Today's Top Zombie Games

This post is about Today's Top Zombie Games. Zombies have never been more popular in every aspect of entertainment from books to movies to video games and everything in between.

This list is of course in no particular order. Although, my son and I have spent an insane number of hours on number 5. Anyway, let's get started:

The Last of Us

The Last of Us was developed by Naughty Dog and released for the PlayStation 3 in 2013. The player controls Joel, a man tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States.

The Last of Us is played from a third-person perspective; players use firearms, improvised weapons and stealth to defend against hostile humans and zombie-like creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordycepsfungus. "Listen mode" lets players locate enemies through a heightened sense of hearing and spatial awareness. Players can also customize weapons and items using items scavenged from the environment. In the game's online multiplayer, up to eight players engage in co-operative and competitive gameplay in recreations of single-player settings.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is an episodic interactive drama graphic adventure video game developed and published by Telltale Games. Based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series, the game consists of five episodes, released in 2012. It is available for Android, iOS, Kindle Fire HDX, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. 

The game takes place in the same fictional world as the comic, with events occurring shortly after the onset of the zombie apocalypse in Georgia. However, most of the characters are original to the game, which centers Lee Everett, who helps to rescue and subsequently care for a young girl named Clementine. Some characters from the original comic book series also make in-game appearances.

Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil 6, is an action-adventure third-person shooter game. It was developed and published by Capcom. The developers define the game's genre as "dramatic horror", although promotional materials for the Japanese version (such as the packaging and official website) still classify the game as survival horror. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012.

The story is told from the perspectives of Chris Redfield, a former member and founder of the BSAA traumatized by a failed operation; Leon S. Kennedy, a Raccoon City survivor and agent for the U.S. government; Jake Muller, illegitimate son of Albert Wesker and associate of Sherry Birkin; and Ada Wong, a freelance agent framed for the bio-terrorist attacks by Neo-Umbrella. They must all confront the force behind a massive bio-terrorist attack with the newly developed C-virus in cities across the world.

Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter video game, the sequel to Valve Corporation's Left 4 Dead. The game launched in 2009, for Xbox 360.

Left 4 Dead 2 builds upon cooperatively focused gameplay and Valve's proprietary Source engine, the same game engine used in the original Left 4 Dead. Set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, Left 4 Dead 2 focuses on four new Survivors, fighting against hordes of the Infected, who develop severe psychosis and exhibit zombie-like tendencies. The Survivors must fight their way through five campaigns, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of escape at each campaign's finale. The gameplay is procedurally altered by the "Al Director 2.0", which monitors the players' performance and adjusts the scenario to provide a dynamic challenge. 

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2 Zombies

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a 2012 first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision It was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

This is the third time for the Zombies mode to appear in a Call of Duty game, and the first time to have game modes other than the traditional Survival mode.

In Cole War-era Nevada, a team of CDC operatives investigate a nuclear testing site known as "Nuketown", where they are attacked by zombies. Dr. Edward Richtofen is heard via a television, carrying out his scheme on the Moon. Richtofen seizes control of the zombies by entering the Aether, but Dr. Ludvig Maxis works with his daughter Samantha and Richtofen's former allies, Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki to thwart him. To this end, Maxis launches three massive nuclear missiles filled with Element 115, the element responsible for the reanimation of dead cells, at the Earth, destroying it. One missile completely destroys Nuketown and all present.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare is an open world, western action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar and published by Rockstar Games. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles in 2010, as a downloadable expansion pack to Red Dead Redemption. The game follows John Marston as he searches for a cure for an infectious zombie plague that has swept across the American Old West. 

Undead Nightmare is played from a third-person perspective in an open world environment, allowing the player to interact with the game world at their leisure. The player can travel the virtual world, a fictionalized version of the Western United States and Mexico, primarily by horseback and on foot. Hordes of zombies traverse the world, often attacking towns. 

