The best zombie games I’ve played are the ones some gamers may not consider zombie games at all. They may contain elements of other genres, yet the underlying theme has to do with either raising the undead or killing the undead as a means to save the world. For today’s Monday Mayhem series, I’m going to talk about two games I’ve played that don’t feature zombies exclusively, but are part of the game as accessories.
Silent Hill: Origins—This has to be one of the scariest games I’ve ever played. The story talks about Travis Grady who ventures into an abandoned town in search of information about a girl he’d rescued from a burning house. Aside from the isolated setting, which I found creepy and somewhat unsettling, the player has to fight zombies and other entities in order to progress through the game. The score adds to the horror factor and provides the player immersive gameplay throughout. What shocked me on several occasions though, were the zombie encounters. Dimly lit corridors and the undead mix well, and with headphones on, I lost a few sleepless nights looking over my shoulder.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein—I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played this PC classic. For the time, the graphics were phenomenal and the story even more intriguing. I remember the late night deathmatch marathons with folks as far away as Tokyo and even closer to the border here in Canada. The story revolves around B.J. Blazkowicz, an American soldier sent to investigate paranormal activity in World War II Germany. Gameplay is standard with players killing everything that moves and progressing forward from one level to the next. However, the charm of the game lies in the atmosphere for when the player encounters the undead for the first time. I’ve once described it in a post dedicated Return to Castle Wolfenstein as the day I’d gained respect for zombies.
“I jumped from my desk throwing the headphones on the keyboard. I almost screamed, waking everyone in the house. I backed away from the monitor with a dead stare. My heart wouldn’t stop pounding. It wanted to rip from my chest. The cold sweat drenched my shirt. All I remembered was the moan to the right behind me that wouldn’t stop. Regaining my courage, I edged closer to the monitor and peered into the fog. I could barely make them out. Hands? Hands. They appeared from the fog. Then I saw the arms and finally their heads. Their gruesome heads lifting from their graves.”
One day I would love to play another round, but before then I have plans to immerse myself in The Last of Us. It’s only a matter of finding time.
RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale now.
RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale now.
Have you played zombie games? Which ones? What drew you into the rich virtual world of the undead?
Looking to God 
My husband has always been an avid fan of all the Resident Evil games. I attempted to play with him one time but that lasted about a minute. (Which was at least longer than when I tried playing the first Silent Hill – I literally threw the controller down when the supposedly harmless tar babies started following me). 😛
hello jack flacco its dennis the vizsla dog oh hay wow silent hill!!! my dada luvs those games altho he has not playd wun for a wile!!! he has the sowndtraks on his ipod thingie tho!!! he sez the skarriest game he ever playd wuz sumthing kalld fatal frame crimson butterfly ware yoo go arownd tayking pikchers of ghosts hmmm that duznt sownd all the skarry dada ar yoo putting me on??? ok bye
The Last of Us is incredible, at least based on what little I’ve played on my friend’s console + the playthroughs and stuff I’ve watched on Youtube. Wish they would port it to the Pc. It bears more resemblance to the Walking Dead games (excellent ones imo) than the typical zombie shoot-em-ups
I loved resident evil series on the ps1, dead rising and dead island were great too ! Also the walking dead games were very good surprisingly !
Ugh, I hated just watching people play the Silent Hill games…those corpse things that are under the cars…*shudder*
Dead Space is a really good horror game series.
Resident Evil 2 was one of the big games of my college years. My friends and I would play it all the time, especially in dark rooms or during storms. Got to the point where we were making plans to survive a zombie invasion of campus and town. It wasn’t the smoothest of plans though. Grab blunt object or weapon and bash way to a taller building to secure one of the suites.
Left 4 Dead was another fun game, but it was better with friends. I liked how it never really went the same way each time.
I love the Silent Hill games, especially Silent Hill 2. Have yet to play origins but am very much looking forward to it once I beat the remastered version of Resident Evil.
I love the Silent Hill series, even though some of the purists out there seem to shun it due to the lack of traditional “zombies” in most entries. Origins definitely has some of the freakier moments, though… *shudder* Especially when meeting the parents…
I am sixty nine and death is coming. Maybe not tomorrow and hopefully I got a good amount of time before I go. But when I am dead I will visit you so you can converse with a zombie. I will not eat you for you are full of words and I am on a low word diet.