Zombies. They come in a variety of flavors. Magic-based, or science-concocted? "Romero" or "28 Days Later"? Scary... or humorous?



This is for all the moaning, shuffling (or running), rotting undead that creep the dark halls and cities of so many video games. The zombie has become a staple of almost any game's bestiary, and in more recent cases the main or only creatures at all. The zombie has evolved to more than just a rotting mess looking to eat some brains, into something that we both loathe and love at the same time.

My first infatuation with the idea of a zombie came with my first viewing of the 1990 remake of "Night of the Living Dead". Imagine a 13 year old me watching this movie and being scared shitless while at the same time loving every second. This began my descent into the undead. I was intrigued by the idea of the dead coming back to life. The dead were already disturbing and frightening in my mind, but them coming back to life? That was a new degree of horror. Not to mention the idea of post-mortem cannibalism, which should (hopefully) be a taboo in any case. Movies, books, comics, and then video games. The first zombie game for me, and many others, came in the form of the Resident evil series, and this mess of digital flesh hasn't stopped rolling since. Dead Rising 1 and 2, Left 4 Dead, and various other avenues of undead re-deadification have risen to the challenge to sate our need to kill those who must feed.

Why are we as gamers, so enthralled by the idea of obliterating these flesh heaps? What makes them such enticing targets for destruction?

There is a simple answer, in facing the "zombie" we face what most living things fear, death itself. Sure there are other creatures that may certainly lead to death, but none exemplifying this fear as much as a zombie. A walking vision of death that exists only to feed and spread it's existence to others. Killing indiscriminately only to feed on flesh. In destroying one, we give a big fat middle finger in death's face.
Sure there are Vampires and Werewolves, etc, but it is the zombie that remains king. If you were armed with a bat, and faced either a Vampire or Werewolf, or any other wide range of typical monsters, you wouldn't have a chance in hell of besting them... but a single zombie, now there is a target that you may have confidence in. Shoot another monster dozens of times to no effect... shoot a zombie once in the head to make them dead. It never gets old.

There also no guilt in killing a zombie. For the most part they are mindless flesh eaters with no semblance of humanity remaining. There is no moral qualm about whether or not you should "kill" one, it has to happen. They don't feel, they don't think, they just feed.

Whether you kill the feral ghouls in Fallout 3, massacre waves of zombies in Left 4 Dead, or even play as the undead in World of Warcraft, zombies are here, and here to stay.


Just think back on how many zombies you've killed in your gaming career.
Did you get the Zombie Genocider achievement in Dead Rising? Perhaps the Zombie Genocidest in Left 4 Dead? Look back and smile. If they were alive the would have done the same to you.