Not another zombie game. A phrase that gets used on gaming sites like it's going out of fashion. But I want to know where they are. And more specifically where the good ones are.
You see the only full price zombie games I have played recently and enjoyed are the sequel to Left for Dead and... well Left for Dead. The fact is they only sate a small part of my appetite. They are pure action. There is some element of survival (please cover me whilst I use a healthkit) but at the end of the day you get a great quantity of ammo and the games are not terrifying. They are however excellent.
What of the rest. Well if I say Resident Evil 5 I think most most will get my gist. It turned into an action game with plentiful amounts of ammo and obvious boss fights. I'm not even sure they were zombies. They certainly didn't act like it. Since when do zombies carry weapons (don't say Land of the Dead). It also dropped the survival elements from the early titles and the terrific atmosphere from Resi 4.
What about Dead Rising 1 and 2. Well, I disliked both of them. I found them to be rather old fashioned in terms of gameplay which put me off early on and prevented fun. They were also both so comedic in tone I struggled to take them seriously. I don't think I need to talk about the escort missions.
There was a beacon of light with Dead Island but instead I found bland fetch quests and bland first person hack n' slash combat with RPG elements added as an afterthought. I wanted a zombie survival game. I got a weapon survival game. That's without mentioning the fact the environment goes from lovely sunkissed beaches to a bland city and the godawful accent shifting voice acting.
Now there are undeniably zombies in other places. Nazi Zombies which is decent enough but it again focuses on killing them. Dead Nation and Burn Zombie Burn are both fun but they are just arcade shooters. House of the Dead Overkill? Nah. Unless you like swearing.
There is a theme here. All of the above games focus on you KILLING zombies be it through necessity, to gain cash or experience or to simply advance. They may have zombies in them but are they truly zombie games?
Where is the sense of blind panic? Where is the fear that if we use our gun we'll run out of the 5 bullets we have? Why is one zombie in confined quarters not as dangerous as ten in the open? Where is the helplessness of not having a weapon? Why are we not running for our lives?
I guess what i'm trying to say is what the hell happened to survival horror?
I will give a special mention to Undead Nightmare. It managed to out survival horror most so called survival horror ames. Running away was a viable tactic. Ammo was not plentiful but zombies were.
If anyone can't point me in the direction of a real zombie game (where they are not cannon/ electrifying machete fodder) please let me know.
The PC version is still on schedule but the console versions have been delayed.
There are many exciting updates this month for Xbox. Copilot for Gaming is available now for early preview on mobile and will be coming to PC soon. Xbox PC app introduces a wave of new updates: Aggregated gaming library gives players quick access to games from Xbox, Game Pass, and other leading PC storefronts, and with publisher channels players can browse their favorite franchises. Updates for the Xbox Console includes customization for Most Recently Used, free-to-play benefits, Game Hubs, and dialog improvements for game saves.
"Players can now hide system apps, pin favorites to the list, and reduce the number of tiles displayed. This update is part of our ongoing effort to make Home more personal, flexible, and responsive to feedback."
This is welcomed, i like a less cluttered home screen.
"Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny feels stuck between 2025 and 2002. Not quite enough of the past to be pure nostalgia, and not enough of the present to feel fresh."
- Stuart Cullen, TechStomper
Well then cross your fingers for The Last of Us.
I'd love to know where all these zombie games are too! I love the zombie genre, and the survival-horror genre, but I think there has definitely been a lack of zombie AND survival-horror games this gen.
I liked Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2 for what they were, but I'm surprised so many people consider it a survival-horror series. To me, the DR games are comedy-horror, what with the over-the-top psychopaths and the crazy outfits you could dress the main character in. Which is fine. I liked the comedy aspects of the games.
Needless to say, I was disappointed with Dead Island. The debut trailer made it look like the game would be character-driven and show the true horrors that a family of regular people would have to face during a zombie apocalypse. The actual game ended up being a boring, generic zombie shooter and I'm genuinely surprised it got the high scores that it did.
RE5 was ok...but I wouldn't call it a zombie game or a horror game.
The Last of Us looks promising. I don't yet know if it will be a survival-horror game, but I would love if it ends up reviving the genre.
There are lots of zombie games. "Exploding head" zombie games are better than the "scared poopless" zombie games, I think.
It's just my opinion, but if you cast your mind back to resident evil 1 and 2, those games were scary mainly because they controlled oddly. I think the "over the shoulder" perspective decision was made because they wanted to give players good control of their character in the game. I couldn't imagine going back to the older ones, now.
no mention of dead space?..hmmmmm
I think when people say Zombie games, they are actually saying zombies 'in' games. While they're hasn't been a great deal of zombie solo games, there have been a ton of games which add-on zombies (Mass Effect 2, Gears 3, Saints Row 3) as examples and for people have zombies in games is the same as zombie games.