So we have been in the era of zombie games for about 10 years now. It started over 20 years ago with the resident evil games. Now you can’t get away from this genera of games. you have the continued Resident Evil series, the Dead Rising and Dead Island series and a bunch of one offs that were cool to play also like Zombi or Dying light. There have been quite a few independent type games like how to survive and coming up on popularity enough to make a physical release was Dead Alliance. We even see zombi modes in our favorite FPS games the Call of Duty games is known for it being in all the current releases.
I have loved a lot of these games for years now and of course my favorite will always be the Resident Evil series. However, I have become partial to some other games. I really liked the zombie modes in the earlier Call of Duty releases but they became boring fast. I liked some of the shorter game options like How to Survive 2 but it only holds my attention for a short time now. I played 7 days to die and have made 30 or so days through it but it became a boring game quickly too.
So what games other than Resident Evil kept my attention? Good question. I have played through a few and put down just as many just as fast. I played through Dead Island. It was fun and became difficult. The second time trough I found play with online options and it was very fast played. Dying light I haven’t finished because I can barely advance in the game because of some of the options like hunters mode and you just keep dying when someone comes after you. I still pick it up once and a while to get a quest done. Next was Dead Rising. I am currently running through the first game again and finished the second one long ago. The Telltale Walking dead games I have completed they were mostly story. The walking Dead game that was not by Telltale was not so easy and I wish would get a re-release but I rad recently that there is a new Walking dead game coming out this year.
There is another aspect in games that don’t make them zombie games but do make zombies and ghouls a big part of the games. Take the Fallout series for example. The zombies in that game played part as enemies but not a main enemy no matter how many you came across. They were also allies in the stories. They had to explain in every game that mutants and zombies were similar they were mutated by radiation in different ways. In a couple of the games you could have them as allies and followers and you also had to save their civilizations. So not the same but still added to the genera.
There are lots of good games and lots that just take advantage of the theme for sales. You can judge the games however you want but there are a lot of them that are just super time consuming and others that you will regret from moment one. It’s just like the movies. Not all can be classics or greats and over time something better will come out that will take the place of the last favorite just as easily.
So let us look at a few of these games in no specific order.
#1. Resident Evil Series
In this series we started with the T-Virus and the haunted mansion. This was basically the first zombie thriller game. Basically you were STARS agents and running through trying to find you comrades in the mansion and survive as you discovered more seriously the breakout and that the surprise was your leader was part of it. This had many puzzles to help you continue through rooms until you finally got to the end.
The series started expanding like in the movies from the mansion to the world. Although none of the games actually covered the entire world but it still grew. It went from just the mansion in the first game to Raccoon City which was the town closest as the outbreak grew then the third stayed in the city too. Then it started covering various areas of the world. The other thing was that it changed was the virus was no longer just the T-Virus and the zombies started evolving to mutant zombies.
Now I have played all the games up to 6 including many of the off games mainly on portable systems. There was always mutated animals in the games so why not mutate the zombies to change up some of the games. Now I say I played a lot of the games but that does not mean I have finished them. I played the first 3 through and 4th I did quite a bit of but never finished because it released on so many platforms. The 5th one I played bit wasn’t a fan of because of the small maps that you had to challenge yourself through. I felt it changed the whole series more than the 4th game that started the short maps but continues as you progressed through them. There was 0 and Veronica X. Veronica X and one of the portable games was based in odd locations like a ship. That was cool. The revelations games kind of jumped around where they happened. Resident Evil 0 being a 2 person puzzler game was confusing but was a fun play and I never finished any of these more than few saves in. They all had fun factor and none of the games felt exactly the same. Next I will eventually get a chance to play through 7 but still have to purchase it.
Last was the gameplay went from stiff 3rd person to 3rd person shooter to just shooter games. Great continued story and even out of order it all tells the story of Umbrella Corp and STARS working to save and destroy the planet. Got to love biological warfare basis for the games.
#2 Dead Rising
Ok so there are now 4 or 5 games in this series. The 4th just released on PS4 and skipped Dead Rising 3 when they started releasing the games. You start off as Frank doing the photography thing to tell the story being stuck in the mall trying to expose the breakout. Thankfully the second one took away the camera. Then they released an add-on or standalone bringing frank back for the second game. brought back some of the fun you missed out on in the second game being an Extreme motorcyclist trying to save your daughter and expose and survive your way out. The third I missed because it was in my non XBOX era of gaming. The 4th I have yet to play.
So this one no matter how much you played was still great. It was like a hack and slash but with reason. You constantly were in a 3rd person type view constantly fighting your way through malls and event centers. The thing was you could just as well die as easy as kill the zombie that were all over the place. So if you died you could either save the level advancements and start over or you could just start over without the advancement from your last save. This made the gameplay very repetitive. The first game you just found your weapons then after that one you could craft better weapons based on patterns found and levels you got to and the items you found. Spiked bats were the most common and easiest to build. It just got better and better the more you played.
