror series – players are taken through a terrifying odyssey of madness and terror as they have to unravel the mystery behind the origins of the undead necromorphs.
While the original Dead Space is a great zombie game in and of itself, and the recent Dead Space 3 amps up the action and offers players a great multiplayer experience, Dead Space 2 stands out as the series’ best as it offered players a honestly terrifying experience that is steeped in satisfying storytelling. The tone and frantic pace of Dead Space 2 is enough to keep even the bravest of players on the edge of their seat.
A huge leap forward from its predecessor, without becoming lost from the plot like its successor, Dead Space 2 is a surprisingly good sci-fi horror romp, and will likely have you understanding what that Alien poster meant when it said: “In space no one can hear you scream.”
The Last of Us
Released this past summer, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us may just be the last truly great release of this generation of gaming. And arguably it is one of the best overall games ever made, as well.
Like The Walking Dead, The Last of Us sees a vision of a world taken over by a zombie plague come to life, and illustrates not only the horror of the apocalypse but the fall of man in its wake. Taking control of a hardened smuggler named Joel, in The Last of Us you are forced to traverse an America that has fallen apart in order to guide a young girl named Ellie to a destination I don’t even want to remotely ruin in this summary. Along the way, you’re forced to survive an onslaught of the infected – the name of choice for the game’s legion of undead- as well as other human survivors (who are willing to do anything to stay alive, by the way).
Last of Us is awesome 🙂
From a mechanics standpoint, The Last of Us is an intuitive triumph, but what really makes this game a step above the rest is its immersive nature. To play this game is to dive into it, and by the end there’s no way you will not be attached to its characters or the choices they are forced to make along the way. Yes, it offers graphic zombie action, and, yes, it provides a fun challenge. But the true beauty of The Last of Us is its cinematic quality, and its tense and often heartbreaking tone.
Harking to influences as diverse as Lone Wolf and Cub, Children of Men, The Road and – of course – The Walking Dead, The Last of Us is a beautifully sad story cast across a broken world steeped in moral ambiguity. And it also happens to be a total blast to play. But – surprisingly – it still is not the best zombie game of all-time. No, that honor actually goes to a game that most of you out there probably didn’t even play
Resident Evil: The Remake
C’mon: it was obviously going to be a Resident Evil game – but did you think it would be this one? The Resident Evil series is without a doubt the seminal series of survival horror, and the first 3 games arguably all have a claim to the top spot on this list. But while the original Resident Evil trilogy may have established the franchise as the best zombie series in gaming, it wasn’t until 2002 that Capcom perfected the art.
The remake of the original Resident Evil was released as a Nintendo GameCube exclusive in 2002 (later ported to the Wii in 2009) and unlike the versions of Resident Evil 2 and 3 that were released for the console, the remake was a bottom up re-imagining of the original survival horror classic. Taking the original plot and characters and amping it all up with state of the art graphics, Capcom boasted that it was 70% different than the original. And they were right.
Trading in the horrid dialogue, dated graphics and wonky tone of the original, the Resident Evil remake proved to be a truly frightening experience that took everything great about Resident Evil and modernised it for the 21st century. Despite over a decade passing since its release, the remake still holds up today and is streets ahead of any of the series’ releases for this current console generation.
There are no unrealistically giant monsters in this game, nor any set pieces involving futuristic weapons or the invasion of sovereign states. In Resident Evil, there are merely zombies, the shadows, the occasional mutated creature, and a very limited amount of bullets. Survival is difficult as it relies on conserving everything from health to ammo to those ink cartridges which are the keys to salvation, and remembering that just because you shot a zombie down doesn’t mean it’s really dead.
From the sublime camera angles to the truly frightening colour palette, this is a game steeped in classic sensibilities and harks back to an era before the excess that defines gaming today – yet is modern enough graphically to still be taken seriously. If you haven’t had the chance to play through the remake then you don’t know zombie gaming – this game is so good it actually offers up a compelling reason to buy a GameCube off eBay just so you can experience it (alongside the equally amazing GameCube exclusive remake of Metal Gear Solid – bit of a strange niche the GameCube carved out for itself there, huh?).
Before Wesker dressed like Blade, Jill went blonde and Chris was the size of Triple H, they were just three cops trapped in a mansion trying to survive what hid around the corner. And really, Resident Evil proved that’s all you really needed for a good zombie game.
