Zombies in Video Games

[Delta]

I got into quite a heated discussion and wondered what the general opinion was.

My argument is that, although the concept of zombies are overused (See: Mass Effect Husks, Dishonored Creeps) I think they are invaluable to a game's design as basic canon fodder. They are overused in the same way that the sword in the RPG is overused. They can be a good source of easy experience and gold or they can make you cautious about how to get round areas without being caught (See: The last areas of Deus Ex: Human Revolution).

They have their own advantages and disadvantages as a common obstacle. In numbers they are deadly but at the same time they are easy to kill (See: Left 4 Dead).
I also see them to promote the AI of more complex enemies. Take a look at The Division. There is a mix of actual human players and NPC zombies. The use of zombies in the game would make the human players look much more intelligent and a much bigger threat, possibly relating to the game's theme in some way.

On the other hand there are many other things that can be used to have the same effect. Radiation in Fallout makes you cautious of wear to go and teaches you to ration your supplies.

What's your view? Do you see the inclusion of zombies as lazy, overused and to just fill the gaps? Or do you see them as an unfortunate necessity of modern video game design?

 

[Guts]

Zombies are the "in" thing in entertainment nowadays, so why not fill video games with them? Recent zombie-themed titles have been huge successes. And even if the game isn't themed around zombies, what developer wouldn't pass up the opportunity of a basic enemy that's easy to kill and even easier to design? Zombies will always have their place in gaming, but to see them used over and over again for the exact same purpose is disappointing. Some games manage to bring something new to the table, like better AI or innovative design for zombies, but in the end, they're just a big pile of lazy.

 

[Haunted Water]

^Exactly, my dear boy!
Last year, the VGAs were disappointing to me. Why? Walking Dead didn't deserve Best Game of 2012. What made it great? The graphics? Sure, cartoon-like graphics are okay. Zombies? Now it just seems like a watered-down Borderlands 2.
I have no problems with zombies in games now, seeing how The Last of Us is currently my favorite game atm. Zombies (Infected) in that game are tiered, and have different traits. You have the recently infected Runners, the entirely infected Stalkers (which oddly appear less than the Clickers), the armored and long-time infected blind Clickers, and the ones who've been Infected since the outbreak, known as Bloaters.
All four of them are different.
Runners are regular zombies. Stalkers cannot be heard, but they cannot hear you unless you make a loud noise (like a gunshot, starting a generator, etc). Clickers are armored, usually needing two shotgun blasts or about four shots from a revolver to take down. The cordyceps have rendered them blind, so they use echolocation to "see," hence their name.
Bloaters are tanks. They have ranged attacks and cannot be meleed. Bottomline, they are a sponge.

As long as it doesn't seem recycled, I'm usually fine with it. That's probably why I'm not as interested in Dead Space anymore, since it's always the same thing, and they don't challenge you by combining the different types.

 

[Rusty Sticks]

I played Telltale's The Walking Dead, and while it was a fantastic game and deserved almost every award it got, I don't think it should have gotten GoTY from Spike. I was incredibly upset neither Borderlands 2 nor Spec Ops: The Line were even nominated for GoTY, despite being clear winners to almost every other publication. The Walking Dead was a great game because it didn't focus on it's primary focus; the zombies. Instead, players were shown how the characters interact with the world around them and with each other. A primary theme in the game was that life sucks: no matter what choice you make, something bad will happen. The ending was deep and emotional, and admittedly nearly brought me to tears. But GoTY? Probably not.

Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 are my interpretation of the best zombie games out there. The game focuses on teamwork. Unlike Call of Duty: Zombies, you need to work together, mainly by actually staying together. Zombies are fast, ruthless, but also very weak and fall in usually a few bullets, or just one melee strike. And that's how it should be! The Special Infected make it even better, by varying how the game is played. Instead of just mindlessly swinging a katana, you now have to be aware of your surroundings at all times. You might not hear the charger around the corner, and by the time you turn, BAM, you've been plowed into a wall, boomer biled, and are going to die in a few seconds.

 

[Guts]

I want to clarify that, as you guys said, there are some games that don't simply use zombie as machine gun fodder. Games like Dead Space, The Walking Dead and The Last of Us make their interpretations of zombies just a single a part of the experience; if you're not beating a horde of enemies off of you, you're solving a complicated puzzle, interacting with other survivors, or scavenging for ammo and supplies. These games truly show us what it would be like to be a world plagued by the undead, and that's why they'll go down as some of the best video games in history.

 

[Delta]

The Walking Dead game is a prime example of zombies being a secondary focus which I believe they should be.

Unlike Call of Duty: Zombies, you need to work together, mainly by actually staying together.

As someone who used to play Zombies at almost, the equivalent of, a competitive level, I see that sentence being completely backwards. I remember spending the night at friend's houses and vice versa and spending hours just on Zombies planning and literally drawing up strategies for different maps. On average reaching round 35 or so. Left 4 Dead is entirely run and gun. There are no tactics about this. Playing on Expert mode with friends it was literally every man for himself until a Tank shows up. It was fun and much more effective than staying in a group and taking things slow. If you got left behind, you were out. Left 4 Dead tries to make a teamwork game but ironically makes one of the most single player games out there.

Run, run run, turn around and shoot the magic hands that slow you down and run some more.

 

[Frezgle]

Zombies have gotten reeeeeallly boring and overdone. Every time I see a new title featuring them I cringe a little. There are so many monster concepts out there; why is the gaming industry primarily focused on what's basically just slightly rotting groaning humans? Bleh. I mean at least there should be more creative zombies, like zombies that spew maggots, or are gas-bloated (which happens to real dead bodies in the heat), maybe a zombie that's just a set of organs, or just a headless torso, or something.

