WHAT MAKES A GOOD ZOMBIE?
1. Speed – they have got to be fast. Fast equals fear and if they can reach you quick you are in serious danger all the time.
2. Violence – they have got to be angry. If they reach you they are going to kill you and if they are going to kill you, let it be gruesome.
3. Brains – there needs to be a few ‘smart’ ones. They can’t all be totally mindless; some of them have to be able to figure out what you are doing and where you’re going.
4. Deformed – they have to be ugly. They need to scare you and ultimately leave you dread turning the next corner.
5. Hive Mind – they need to move as one. They must move in a large group, constantly chasing you, blood thirsty, devoid of emotion and mercy, only wanting to feed.
Even when zombies were out of fashion in movies they still regularly featured in games avoiding death just like in real life. Zombies range from the slow ambling grabby fashion to the scarier ones, who move fast and in a determined way after the playable character. This is no doubt influenced by the superb 2002 film 28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle, in which he played the infected as very fast instead of the normal slow way, which was brought around by the man credited as the creator of the zombie movie, George A. Romero.
In games, this move from the mindless undead to ferocious hunter is truly terrifying! Remember moving along a shopping mall in Left 4 Dead, when suddenly you get Boomer’s bile on you and now you are completely surrounded, in seconds, trying to fight off the horde?
Left 4 dead and its sequel pushed zombies into the multiplayer arena, making zombies playable across the globe and with your friends in co-op.
Far less scary is the slow mass herd of zombies that make an appearance in the over rated Dead Rising. In this game, the zombies are either easy to avoid or massed so much that they make not just escape annoyingly difficult, but maneuverability in general. The game’s use of many objects as weapons, including baseball bats, chainsaws and golf clubs, was a welcome addition at the time but was not enough to hide the problems the game had. However our fingers are crossed for the sequel which looks like a large improvement.
Some of the best zombies have to be in the award guzzling Resident Evil 4, a game so good it has been credited as the best ever for the Playstation 2. The zombies were a real step up from the earlier games in the Resident Evil series – the burlap-sack-wearing, chainsaw-wielding zombie being the standout character.
One of the scariest sounds in gaming history has to be the noise of the distant chainsaw whirring and him racing towards you, with only good aiming and many precious bullets required to bring this bad boy down. The range of zombies in this game is also a fresh idea, setting it above the usual zombie game, as you face everything from crazy hick locals to our chainsaw buddy, to huge mutated and deformed creatures all in a scary unnamed European locale.
Capcom were unlikely to be able to repeat the success of Resident Evil 4 with the sequel and they proved this to be true. It is not the disaster that the critics would have you believe, taking Resident Evil 5 on its own without the comparison to the fourth. It is a very good game full of suspense and adventure as you make your way through shanty towns to open Savannah, in a race to stop Wesker from destroying the world.
Special credit must be given to Dead Space, not a zombie game in the traditional sense but a great one nonetheless. Here the player must fight their way through an army of humans, grotesquely disfigured and changed not by a pathogen but by alien creatures aboard an abandoned Star Ship. From within your protective suit you face foes that would impress even Clive Barker, in space no one can hear you scream – however, your neighbours can probably hear you through the walls so try to smother your screams with your hand or something.
We at the @rcade think zombies add a lot to games, whether it’s upping the suspense and terror as you race to avoid hordes or you clamber over abandoned cars to get a better firing position on the masses. Their presence can be eerie and unsettling while not attacking, to plain out terrifying when they are racing you down trying to make your thorax their next meal.
Zombies have a successful and acclaimed history in both games and movies and with dead space 2 and dead rising 2 set to be released soon this tradition looks like its set to continue.
Earlier this summer we met with some serious zombies, who stormed the streets of Dublin in search of brains and charitable donations – the Dublin Zombie Walk.
