America's Zombie Obsession: Here to Stay?

We’re practically begging for mother nature or a top-secret military research facility to produce a disease that’ll have our teeth falling out, extremities falling off and leave us roaming mindlessly to eat the guts of our uninfected loved ones, satisfying our unquenchable hunger for human flesh while simultaneously initiating all into the mindless hordes of unfathomable, reanimated corpse darkness. What gives?

If zombies had a grandfather, it would probably be Frankenstein, the oldschool l33t zombie who basically spawned the entire race. But that was over 100 years ago now, so why the obsession with zombies these days? Is it some kind of collective subconscious plea to push through Obama’s healthcare act? Let’s find out.

Zombies in Video Games

Really, it boils down to this. The gaming premise offered by zombies is perfect. It delivers endless masses of enemies to kill, it’s entirely guilt free, scary as hell (when done right), endless sticky gore splashing in wonderful dark sprays around the muzzle flash of our M4 rifles...

[SavageKuma]

I hope not, because it is really getting tiring, but great article.

[guitarded77]

Yeah, zombies are so played out. It was Nazis, now zombies... if the internet has its way, it will be dinosaurs next. I don't really care, just sick of zombies.

[Skizelli]

The 1990s = dinosaurs.

[guitarded77]

@ Skizelli

Yeah, but history repeats itself. Thing's go in and out of style. There are tons of memes on r/gaming with people sticking dinosaurs in various games, and people wanting another Turok. I'm not saying it's what I want, but anything is better than zombies at this point.

[xBigxBossx]

I think zombies will become ever more prevalent in gaming as the graphics become more realistic. Lets face it killing an abomination is a lot better then killing humans. Plus I think the whole violence topics with gaming will go through the roof with next gen and the upgraded visuals. Gaming is moving more and more to the next level. Lol long story but zombies are here to stay.

[Skizelli]

I don't think the zombie genre has been perfected quite yet. But with games like State of Decay and Day Z, it's headed in the right direction. They need to crank up the survival elements and tone down the novelty of killing zombies. Zombies need to be scary again like they were in Resident Evil 1.

[ghostrider32]

Screw zombies. We need a vampires vs werewolves game.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Castlevania?

[ghostrider32]

No something like Underworld.

[ElementX]

I want vampires, dark, violent, scary vampires! I want another vampire RPG. Enough with zombies.

[WeskerChildReborned]

I would want a Vampire based game if they did it innovatively, well there is DARK but it looks kinda meh imo.

[xXBlondieVanHarlowXx]

I like zombies but where the f**k are all the demons, ghouls, vampires, werewolves, malevolent spirits or just plain monsters :/

Also ghosts, they are nowhere to be seen x(
Nice article BTW.

[MysticStrummer]

All of those things are in every Elder Scrolls game, but I know what you mean.

I'd like to see a good game based on Vampire: The Masquerade, which was a pencil and paper RPG like Dungeons and Dragons, if you've never heard of it. I believe there was also a werewolf version of Masquerade too but I can't remember the name. Anyway, the players were vampires from different clans that had different styles and powers. One clan was sort of a Lost Boys type of vampire, another clan more like Nosferatu, another like Dracula.

[xXBlondieVanHarlowXx]

Yeah but they were rarely the main focus. Plus they weren't scary :/ It was more along the lines of "Cooooooool a werewolf!" as suppose to the "Oh my gawd a f**king werewolf!!" :O

I looked up Vampire: The Masquerade. Your idea sounds awesome :D At this point anything vampire/werewolf related sounds awesome. Castlevania Lords of Shadow just didn't do it for me :/ Castlevania on the N64 was one of the best vampire game i've ever played.

[MysticStrummer]

I still haven't seen anything close to what I'd call the perfect zombie game, so I say keep them coming until that's been achieved.

[WeskerChildReborned]

What about Stubbs? Lol well it was a fun zombie game since it was different.

[TheUltimateGamer]

I agree - def need to focus more on the survival aspect instead of the novelty of just killing masses of Zombies. ...and here I am right now playing the new Mine Shaft Zombies DLC on Black Ops 2 - lol

[monkey602]

The success of both the last of us and state of decay as well as the interest in dead rising 3 proves its still going strong
And yes I know TLOU are not zombies but close enough

[shadowmist13]

A game in a post apocalyptic world where demons rules the earth,and now that demons took over some friction is starting between them,with werewolfs,vampires and other monstrosities starting to fight each other,and you are a mere human trying to survive this hell on earth,and it must have free roam,survival and a non linear like fallout.

[level 360]

Zombies, vampires, monsters their only a metaphor and their link with reality is because of the sign of what's presently happening in society.

They become popular because sometimes horrible circumstance in the real world sort of dictates that stories be made. And so zombie ( monsters etc. ) films often becomes that representation.

[TheUltimateGamer]

Agreed - some researchers show that during times of economic hardship or even when citizens feel somewhat powerless against their government - these are times when movies, games, books, etc... about a zombie invasion thrive. Think back early 2000's - 9/11, Bush invading middle east, Patriot Act = we had movies like 28 days later and Dawn of the Dead and they became very popular. Then things got a little better for a few years. Now comes the 2009+ era with the "Great Recession" and we see not only an influx of movies and shows but now also a ton of zombie video games. Pretty interesting.