Thread: What is the Dev?s obsession with Zombies?

After watching the series opener of The Walking Dead I now realise how a Zombie Apocalypse should be survived, namely with a whole lot of weapons and a plucky sidekick.

With the odds so heavily stacked against one man, or woman lest you label me as sexist, it is essential that these 5 rules are followed:
1) Look for supplies for the foreseeable future, e.g. a year plus
2) Got tooled up and learn how to use each and every weapon
3) Keep large company and watch each others back
4) Remember what your running from is no longer human, just a shell
5) Cut the coat-tails so to speak to stop the spread of infection within the group

Luckily with games like Dead Rising and game modes like Nazi Zombies, Red Dead: Undead Nightmare these harsh realities take a backseat, whilst the splatter over all four walls and possibly the ceiling for shits and giggles is very much in the driver?s seat. At the moment this particular car is a multimillion dollar industry that has no sell-by-date and shows no signs of dying anytime soon. It?ll probably come back to life and eat everything in the fridge even if it did.

Bad pun aside the premise for Zombie games could, if not updated, become as stale as the stench of some of its antagonists but it?s the Dev?s refusal to let franchises like Dead Rising?. well die, with the constant inundation of DLC and add-ons, which keep us coming back to it again and again. I realise sending Zombies hurtling towards the sun Team Rocket style is not everyone?s cup of tea but doing so after hitting them in a heavily armed wheelchair adds a touch of much needed black humour to a potentially ?We?re all screwed? situation.

However, bludgeoning Zombies to death with a Cricket bat will get tiresome after hitting 400 sixes with a Zombie?s melon so a new approach is needed. This is something Nazi Zombie mode neglects. True it is fun killing wave after wave of zombies each much more agile and stronger than the last but where?s the creativity? Oh wait a knife or a selection of guns, well isn?t that original.

This is were the only Zombie-focused games, Dead Rising and in a sense Left 4 Dead, steps out from the smelly, chaotic rabble of their competitors.
Having only limited access to fire-arms makes it all the more special as you head-shot your way to a selection of psychopaths/ special infected but the stripping back on the need for projectiles leaves more room for melee expansion. At the end of the day, a press of a button bonks a dude on the head but the difference between it being a chore and being a pure spectacle is customisation, something only Dead Rising seems to care about. Again, assaulting a guy with a bucket is fun but when attaching drill-bits to the insides and watching said guy stumble around before falling down in a pool of giblets and ketchup is all the more entertaining. However beating a Tank on Insane with only melee is freaking suicide!

Similarly the different approaches in games to Zombies also help to keep this stagnant genre fresh. In Red UnDead the only way to kill a zombie is with a well placed shot to the noggin? although this makes it more difficult when panic firing at an oncoming horde of the buggers , it draws on the an important feature of Red Dead Redemption that is underused in the main game, Dead eye. Using Dead eye makes clearing a saloon full of cannibalistic drunkards much easier then say hiding behind a chest-high wall and picking your shot.

Although I make it sound like the sun shines out of a zombie?s multiple crevices, there is a time and a place for it. For example in Saints Row 2 the Zombie minigame is not needed and is a chore to do, the only reason I did it was to get the Achievement at the end of it, but it added nothing to the game. In the three games I have mentioned Zombies add a new dimension to that franchise and in some cases *cough cough CoD* have taken over the online matchmaking.

In Summary, I believe we are in for a long haul of Zombie apocalypse games but that isn?t necessarily a bad thing if done right. I wouldn?t have thought letting a load of Zombies loose in the Wild West would work but it did, so what next?
? Zombies pimps on the streets of Stillwater?
? Zombies racing cars around a speedway?
? A Zombie car-washing simulator?

Who knows but I seek out to pick the bare bones of Zombie based games, and the tender flesh on those bones, until I can tie a zombie up like a pi?ata and pound him into gravy with an underserved sense of accomplishment.

I think next in games might be a zombie cook where they have knives coming after you, it might even be called Zombie Mirror Edge, or Zombie goes Martial Arts, and you get Zombie Mortal Kombat

It works in phases just look at the movies zombies are on the wane and aliens on the rise after aliens we will get global disasters again

Zombies make everything better FAKT!!!

What even 'sweet loving' I find that hard to believe?

Originally Posted by Th3R1dge

What even 'sweet loving' I find that hard to believe?

Especially sweet loving. All that moaning makes me feel like Ron Jeremy

Originally Posted by tcg joey

Especially sweet loving. All that moaning makes me feel like Ron Jeremy

I believe the old joke goes "Joey used to be a Necrophilliac until some rotten C@#T split on him"

I'm just waiting for Zombie FIFA mode. Take off Zombie Rooneys head with a cricket bat and then use it too score a goal. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!.