For this week’s blog post, I am going to be doing another top 10 list! Last time I did one of my top 10 games of all time, but for this one, I am going to be narrowing down the list to a specific category of games. This weekend I have been playing through The Last of Us 2 with my girlfriend since her roommate has a PlayStation 4. I am an Xbox gamer, so this game has been unavailable to me to play. This process got me thinking about other zombie games I have played, and it gave me the idea to make this post. This list may make people upset but know that I have not played all these games to completion, and some I have not played in a long time. I have been playing zombie games since my hands were big enough to hold a controller, so I had a lot of games to choose from. Back when all I had was a Wii, I had this game called The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct and I remember being so obsessed with it. My family was obsessed with the TV show, so this was another avenue for me to express my fandom. While this game did not make it onto my list, I attribute it to being the reason I fell in love with the genre as I got older. Some of the things I will take into account with my list are story, characters, and how good it feels to kill zombies. Last time, I think I started with number 1 and worked my way down, but I think I will do it correctly this time and start at number 10. Let’s do it!
10: Dying Light
I have so many good memories of playing this with three of my buddies in high school. The story is nothing to write home about, but the gameplay is so good. You can make any genre of game good if you make a version with parkour in it. A lot of companies that try to do that can’t make it feel fluid and it is disorienting, but Dying Light’s is very seamless and as you progress through the game it only gets better. Killing zombies is very satisfying and there are tons of cool animations with the different weapon types, weapon upgrades, and parkour kills. The only character name that I remember is Crane, and the rest were very forgettable. That is one of the main reasons why it is in my 10 spot. I never played Dying Light 2, but I am sure that it is very similar but improving upon everything I just mentioned.
9: State of Decay 2
I could not tell you the story of this game, or a single character name, but part of that is probably because a lot of it is randomly generated. That fact does not take a lot away from the game to me because I don’t consider it a “story” game. It is a zombie survival sandbox where you are trying to establish a base and improve your way of life by upgrading and clearing the plague from your area on the map. The exploration and freedom of choice that this game gives you is super neat. You recruit survivors based on randomly generated skills and can train them all up individually to be perfect for the goals you are trying to accomplish. It is very fun to go in and just mindlessly drive around killing zombies, but there is a lot of depth within the mechanics of character and base building. The kill animations are very fun, but fighting humans is actually just annoying. It is fun single-player and multiplayer, so go try it out.
8: The Walking Dead
The story in this game is fantastic! The whole choose-your-own-adventure style of game is not for everyone, but it makes for a very engaging narrative and a protagonist that feels alive. I only ever played the first game in the series, but the cast of characters is fantastic. Each character has very unique motivations and feels like they existed in a world before the apocalypse happened. I even have a Clementine hat at my house back in my hometown. There is not much I can say about the gameplay. There isn’t much combat in the traditional sense of a game. Most of it is just quick-time events, dialogue choices, and exploration. This does not take away from it though, it just means that the game may not be for everybody.
7: Dead Island
Some people reading this list may be confused as to why Dead Island is higher on my list than Dying Light. They are extremely similar games, the difference being the lack of parkour in Dead Island. However, I think the setting, story, and characters in Dead Island are all considerably better. There isn’t much else to say about this game. You go around and kill zombies with electric machetes. It’s fun!
6: Dead Rising 2
I got this game for free through Xbox Live Games with Gold, and it provided me with endless hours of fun. I don’t even know if I ever even beat it. The weapon combo system is very simple, but some of the combinations are hilarious and over-the-top. One thing this game has more of than most of the others on this list is goofiness. It does not take itself seriously at all and I love that about it. The zombies are goofy, the setting is goofy, the characters are goofy, and the weapons are goofy. What is not to love?
5: Black Ops 2 Zombies
I wasted days of my life playing this throughout middle school and high school. After each new COD release, I found myself always coming back to BO2 because it was just never the same for me. There wasn’t a map I didn’t like (besides Die Rise), the list of guns is fire, and the characters are very distinct and fun. I love the round-based gameplay loop. It makes the game very repayable as you try to beat your score with each new run. However, my favorite thing to do was the easter eggs. In future games, they always felt too easy to me, but BO2 seemed like the perfect level of complexity to the point where it was super satisfying, but not demoralizing if you had to start over. I still go back to these and play them to this day!
4: Last of Us
This is probably a controversial spot to put this game, but I promise I can explain. As I said, I am an Xbox player, so I actually haven’t been able to fully experience this game in its entirety. Even with that factor taken into consideration, it Is still this high on my list. The portions of the game I have been able to play are absolutely brutal. The gameplay is challenging, and the zombies are terrifying. I have seen the HBO show and watched enough YouTube videos to understand the story enough to know that it is a masterpiece. I would love to give it a full playthrough someday.
3: Resident Evil 4
A lot of people may not even consider this a zombie game, but I do and that is all that matters. I am currently still in my first playthrough of the remaster, but it is so damn fun. It is very hard for single-player action games to hold my attention recently, but this one hooked me hard. The only reason I haven’t beaten it is that I only play it if I am able to stream it for my girlfriend to watch. Our schedules don’t always match up, so it keeps me from playing. I will never get sick of kicking dudes in the head as Leon. The story also has a healthy balance of goofy and scary, making it a masterpiece as well.
2: Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
This one may be my most controversial pick, but I will fight tooth and nail to defend myself. This whole series is one of the best series of games I have ever played. It has everything I like: an excellent cast of characters, a competitive multiplayer mode where you can truly try your heart out and pull dubs left and right, and an engaging tower defense mode that nods to the original Plants vs Zombies games. These games take themselves the least amount of seriousness on the whole list and I love them so much. Sunflower/Pirate main btw.
1: Left for Dead 2
This game is an absolute classic. Every mission is memorable, the characters are awesome and quotable as hell, the special zombies are iconic and terrifying, and you get to mow down screenfuls of zombies with your friends. I get so nostalgic when I think of this game and how much of an impact it had on my friend group when we were younger. One of my favorite games ever is Vermintide 2, which is essentially just LFD2 but character building and rats. I was really excited for Back 4 Blood, which was supposed to be a spiritual successor to the series, but it lacked any bit of heart that the original series had. It was disappointing as hell.
That’s my list! If you disagree with me, I don’t care and you can’t convince me otherwise.