 

[Ysmir]

I think it depends on how zombies are utilized

Good examples of Zombie use:

Halo, yeah they aren't zombies like Night of the Living Dead, but they are a sort of Zombie. They fall into a category (for me) of Alien-Zombies. A parasite life form has invaded the body and taken over. It's need to is spread and consume. Sounds like typical Zombie lore. But where Halo zombies get interesting is through the Gravemind and Proto-Gravemind. Basically if you've read any halo books or played the games a Gravemind is a sentient sort of oversoul-zombie. It's gained this intelligence from absorbing more and more mass until it's become sort of self-aware. Not only do Graveminds have all the intelligence and memories of mass it has consumed but they are able to control lesser Flood. They can engage in intelligent conversation and have even helped their enemies when it has suited it (Look to Halo 3). That's pretty cool to me even though they are common enemies.

The Elder Scrolls, Zombies in these games follow all kinds of different rules. Depending on the way they became Zombies or where they are located.

Draugr (Nord Zombies), Nords who served the Dragon Cult and so when their priest died or they died (if they die before the priest) are bound through magic ritual to serve said Priest or guard a tomb. There is actually a good book in the games on how exactly the Draugr came to be and how this bond works.

Amongst the Draugr

Nord zombies also may be traditional risen zombies through Necromancy or relatives that are risen. Nords have City Mausoleums, Family tombs, and Mass Graveyards.

Morrowind Zombies, The Dark Elves are famed for their Ancestral Worship this extends into a sort of ancestral necromancy. Now, Dark Elves hate just raising the dead, they are against traditional Necromancy. But they believe in resurrecting Ancestors through Magic and ritual, they do this so the ancestor (whether it be a ghost, zombie, Bonewalker, Bone Lord) watches over the family Ancestral Tomb against any invaders.

Cyrodiil Zombies, are much more RPG traditional in that they are simply rotted corpses of deceased humans (or animals). They are resurrected using Necromancy to do the bidding of the Summoner. Cyrodiil like many of the other nations have family tombs and mass graveyards.

So you see these are examples of Zombies that aren't just some plague infected human come to life. For more reading the Elder Scrolls games have many books on Zombies and they are of course interwoven deeply with Necromancy. Here is one such book: Corpse Preparation.

 

[professorlight]

I think it's more than just that; zombies are deeply entrenched into the popular culture, especially in the later years, but I see the overabundance of zombies more like a game design issue: most games starring zombies this days are either shooters or they include shooter-like mechanics, but to shoot you must have a target, and to kill, that target must be alive, must react, must be everyhere and must put you in danger, to increase the weight of your situation: kill or be killed. But at the same time, it's becoming increasingly criticized to feature "fellow" humans as cannon fodder (just look up all the jokes about nathan drake the psicopath, or lara croft in TR2013) so the less risky bets are robots (they react but are not human, therefore, their death has less impact), nazis (they are evil and must be stopped at all costs) and zombies or zombie-like enemies (either resurrected dead, former humans mutated, mindless spawn of the darkness, etc. They are human, but not human, dangerous, victims in their own way, and most importantly, popular).

The main difference between each one is, of course, the setting of the game. Robots can primarily happen in future worlds (with exceptions like the dwemer automatons in TES, or golems in dragon age, but they are always uncommon enemies), nazis in WW2 (or the modern world, in some cases), but zombies are the jack of all trades, as they can be in medieval fantasies (TES, dungeon & dragons, etc) modern times (RE, COD, the last of us, etc), or the future (mass effect, Deus ex human revolution, halo, etc).

Plausible availability is also an issue. There wouldn't be as many mecenaries in uncharted or cultists in TR2013 (castaways in a freaking inescapable island, and they are still a lot) as there are zombies in resident evil 6, mutants in bioshock, nazis in call of battlefield:1924 or robots in.. okay, I can't seem to think of a game with mainly robotic enemies, but you get my point (not counting portal because the thrill of the kill is not the objective of the game. The turrets are more like annoyances than hate provoking enemies, and they are hilarious).

 

[Delta]

Every time I see a new title featuring them I cringe a little. There are so many monster concepts out there; why is the gaming industry primarily focused on what's basically just slightly rotting groaning humans? Bleh.

Fodder. They provide something to shoot at. It also makes the character more like a protagonist by essentially getting rid of the bad things even if the purpose is not to enter combat.
However I do agree that mindless zombies have been used too much and that some other form of combatant should take over. A game that makes you want to avoid combat. Although this has already happened with the early Silent Hill games and more recently with I Am Alive but I don't think the idea that combat is bad is played around as much as it should. Dishonored tried to do this but made incredibly fun combat. If your going to encourage stealth and an avoidance of combat don't make fighting fun. Silent Hill and I Am Alive did this very well.

The main difference between each one is, of course, the setting of the game.

That's not always the case. Games set in a modern age can also contain archaic features. Look at Final Fantasy XIII or XV. Magic, monsters and swords in a day with flying cars more or less.

 

[Kecleon-X]

I like them. I think that they can be used not only as an interesting enemy that could have a good backstory and a few gimmicks, but also a major plot-point as well. Just look at the Flood; they are... Pretty much Zombambos -- due to spores being able to resurrect their dead numbers who are still intact -- and they all have really cool gimmicks that go with them, not to mention a large backstory, and being a huge plot-element in the games.

When used correctly, Zombies are awesome. If they are just there for being there, kind of like the Deadly Premonition enemies, who just lumber around and don't really do anything, then yeah, they actually take away from the overall experience for me.