State Of Decay

State of Decay was first announced in 2011 as an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive. State of Decay was envisioned as a step towards Undead Labs' full online console game, Class4. Class4 will be one of the first zombie massively multiplayer online games to come to the Xbox One. In a 2014 interview, Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain stated that State of Decay had officially become a franchise, with the company's partnership with Microsoft Studios confirmed. He stated that the first State of Decay was "just the start of (Undead Labs') long-term ambitions"

State of Decay focuses on survival tactics: stealth, evasion, distractions, base building, survivor community, securing resources, and moving through the world more than actual zombie combat. The game is in an open world, where the player's choices are an important factor. Players are able to choose from a large variety of locations to build a base in. Structures such as watch towers, gardens, sleeping quarters, kitchens, workshops, medical bays, and barricades can be constructed to defend against the infected population, help survivors recover faster, and build explosives and other tools.

Dead Rising 3

Dead Rising 3 is a 2013 open world survival horror beat 'em up video game. It is developed by Capcom Vancouver and published by Microsoft Studios. The game was released as a launch title for the Xbox One platform 2013; It was announced as an Xbox One exclusive during Microsoft's E3 2013 press conference on June 10, 2013.

Following in the footsteps of previous installments, players control new protagonist Nick Ramos in third person. Players' primary focus is to search for supplies and weapons in order to fight many undead and complete missions. Dead Rising 3 is set in a vast, open world environment which is much larger than the worlds of Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2 combined. According to developers, the game can render three times as many zombies on-screen at once as its predecessor. Players can save their progress anywhere, as opposed to limiting saves to toilets. The game includes a "Nightmare Mode" for those who would prefer the traditional time limit and save options.

Dead Island

Dead Island is a 2011 action role-playing survival horror video game developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is centered on the challenge of surviving a zombie-infested open world island with a major emphasis on melee combat. It was originally announced at E3 2006, but was pushed back to 2011. 

Dead Island features an apparent open world roaming, divided by relatively large areas, and played from a first-person perspective. Most of the gameplay is built around combat and completing quests. Dead Island uses experience-based gameplay and character customization, though options are quite limited, it is more character selection rather than "customization". The player earns XP by completing tasks and killing enemies. Upon leveling up, the player gains health and stamina, and can invest one skill point into a skill tree and level up one of their skills.

ZombiU

ZombiU is a first-person survival horror video game developed by Ubisoft Montpellier for the Wii U video game console. The game was a launch game for the Wii U console, first released in North America in 2012. The player assumes the roles of various humans during the game, as they attempt to survive a zombie apocalypse in London. 

In ZombiU the player assumes the role of a random survivor in a zombie apocalypse. The player collects various items and weapons used to fight and kill zombies that are located or looted from different areas. If the player's character is killed by a zombie, which can occur with a single bite, the character will permanently die and the player will then take the role of another random survivor. The previous character will become a zombie, whom the player must kill in order to reclaim his original inventory. If the player has Miiverse enabled, it is possible that other players' characters will also appear as zombies carrying the items they had collected. The player can also tag clues and hints onto walls that other players can see when they're on their own adventure.

Day Z

DayZ is a MMO open world survival horror video game in development by Bohemia Interactive and the stand-alone version of the award-winning mod of the same name. DayZ began development in 2012 when the mod's creator, Dean Hall, joined Bohemia Interactive to commence work on the standalone version of the game. The development has been focused on altering the engine to suit the game's needs, developing a working client-server architecture, and introducing new features like diseases and a better inventory system. In 2014, it was announced that DayZ would be coming to the PlayStation 4. 

The goal of DayZ is to stay alive and healthy during the conditions of the zombie apocalypse that have befallen the in-game world. The player begins equipped with only simple clothes and a flashlight, and must begin exploring the large 225km² landscape of Chernarus+ to investigate locations such as houses, barns, and apartments to scavenge supplies. These supplies include food and water, which are basic keys to prolonging the player's life. Beyond the bare bones of survival, players can find various forms of clothing, which not only allow the player to customize their character, but can bring the benefit of extra storage space for supplies and warmth. Also scattered around the map are a variety of weapons, allowing players to protect themselves from zombies or other players if necessary. Currently these are largely focused on a range of melee weapons, but a small number of firearms are present, as well as various attachments such as bipods and telescopic sights.

There you have it. This is a rundown of Today's Top Zombie Games. If you have any favorites that are not listed here please feel free to add them in the comments and let us know what is awesome about them. 

Also, stay tuned for the release of a future zombie novel by author Travis Stinnett.