Every now and then I go and hopelessly look for an actually good, Romero style zombie game. And usually when I go looking, I find other people doing the same thing on various forums. One of these request–posts asking for a decent existing game led me here.
Let’s face the reality; There are no good zombie games. Every zombie game has either 40 different “super zombies”, fantasy style zombies, minigame style gameplay, or is just a Minecraft clone. Game developers in large companies never make zombie games because it’s a quote-unquote “saturated market”, or just because “normal zombies are boring”. This is a load of garbage, and I’ll explain why.
Frequently Asked Ignorant Zombie Game Questions
"Well isn’t dead island or dead rising good enough for u"
No. Dead Island is decent but the zombies are very not Romero-style, and it’s less of a survival game than an RPG. In addition, there are special zombies, which can be disabled via mods, but that doesn’t fix the issue.
"dying light fits perfectly"
I’m not for a Russian protagonist because frankly Russians are not humans. They’re Spiderman on steroids. Russians do crazy parkour stuff all the time, drunk or not, and I find it unrealistic there would be a zombie apocalypse in Russia. Russians are too powerful to let that happen and would probably make the zombies run from them. Also, Dying Light features runners and lots of body-shot killing, which is lame, especially at night.
"but isn;t the market saterat??!?!?"
No. Minecraft clones don’t count as zombie games, and pretty much 99% of the games are either minigames or Minecraft clones, or try to pull a DayZ and force MMO style gameplay, without properly executing the idea (or they’re just super buggy).
"you want a realistic zombie game but zombies arent real so your argument is null"
Believe it or not I ran into this one ALOT. The argument is so stupid that you’d think it would only be made once, but no. I’ll clarify before this gets stated that you can have a realistic game utilizing hypothetical scenarios. Also look into Cordyceps or rabies or other parasites that modify behavior; Zombies are totally realistic, and they even do exist, but there’s just no parasite to zombify humans. Yet. Give evolution or genetic modification some time and maybe we’ll get lucky.
What Kind of Enemies Should be in a Zombie Game
- Zombies.
- Survivors.
- Stray animals.
- The environment.
Seems easy enough. But I’ll elaborate.
- Romero zombies. They walk slow, occur on death of any living person, and can only die from A.) A blow to the head, or B.) Very very high blood loss (think the zombie on the metal spikes sticking out of a heli crash in TTG TWD S1). Easily attracted by sound or scent, but scent can be masked by wearing dead people. When one zombie is alerted, it moans and alerts all nearby zombies, who in turn alert zombies close to them, and zombies close to those, and so on, so eventually the player who kicked a soup can too close to a zombie is going to have a horde behind them. Fatal zombie bites should also exist, no immunity, but you should be able to amputate and push zombies away, forcing you to be careful about dealing with the dead. Zombies should attack everything they see, as there should be no one enemy faction, but various factions for different animals and people.
- Bandits as well as human factions of survivors. Cannibals, robbers, pacifists masquerading as bandits, and good people should all be included. Think factions in The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, etc. Survivors are important, and you should be able to freely choose one group or maybe more to join.
- Wild dogs, rats, bears, wolves, mountain lions are all going to try to reclaim the cities without scary humans keeping them out and the power finally going away. So look out for predators of the dead, they’ll also eat the living. But ideally, they’d be scared of fire, because fire is scary. So are guns.
- The environment should be the biggest danger in a zombie game. Lack of resources, a power out, unmaintained nuclear facilities having to be shut down manually as the zombie apocalypse dawns, nature reclaiming cities, and tons of hiding places for bad guys should really influence gameplay. Imagine walking through a city and dead guys start falling out of a skyscraper, and most from floor 3+ die from head trauma but then you have to deal with 50+ zombies with little bullets and medicine. You don’t want to get trapped.
How to Build the World
The world should be large, open world, with many locations to loot and communities to talk with and maybe trade with or become part of. The world should be immersive and experienced in first person, with a moddability level comparable to Bethesda, to avoid stagnant gameplay. Resource chests and loot boxes, i.e. file cabinets and long-lost food storages in peoples’ basements, as well with a variety of terrain and urban/suburban/woodland/rural locations to experience. Choices made in-game should be significant to the extent of if Fallout 4 had a lovechild with Telltale Games.
Limited Resources
Vehicles would usually be broken beyond use but have salvagable parts. Bullets should be rare but found in large supplies when they are found, if they are. Gasoline should serve a large purpose, but alternate means of energy should be available, such as solar power or reclaiming a hydro-electric powerplant (or making an alliance with the Hoover Dam survivors), and the player shouldn’t be in a position of power unless they choose to try to become a powerful person. People should be uncommon but found in groups, and act as perhaps the most valuable resources.
Transportation
A good zombie game would feature horseback or automobile or other motor options for travel, and maybe accurate maps reminiscent of modern day maps of states used in case you don’t have a GPS. The transportation of goods to sell as well as supplies should be important in a society who lives on trade and supply runs, so horse drawn carriages would make sense.
Looting
Loot should be scarcely useful but found in abundance where it makes sense. A hospital full of dead guys would likely have tons of medicine still, but a hospital that’s been cleared out should have little to no medicine remaining. Gun stores should mostly be looted, but if you find something in a drawer or under a bench or on a half eaten survivor, they should work maybe be found with more than one.
Questing and Lore
A good zombie game would have a narrative designed for single-player RPG, dependent on the player’s choices. It should NOT contain a legitimate cure, or a nuclear or GMO explanation for the virus. The virus should just be there and part of life. The stories in the game should be based around what factions or lifestyle the player and surrounding characters might choose, and the game should make logical sense.
Someone Manning the Radio Station
In alot of open world zombie games with radios, there’s music playing, and this is also true on TV and in movies when someone turns the radio on in their car. This is going to be my point; Pay attention to little details. Things like having someone still man a radio tower without being killed or robbed should have an explanation. Where’s the power from? Why is the radio station still working? Attention to small details is very important.
Attention to Psychology
To maximize immersion, have characters act realistically, some being traumatized, some killing themselves, and others becoming sociopaths. Anyone who still has their stuff together should be respected, and internal conflict’s very important even in the side characters. And unlike Left 4 Dead, there shouldn’t be alot of fun killing the dead; Only psychos should enjoy that.
Know Your Audience
Alot of people will be tired of the same old super zombies over time. Alot of people really want a Romero zombie game, but understanding every zombie being the same will get boring again is important. And you should take into mind the average player’s gamestation. Typically, people won’t have a VR setup or a 4ghz processor with 32gb ram and 8gb graphics RAM. It’s alot better if you optimize the code before release, so you can achieve wonderful vfx or AI systems without using too much resources. For instance, FONV can run amazing graphics with mods using only 4gb of RAM and 2gb of VRAM, which can even compare with modern games, even though it’s just more refined and optimized versions of lighting, vfx, scripts, and textures. If you, as a developer, want to keep people entertained but still have super zombies, I’m going to suggest work-arounds here:
- A dead guy used to be buff in real life; Of course not super buff but he’s going to be harder to throw off, and do a bit more when he hits you.
- A cripple. They’d crawl because they’re crippled, and they probably wouldn’t be fast.
- Armored people. People who died holding something might still kind of use it just because they have it in their undead hands, so they do more damage, or people who died wearing bulletproof vests and riot gear should still have that on and be harder to kill because of it.
Well, that’s my guide to making a good zombie game, which still hasn’t been done. Please leave your own opinions on the matter below.
