What's the most commonly represented feature in zombie games? The actual killing of the zombies themselves. Be it a third-person shooter, RPG, FPS, or any genre for that matter, the actual action of killing the zombies is the premier focus of the games which showcase the Undead rather than what should be the presiding factor taking place.
Take example two of the most popular zombie games of the past generation: Dead Rising and Dead Island. The main attraction force of both games, when stripping away the promises of a deep engaging story, is the Zombies, infected, etc who have garnered such popularity over the past decade. The majority of gamers tend to ignore the promises of developers who boast about featuring an expansive world with complex characters and a focus on the act of survival itself. The result is a disappointing one, not only when failing to deliver on said promises, but also when the core experience of what the game revolves around, isn't all that enjoyable nor is it well constructed.
In another case, take Left 4 Dead. A game, that instead of pretending to be something it's not, bluntly states that it's mere existence is to provide an experience solely based around the murdering of the flesh eating corpses it casts but with a twist.
It's here that the basics of the zombie genre are best represented. It's a game well aware that while it ignores the basics of story-telling, chooses to display one of the most fundamental attributes required in a Zombie Apocalypse: Survival. In the first-person shooter genre, it is extremely common to have that one person who "Rambo's" through the entire experience, mowing down enemies left and right, and running off on their own, only to boast about their superiority after it's all finished. With Left 4 Dead, that player is the stand-out weak link of the group. They could either be the one that is left behind or the one that breaks apart the group dynamic and causes utter failure. Is it such a successful feature due to the more challenging experience or because human nature is so freakishly predictable?
Then we have the most controversial zombie game of the bunch: The Walking Dead. Based loosely off a mixture of both the critically acclaimed comic series and the television show that followed, The Walking Dead was chosen to be an adventure horror rather than the typical shooter revolving around a combat-focused experience.
At first, considering Telltales previous track-record, I was extremely skeptical. How could a game revolving around the sole purpose of zombie slaughter choose to become a point and click adventure? It's here that readers should note that the entire appeal and purpose behind both the graphic novel and television series that rose the two media giants to popularity was not the zombies, but the interaction and realistic, life-threatening situations that the survivors encountered on a daily basis.
That's where Telltale truly succeeded and caught the undivided attention of countless gamers as well as my own. Yes, zombie killing and action is a part of the games and while it's not as supremely significant, that's not where the appeal exudes from. The sheer relevance of human interaction and the indication that the undead aren't the only threat in a post-apocalyptic world nor are they the most dangerous is a highly engrossing thought. It would be a massive disservice believing that the abandonment of an action oriented environment leaves it undeserving of a play-through.
When brought down to nit-picking of it all, it truly becomes just a matter of preference and the type of adventure that the gamer would choose to undertake. Be it a mindless action-based romp through a life-less world or a massively engaging setting focused on a extreme sense of narrative and life or death situations, there is no shortage of titles to choose from but there should be an informative gesture informing people what they'll be getting into and if they're receiving their money's worth.
Should there be such a wide variety of games within the zombie genre itself or should all aspects mentioned above be thrown into a single pot and created into the single most ambitious undertaking that it could possibly ever be? Only time will tell and the masses should be able to voice their opinion.
Log in to comment