Ever since George Romano and John Russo created the modern Zombie they have appeared everywhere. I don’t know what it is with the Common Lesser Nerd (Vulgaris Redactum Taedium) but they are completely obsessed with the Walking Dead (Pedes Mortuus) more commonly known as Zombies. Maybe it’s the social commentary, maybe it’s the love of gore or maybe it’s because they don’t fit in the current society so it being destroyed is an appealing idea to them.

 

Of course I say “Them” as if I’m not part of the group, when I’m the one doing a online list of the Top Zombie Gaming Franchises. And yes it does have to be “franchises” just to prevent me from listing off one zombie game and then all its sequels, you know the one. Now let’s get on with it.

 

 

 

 

It’s not easy being evil, peasants revolting, pesky want-a-be heroes always invading your realm and occasionally you have to do a little good just to get things done…doesn’t really help the PR.

 

 

This is the case in Overlord where you take control of, well, the Overlord. A villain who’s soul aim is to take over the world. We don’t know why he wants to take over the world, seemingly that’s what evil people do even when they have no motive. In the first game Heaven’s Peak (a heavily fortified city) stands in your way but it has a bit of an infestation. Zombies are roaming about killing the inhabitants. These Zombies are created by a Succubus who is just trying to have a bit of fun.

 

 

In the Overlord II once again zombies rear their ugly heads but now in the form of magical Zombies. At some point between the games a magic explosion happened and anybody unlucky enough to be within the fallout was transformed into a mindless blue beast. Originally an undesirable prospect the people started to shun magic all together and take part in some sort or weird magical genocide. When the Overlord comes a knocking though the witless peons are more than happy to transform into these creatures in the vain hope that they’ll be able to defeat him. Stupid creatures.

 

 

 

Ah Doom, we can all look back and smile at the Satanism in the game. Funny fact without this game I don’t think I would have killed that homeless person and made his spleen into a hat. It was a really cool hat.

 

 

Doom had a lot of controversy probably because it was all about killing demons, evil personified to destroy mankind rather than say, Nazis. Who for the most part weren’t. The zombies in this game weren’t really zombies to be fair, just possessed humans and would use armaments against our faceless marine.

 

 

Doom 3 though gave us more classical zombies. It even managed to create some fear factor with them. Which is no mean feat when you’re carrying around enough explosives to destroy a small moon. Outside the chapter set in hell; the part when you find zombies trapped in cells, endlessly banging the glass walls in a vain attempt to gnaw your face off, was the most unsettling part of the game.

 

Originally these zombies were going to be a lot tougher, you were only able to kill them by gibbing them. Shoot them and they’ll just endlessly get up but sadly the game’s rag-doll physics just wasn’t up to the task. What am I saying sadly, I would have had to change by pants on more than one occasion if they did that.

 

 

 

Mass Effect? As in the space opera; set in the future with killer machines going around attempting to destroy all sentient life

 

 

Erm, yeah I guess. Never heard it be called that before but yes Mass Effect has zombies too, they’re called Husks. These are biological/synthetic hybrids; created by impaling dead bodies onto large metallic spikes called Dragon’s Teeth. Once approached the teeth will let these creatures loose to attack, kill and ultimately create more husks. There are a couple of types, the standard, the exploding one and something called a Scion which is several Husks stuck together to make a powerful long distance enemy. Or 30 stuck together can form a Praetorian a flying menace that will devastate Shepard’s squad if you’re not careful. This seems to be the most extreme form on indoctrination as Saren starts to share some common characteristics towards the end of the game.

 

 

Husks aren’t the only zombie like creatures in the game either. On Feros you meet a plant like entity called the Thorian. It brainwashes the colonists on the surface to do its bidding but it’s also constructed hundreds of zombie like creatures called Creepers. These creatures have massive claws and will spit acid at Shepard but at quite easy to defeat with use of a powerful herbicide.

 

Oh and the best known and most dangerous undead creature in the game? Shepard, yep remember Shepard died at the start of Mass Effect 2

 

 

 

In the world of fallout everything is based off 50’s science or at the very least 50’s common ignorance. The world has all but been destroyed by nuclear fallout and you’re one of the few human survivors that have to make their way through the desolate wastes.

 

 

Fallout brought us the “Ghouls” that through magical 50’s science are ordinary people with a gene that transforms a normal person into zombie-like-creature given enough radiation. This is very much like the back story to some of the John Russo zombie films and most of the time Ghouls retain their intelligence…or at least at the start.

 

 

Ghouls never seem to truly die of old age, the ghouls met in Fallout: New Vegas are still alive over 200 years after the bombs fell. New ghouls don’t get made they’re the same ones. This can be a horrible fate, spurned by the rest of humanity Ghouls are forced to live separate lives until their minds succumb to radiation poisoning and they lose all rational thought. Effectively forcing them to live forever in a mindless state, until somebody they attack, blows their brains out. Oh and there are also Glowing One’s that are chock-full of radiation and will explode. Fun times.

 

 

 

Mad World it’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world. And with Jack wearing a chainsaw gauntlet you can tell he’s the type of person to get very, very mad.

 

 

Mad World sees you take control of anti-hero Jack as he takes part in a brutal, bloody competition where you must kill your opponents to advance up the ranks and win the star prize. I don’t really remember what the prize was but I do remember it was a hell-a-lot of fun winning it. Taking on; street punks, dangerous ninjas, advanced robots and of course grizzly zombies. Warning the next video contains blood, foul language and zombie decapitation.

 

 

The castle in this game had all its foundation shipped from the country ‘Zombikistan’ but it also came with the countries favourite export, Zombies! Zombies in this game were quite a threat; while slow and stupid they constantly regenerated. Meaning you can shove as many poles through them as you like but they’re just not going to go down. You can even completely sever them at the torso and they will keep coming and eventually re-grow their lost limbs. The only way to get rid of them is by using environmental kills or slicing them vertically in half with you chainsaw.

 

 

 

I’ve spent over 10 years playing on the Half Life series; seeing as I’m just over 20 that means I’ve spent a lot of my time fighting the alien horde.

 

 

You see that, alien horde. Half Life is sci-fi through and through and as such you’ve got trans-dimensional beings attempting to crush humanities’ face under a boot so they can take control over our resources. The game has a rather complicated story behind the scenes but most problems can generally be solved with a bullet…or barring that, a crowbar.

 

 

Half-Life’s zombies are a controlled with Head-Crabs. These parasitic creatures latch onto a person’s head and takes control of their body slowly transforming them into a bizarre hybrid creature that’s only goal is to sleep and kill. Worse still the person trapped under the Head-Crab is still fully conscious and when you set them on fire you get to hear their agonising screams as blinding pain ends their miserable lives.

 

On a side note the Combine in Half Life 2 use Head-Crabs as living weapons, firing shells filled with the creatures into populated areas. Thus having two side effects, killing anybody in those areas and area denial for future insurgents. Ravenholm was one such unlucky place and was filled with standard zombies but also fast zombies and poison zombies…it was a very creepy level.

 

 

Check out the top six franchises on page two.