GamerSushi Asks: Tired of Zombies?

Dead Rising 2

Zombies. They’re everywhere. Swarming, gnawing, gnashing, brain chomping and being generally ugly while they do it. Not only do they ravage the earth like locusts in fiction, they are rending our gaming landscape littered with their undead bodies. Seriously. No matter where you look in video games these days, there will be a zombie horde doing something unseemly, constructed out of pixels and dismembering other pixelated bodies.

While I am generally eager to play Dead Rising 2, which releases next week, I kind of wonder if I’m zombied out on video games these days. If a game is not about zombies, it will inevitably have a mode that is about zombies of some kind. Sure, fighting the horde is fun, but when are we going to move past this? Next generation?

Anyway, I thought I’d throw the question to you guys: are you zombied out? Are you excited to play Dead Rising 2? What are your favorite zombies in video games? Go!

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I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

9 thoughts on “GamerSushi Asks: Tired of Zombies?”

  1. I can take a few zombie games but in all honesty Dead Rising doesn’t interest me. If a zombie game is a good game, then I don’t mind, for instance RE4 & 5 are excellent, and zombies totally fit within the context of the game. However if it’s throwing them in for the sake of having zombies, then I’m less pleased with its handling. It’s like what you guys said in the Podcast a while ago, they’re getting to a saturation point.

  2. Zombies are fun, but I think they (as in games in general) are overdoing it. I mean, how many games do we need to shoot zombies over and over again?
    That being said, do zombie games such as L4D and Dead Rising actually need sequels? L4D2 saw us doing the same thing as the original game with a different coat of paint and maybe a few more pointy objects.

    To me, Left 4 Dead was a breath of fresh in the zombie killing genre, but that ‘fresh air’ ain’t so fresh anymore. It’s time to rethink zombie fighting into something other than ‘surviving the horde’, and to make scary games scary again.

  3. Zombies are cool in games but it’s starting to get tiring lately after Dead Rising 2 and the cowboy zombie add on for Red dead i’m pretty much done with zombies for awhile.

  4. It is tiring to see all these copycat games come out after every decent title that features archetypes like super-soldiers, zombies and emo teenagers with keyblades. But it’s just a phase, remember the Winter of Crappy WWII titles? Can’t be worse than this vampire phase the movie industry has gotten into, The next big thing, whether its Kingdom Halos 3/4 or Dead Space Rising For Dead Wars will usher in a new wave of copycats riding on it’s coat-tails.

  5. Zombies offer an interesting opportunity for game enemies, executed well in Left 4 Dead. As long as zombies are used in an interesting way, I like them, but yeah I think it is kinda weird that there are so many zombie games. I don’t know, I’m just so tired of competitive shooters that I prefer any well-made co-op game, and zombies just happen to offer a simple yet effective enemy to fight against along with your battle bros. I don’t hate zombies and I’m not “zombied-out” since I don’t buy too many zombie games, but I would say that I’d like to see some new co-op games that showcase an enemy other than the zombie horde. As for singleplayer games like Dead Rising or Resident Evil 4, I can’t really say too much since I…haven’t…played…those games…but I suppose as long as they make the zombies fun to fight against then it’s alright to have zombies.

  6. Meh. I don’t play a lot of games with zombies, because a lot of them are bad. L4D was alright, but not enough for me to buy the game. I’m still waiting for “the” zombie game. If they did something like 28 Days Later, that would be perfect. Running FULL-SPEED zombies and you don’t have guns, you just have to “Mirror’s Edge” your way outta there. That I’d love to see.

  7. I am really tired of them. After Dead Rising I think I’m going to be completely done with them for a while.

  8. My stance on this is well known and I just read that the new Yakuza game will involve zombies taking over Tokyo and you know what?

    I am intrigued. So maybe I am not zombied out just yet. But I’m getting there.

  9. To be honest, I’m not “burnt out” on Zombie games at all. There are very few games that actually concentrate on the genre, and there are even fewer that get it right. Most games just throw them in as a gimmick (World at War), or they’re just obstacles in your usually linear path (Left 4 Dead.)

    I’m still waiting for the “perfect” zombie game. A survival shooter.
    You’d take elements from games like Minecraft, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and The Sims, and you’d have a really great game. Imagine spawning in a randomly generated city with only a few tools and having to scavenge your way through (items would probably be highlighted on a map or something). There could be an ultimate goal of escaping (or surviving X amount of time), but it’d be up to you how you get there.

    Throw in a partial need system (eating, rest, etc), a good item collection and inventory mechanic, and you’d always be doing something that would contribute to your survival. It’d probably need some work to make fun and balanced (and there would be the people who wouldn’t even give it a chance), but I won’t be “zombie’d out” until something like that comes out.

    Bonus points for multiplayer coop.

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