#3. Dead Island
Here are a few games that defined a new way to play the zombie games. It put you in first person view and basically boxing your way through hordes of zombies. This might not be the best description but it was different from any of the other styles. First person running around a resort island and completing missions and surviving until you were ready to leave or the non-spoiler ending happened. Seemingly the main 2 games were a lot alike but told the story from some other views. The DLC told the story from a completely different view but the same. They had a couple side released games that were retro style. They had some great features but not the same first person view.
Ok so in these games the outbreak was limited to the island and the point was to survive until you are able to find a way off the island. Great concept but of course the other game modes and DLC explained the opposing side of the story too. Now the missions and finding things and the RPG style of leveling up and getting or making weapons and stuff you needed slowed down the gameplay but made the game feel like there was a lot more to be done. The first time through it took me almost 40 hours to play through the game. The second time through I let the join online players happen and was able to complete it in about 12 hours of play.
This game was a defined way to look at a zombie style on first person view. It created a basis for many other games to follow like Dying Light which was the next good game that actually used the same concept but a parkour movement style. Dead Island felt slow to play compared to Dying Light but both are just as difficult just in different ways.
#4. How to Survive
This brings us to top view gaming. The 4th style you can see in games. This was also a semi-independent developer game. It originally released for PC and was ported to console. The graphics we not the best and some of the gameplay was confusing but it gets addictive then monotonous so you play and stop and play again later. This was a complete farming game even if it seems like you are just running missions to advance. It gets harder the more you level up and spend your experience to build your character and your settlement.
So you can do missions or you can explore an open map with limited options to collect basic items. The missions as you advance help you level up for the RPG feel in this game. But you get so far and you can’t kill certain regular animals like turtles for a while. The quests can stump you fairly quickly about the time you make level 10 and get stuck and get tired of farming and have an abundance of gathered goods and experience bottled up and you find you missed one simple item to be made.
The more you progress the harder it gets and some of the items you make although stronger are harder to recover when used. You do catch up fairly quickly so basically it starts becoming hard to easy to hard and back to easy. The quests are adjustable by a variable lever and you get better experience the harder it is. The thing is you can run through the quest missions or you can explore which you basically have to, to get all the items you want or need to create the new strong weapon or armor pieces. Some you can repeat and some if you die you have to start over form the beginning plus the loss of percentage of your experience. This is what can keep you playing or make you put down the controller.
#5 7 Days to Die
Now here is a mixed up mess of a game. It is very buggy on any platform. I find it crashing more often than playable even on the PS4. The thing is it’s not a bad thing because you can basically start where you left off. Although I just got the new update and haven’t seen if it fixed the constant crashing the game does yet. But that’s not the messed up part of this game. This is zombie survival and first person but the game is a basic 3D farming game that seems like a poor adaption of Minecraft or any builder type game.
I can say lots that is good or bad about the game. First off I won’t further bash the game. It’s not that bad. I can sit and play for hours at a time when I play. This game makes you start with nothing and start building from nothing. The thing is there are 2 ways to play that I have figured out and if I understand there is an online mode also where other can pay with you but I have not had that happen yet. It also may be because not many people are playing the game. The other mode is solo basic rules and the other is basically a free play where you can adjust everything throughout the gameplay.
So I have played about a month into the game and found missions are limited and hard to come buy but they are out there. There are a lot of items to collect and a leveling system that progresses as you are out running or cutting down trees or breaking rocks. This is helpful but there is something I found that makes it annoying to play. I have found tons of patterns and parts for different guns and items but I can’t find the items needed to complete the things I have found. Like smelter where is it I don’t know and if I can build it I haven’t found out how to because it’s not in my patterns. These are a few of the things that drive me nits and have me not only playing but also have my putting the game down for long periods of time just the same. The game has too much unanswered questions about gameplay and there isn’t a lot out there to help you play or progress beyond telling you to find different weather types and farm items in those areas.
So this game is one of the biggest mixed feeling games I play. I love it and hate it. The feelings are growing both ways after every time I play it. I can’t keep my house up without it being broken down every 7 days when the horde comes and it takes half the next 7 days game time to gather what’s needed just to repair my walls that get me that far. The rest the time in between I am running down supply drops and between all that I spend about one whole day exploring an area and praying to survive long enough to get my pack back to unload in my storage boxes. But I guess I will probably pick it up again and play some more in another week or so.
Recap
So in review here I have discussed each different game style that covers all the styles of play and basics of the stories if any existed. We know that it’s all end of days, outbreaks of disease or genetics that cause it and always from some other point of view. The games I listed here are ones I have played either in full or partially through the series and games themselves. I prefer games that have ending so I play the ones that don’t have ending a lot less because I am not in hurry to play something that will run on forever.
I don’t have a favorite style because all have advantages and disadvantages. They all have different stories and the gameplay helps keep you interested. Sometimes you want to just beat something up fast paced and other times as if it was from your eyes point of view. Other times you want to just shoot the hell out of the mobs coming at you. Lastly there is always whether you want or even care if there is a story behind it.
Till next time, enjoy and GAME ON!
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