Genre Breakdown: Zombies

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Genre Breakdown: Zombies

Fri, Mar 14, 2008

This week, I'll be taking a look at another genre, or subject, near and dear to my own heart. Let me start with a confession: when I list my favorite movies, I inevitably tend to list titles one might classify as "film" or "cinema" or whatever pretentious moniker one wants to assign to it, but I'm kinda lying each time. Frankly, when I'm looking for movies to watch late at night when I want to have a good time, I start scanning OnDemand for George A. Romero's name. I have no idea when it began or why, but I love zombies. It doesn't matter how poor the quality of the movie (*ahem* House of the Dead), if there are zombies involved, I want to see it. It doesn't matter if the zombies are shambling monstrosities with flesh oozing off their bodies or rage-infected, cannibals with sub-4.4 40 times. As long as these creatures need to eat flesh to survive, or, really, if they just like flesh a lot, it's a movie I want to see.

That goes for games as well. Zombies are almost as ubiquitous an enemy as ghosts or goblins, so I can easily sate my hunger.

Introduction:

Although the origin of the word is debated, the concepts of zombies is well-documented to have arisen from Vodou, an Afro-Caribbean belief system. The simple definition of a zombie is a reanimated corpse. Sorcerers were supposed to be able to raise these corpses and use them as their workers. Over time, the zombie mythos has expanded to include a hunger for the flesh of the living. They are mindless creatures who serve only one base need: their hunger. Depending on which film, book, or game one is enjoying, zombification either occurs after a bite from a zombie or simply upon death. What kills them? They are undead, after all. In some games, you just need to shoot them enough, and they'll no longer lurch after your character. Others require a bullet to the head or even a zombie barbecue.

It's a simple genre, and most of the entrants tend toward survival horror, but you'd be surprised by how much humor can be milked from the walking undead. For your elucidation, I'm going to go over a chronological survey of some notable games in the genre:

Doom (1993):

That's right. Doom. I'll bet you forgot about those zombies. Between the demons and all of the other mangled, deformed creatures populating the game, it's easy to forget the inclusion of those simple flesh-hungry monsters. But they were there. While zombies weren't the focus of Doom, they were an essential part of the ambiance of the game. For many people, it was the very first FPS that they played, and it has a special place in a lot of gamers' hearts. Doom without zombies would be like pasta without garlic: unholy.

Doom was initially released as a shareware application, and even though it was estimated to have only one million paying users, it was thought to be installed on 10 million computers by 1995. One reason for the success of the game was the ability of users to create custom maps and games using WAD files. To this day, I get nostalgic when I think about all of the random, bizarre WADs I downloaded.

GameSpy declared it to be the most influential game of all time, and they aren't far from the mark. With the heavy emphasis on customization and multiplayer, it set the stage for id Software's rise to early PC dominance.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors (1993):

Released on the SNES and Genesis, this game is a send-up of a whole mess of horror movies. Zombies are the core of the game as a teenage duo work to save all of their surviving neighbors from an onslaught of vampires, werewolves, and other black and white movie monsters. Most of the levels have names that riff on popular culture like "Dances with Werewolves" and "Weird Kids on the Block." The game play is straight forward: shoot the enemies with whatever bizarre weapons you happen to have on you. Water pistols and water balloons are popular options. The tone is playful. I doubt anybody lost any sleep over the zombies in this game. It surprised me to learn that the game was developed by LucasArts, but given the humor, it makes a lot of sense.

I haven't been able to find any sales figures for the game, but it has been popular enough to be released on the Virtual Console for the Wii. I just found that out while writing this story, which means I'll be downloading said Virtual Console title tonight.

Resident Evil 2 (1994):

All of the Resident Evil games have zombies. That's their bread and butter. I chose Resident Evil 2 because it was the first I played in the series, and it is my favorite by far. The Umbrella Corporation did a bad, bad thing and let the T-virus escape from their labs. As a result, the populace of Raccoon City has been transformed into zombies with a few exceptions. Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, the two playable characters in the game, try to survive the ordeal with limited ammunition and only limited save files--confounded typewriter ribbons.

You can't get much better in the survival horror genre than this game. The enemies aren't confined to simple zombies. Oh, no. There are zombie dogs. There are bizarre zombie mutations with exposed brains and giant tongues. There are few moments I've found more frightening in gaming than the first pan of the camera up to reveal the licker clinging to the ceiling above. How about the terror of walking back into a room and seeing an empty floor where there was once a zombie corpse? I don't think before that experience I ever had to pause a game because I was too frightened to continue. In my opinion, this is the pinnacle of the zombie genre.

It rates an 89/100 on Metacritic, and it has sold 4.96 million copies for the PSX version alone. That is success, my friends.

House of the Dead (1996):

My experience with the House of the Dead series is confined entirely to the arcade and my beloved experience with the Uwe Boll movie, but I do know it's one of the more recognizable light gun games in arcades. It's right up there with Time Crisis. In terms of game play, it's pretty much identical to every other light gun game out there except that the enemies are zombies. You point at the enemies and fire your gun, you aim off the screen to reload, and you try to avoid shooting civilians. As an arcade game, the zombie frequency was insane because it was designed to eat your quarters.

I wish I could say more about this series, but there is little data available about the sales of the game in arcades or on consoles. There have been four iterations of the game, so draw your inferences about the success of these zombies from that fact.

Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel without a Pulse" (2005):

I have never played this game, but the premise sounds amazing. You play as a dead traveling salesman out to seek revenge on the city where you died. You're a zombie. You eat brains. It doesn't fit with the whole fear-factor of zombies, since it's hard to be afraid of a zombie when you are a zombie. Still, the fundamental idea is sound. You eat human brains to regain life and transform those humans into zombies. They become part of your zombie army! A zombie army!

The game rated 6s and 7s for the most part from the gaming press, but sales were not impressive. Certainly the marketing wasn't there, otherwise I would own this game. I still might go pick it up.

Dead Rising (2006):

The latest play on survival horror, this game takes the basic premise of Dawn of the Dead and allows the player to enjoy sandbox gameplay inside a mall. You play a photojournalist trying to cover the events of a zombie infection inside a suburban mall with only a limited amount of time in which to act. If you choose to follow the story, as I never did, you can save small clusters of humans from zombies and achieve a more satisfactory ending. Frankly, I just used shopping carts to plow into zombies and hit them with giant stuffed teddy bears.

Well-received by critics, it has been on a number of "Best of" lists, including IGN's "Most Innovative Design for Xbox 360." It has sold over one million copies so far, and Capcom is planning a franchise around the title. Quite the laurel for the walking undead.

Conclusion:

Even though you might not expect a lot of variety, zombie games really have a rich history. I'm not sure how much more they can do with zombies, but with Resident Evil 5 looming, you can expect that I will be in line to find out. Huh. I guess Capcom really does love zombies.