The post-apocalypse and zombies are themes widely known and liked around the world. Despite legends and ghost stories present in almost every culture, the "fashion" for zombies is relatively new, initiated in the 1970s by the series of films about the"Living Dead." Since then, a trend has been created in pop culture, thanks to which many fantastic productions were released. There are plenty of zombie stories among games, movies and books today. What are the best zombie games in our opinion? Welcome to the ranking!
The Last of Us
In 2013, Naughty Dog known for, among others, Crash and the Uncharted series created an outstanding action adventure game with horror themes - The Last of Us. The game has quickly won the hearts of players around the world thanks to the fantastic plot and stunning graphic design. TLOF has even got a remastered version telling a story enriched with a different perspective and events preceding the storyline of the game. The story is set in a world devastated by a dangerous disease - fungi that cause irreversible brain changes in humans, changing them into thoughtless and aggressive zombies that are only carriers of spores. The plot tells the story of Joel who is obliged to provide a medical institute with the only chance to save humanity - a girl named Ellie, who is immune to the disease. In the course of the game, Joel begins to notice in his companion features similar to his daughters who died at the beginning of the epidemic, which significantly changes his attitude to the mission.
Days Gone
Days Gone is one of the newest action games released exclusively for PlayStation 4 consoles. Bend Studio in cooperation with Sony created a game with mechanics similar to the title mentioned earlier. In Days Gone, however, the perpetrator of human decay is a mysterious virus. Here we play the role of Deacon - a former member of a biker gang, who has only one thing left from his previous life - his bike. The game is not based on finding a vaccine or saving the human race. On the contrary, we just have to survive here in an unfriendly world. Deacon, beyond longing for the good old world, also tries to cope with the loss of life's love - Sarah. Days Gone serves an interesting portion of action, shooting, motorcycle riding and various techniques to fight zombies.
World War Z
In 2019, some really good games were released. One of them is undoubtedly World War Z. The convergence of the name with the title of the film from a few years ago and the book is not accidental. The game was created under the license of the film. Knowledge of the movie, however, is not necessary for playing the game. World War Z has a completely different plot and tells a story divided into three acts. A theme shared with the movie are the zombies. They are dangerous, super fast and mindless - they trample, climb on each other and are able to reach almost every spot, even high located places. World War Z is a typical shooter in which our task is to fight the opponents.
Dying Light
In 2015, the Polish company Techland created a survival horror action game called Dying Light. The game is set in a first person perspective view and you can find similarities to another Techland game there - Dead Island, as well as Parkour elements from the Mirror's Edge series. You play here as a guy named Crane, who came to the city of Harran modeled on a Brazilian metropolis. The city has been attacked by a dangerous virus that turns everyone into zombies. Only a few inhabitants were immune to it and had access to medicine, so they created a community. The city has been subjected to a quarantine. The zombie theme in the game is extremely interesting because during the day they are not very active and easy to overcome, while at night the most dangerous mutations become active.
The Walking Dead - A Telltale Games Series
As the title of the game suggests, The Walking Dead series was created by the Telltale Games studio in 2012. The game was created under license and was inspired by Kirkman's comics. The Walking Dead is an excellent episodic adventure game created in the point-and-click system. There are plenty of survival elements there. In the game, each of the decisions we make has a direct impact on the development of the later game. The leitmotif of The Walking Dead is the fight of the last living people for survival in a dangerous world full of zombies. In the first episode, we play as Lee, a man arrested for murder. The zombie apocalypse has begun just a few days earlier, but it affects more and more people. We experience the first contact with the living dead when Lee sits handcuffed in the back of a police car.
Resident Evil series
One of the most popular zombie themed series is definitely Resident Evil created by Capcom. We will not focus here on a specific title, because the Resident Evil series does not have any weak parts - every part was marvelous. The whole story revolves around the infamous Racoon City, in which a series of murders disturbs the residents. In the course of the game, we get to know different mutated zombies that we have to fight. After some time, it turns out that the whole thing happens because of the Umbrella corporation which is responsible for the creation of virus. All parts of Resident Evil are survival horrors and adventure action games in TPP view.
Dead Island series
As previously mentioned in the Dying Light description, Techland from Poland created an interesting survival horror with elements of cRPG in 2011. The series of Dead Island games has several installments and DLCs. The plot revolves around the fight against zombies in a holiday resort where thousands of tourists were transformed into the living dead. Those people were enjoying their vacation on one of the exotic islands where the virus has broken out. Only a small group of people survived. The game is interesting due to the variety of weapons, ways to fight monsters and exploration. In the first part of the game, we play as a hero who does not remember how he was bitten by a zombie - the goal is to find the truth.
