Zombies: Why Won’t They Die?

Zombies are bloody everywhere. Probably because they are undead and eat people alive, but the excessive blood is still pretty hard to explain. Okay, that’s not what I was getting at, I actually meant that they are completely overused in games and should be allowed to rest in peace for a while, at least. I know what you’re thinking: “you can’t hate Zombies!” Well, you’re wrong; I dislike the fact that every third game released gets a new add-on named “Zombie X” or “Undead Y”.

Maybe I’m exaggerating and ignoring the fact that some games actually do the Zombie mode quite well. However, when something is starting to get used as much as helicopters do in action games, it’s getting far past its best before date (and starting to decompose). So, why do developers use Zombies? There’s a few reasons, each of which I’ll try to explain in this article. I want to get to the bottom of (the grave) why Zombies are just so overused.

The first and most obvious reason is because they require no thinking. As in they have no brains; much like the people who incorporate them into their games (I’m kidding, obviously – it takes some smart people to make videogames). It is an easy subject to think of – I can imagine the conversation now:

“Hey, Fred, we need a new feature for this game RIGHT NOW.”

“B-r-r-r-aaa-i-nss…”

“Zombies?! That’s great, Fred. You should have just said! Wait… Fred, what’s wrong with your eyes… Fre-aaaahhhh.”

See? I even put it in to a scenario in this article; Zombies are the easiest things to add into anything ever. It’s easier than adding in a main game, Left 4 Dead learned this well and just stuck with the Zombie add-on. The thing with Zombies is that they are all (mostly) the same; you can’t really change the way Zombies work without adding in some form of super-zombie… like a Tank, but that would just be silly.

It’s not that Zombie games aren’t fun, it’s just that they have been used in nearly every possible form they can. We’ve even had a game with plants fighting Zombies. Plants. Shrubs. Greenery. That sunk in yet? Good. We’ve also had Zombies fighting plants… oh, wait. Back on track: there are Zombies everywhere, from your garden to a mysterious island with a crazy Doctor that is in no way Dr. Zed from the main story of Borderlands.

Another reason is that Zombies are easy to code. They are also really useful for writing code, but we’ll save that story for another day. You don’t need to worry about them taking any evasive actions or being smart AI, as the main reason they exist is to be dumb. They are meant to stumble towards the player character without taking cover or fighting back, so it doesn’t matter whether the AI is smart or not… Zombies aren’t. Well, unless you get the Resident Evil Zombies that actually fight or a big badass Zombie that has seven missile launchers fused to its arm. Now, that would be cool.

Zombies are also easy to fit into any game you could ever hope for. Here’s a few examples:

God of War 3: Kratos has betrayed the Gods he once stood tall with, as he ascends Mount Olympus with the Titans… to find a nice high point so he can stay away from the oncoming Zombie horde.

Rock Band 3: It’s the Zombie arockalypse, you and your band must fight off oncoming Zombies whilst still hitting the notes perfectly. Swing the guitar around whilst getting the biggest note streak possible!

Flight Control: Keep the ‘planes in the sky so that no one has to land on an Earth filled with Zombies. Land the infected ‘planes (flown by the Zombies) before they attack the others and infect them too!

Gran Turismo: The real driving (over Zombies) simulator: win the race whilst mowing down Zombies, over 1000 different types of Zombies but only 5 real variations.

Red Dead Redemption: The Ranch is being attacked by Zombies! It’s an undead nightmare as you def… didn’t they already do this?

Flower: Plants vs. Zombies? Where have we heard that one before?

I could do this all day, but I won’t; the Zombies are coming (to every game you own). What’s going to be the next big thing in every game? Zombiecopters? Anyway, my point still stands – Zombies are far too frequently used and they are getting boring and dull (if they weren’t slow and dead enough already), what about the other mythical creatures? When did Vampires stop being cool? (please, please don’t answer that). How about Werewolves? Oh, they tried that with Legendary and it wasn’t good at all. Fine, you can stick with your Zombies, but I won’t bite.