Apocalypse turned inside out. 7 unconventional zombie games
Understanding how games reinvented the image of zombies in culture and trying to figure out if the living dead will ever go out of vogue.
The undying popularity of the zombie setting can be baffling, because the living dead have been attacking the media space for almost a hundred years now. While vampires, witches and other mystical creatures captivate the imagination of the audience only for a short time, zombies seem to remain relevant indefinitely. Hailing from Haitian rituals, the reanimated dead not only acquired a well-established image, but also underwent an extensive evolution without losing their essence, and still relying on the numerous fears and anxieties of the post-industrial society.
The popularity of zombies is also fueled by video games: here the reanimated dead got the opportunity to appear before the audience in all their glory, frightening and entertaining. But games not only exploit the established image of the walking dead, but often reinvent it. Here are 7 striking examples:
Mark of war. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)
In the vast universe of Metal Gear, all settings and genres are blended, it seems, so there is a place not only for military drama, but also for smoking monkeys, wedding ceremonies, fried eggs and vampires.
Not surprisingly, in the fifth installment of the series, almost canonical zombies made their debut as puppet soldiers, fighters with no will of their own who became victims of biological warfare during the Cold War.
The paradoxical vision of Hideo Kojima (the creator of the franchise) manifested itself here in full. On the one hand, the puppets grotesquely repeat all the zombie stereotypes: slow and disoriented, they wander around the battlefields, moaning and waving their arms with dislocated joints.
On the other hand, the zombie soldiers become part of a larger metaphor for war — enslaved puppets fighting in the name of other people’s ambitions, having lost all individuality and the will to live. Here, the puppets are horrifying victims, and at the same time, enemies that you have to fight. The essence of war as it is.
In this sense, Kojima’s approach is nothing new: zombies are used a tool for discussing social issues in other games as well.
Individual and collective. The Last of Us series (2013–2020)
The first part of the huge hit from Naughty Dog turns zombies into a backdrop for a story where people and their actions come to the fore. The infected are incapable of moving the plot forward, but they create the necessary degree of danger that awakens the true nature of people.
The story, built on the confrontation between gangs and loners, shows the division of people and the inability to unite. And Joel’s final choice is expressed in a formal refusal to be responsible for the salvation of mankind. Instead, the hero puts his feelings first. It is the ability to feel and empathize that, by and large, becomes the only thread separating the infected and the survivors.
The very process of zombification partly works for this idea as well. A person infected with the fungus degrades and becomes a simplified version of themselves: anxious at first, then aggressive, apathetic, and finally they turn into a primitive cluster of spores. The belligerent survivors are not much better, and have the advantage of being intelligent. And in the end it is not clear who is worse here.
Zombie positivity. Plants vs Zombies series (2009–2021)
Indie developers didn’t pass over the zombie topic. And although the Plants vs Zombies franchise is now under the patronage of the gigantic Electronic Arts, the first part was initially developed by one person, George Fan. It was his talent and vision that helped the game become a success.
There are several innovative moves at the heart of Plants vs. Zombies. Here, the zombies are opposed primarily not to people, but to plants, and the very tone of the game radically departs from the usual horror formula, offering instead a bright positive world.
Moreover, the details behind the appearance of zombies and animated plants remain vague. To replace the detailed backstory, the developers offered fun artwork and addictive gameplay. It turned out that it is not necessary to build a dramatic plot around zombies, just like diving into the details of the existence of these monsters.
Also Plants vs. Zombies reminded us that zombies are actually funny — they are ridiculous, slow and stupid. What is there to be afraid of?
Soda up your nose. Sunset Overdrive (2014)
The deconstruction of zombies as horror characters was continued by Insomniac Games in their forgotten Xbox exclusive, Sunset Overdrive.
Here, the familiar concept of a “zombie virus” is brought to the point of absurdity, and experimental soda becomes the cause of the rabid bloated crowd. As in Plants vs. Zombies, the atmosphere of zombie horror is turned inside out here: the game levels are bathing in sunlight, the enemies are caricatures, and the plot is glued together from a stream of gags.
Despite striving for originality, the game did not become a hit, and good reviews from the press did not help sales. And the innovative zombies did not become a favorite with the public.
It is likely that zombies, completely cut off from the dark sides of human nature, are incapable of capturing the attention of the audience. There must be some kind of pain behind these creatures, and only then will their image fire on all cylinders.
Pure sci-fi. Mass Effect series (2007–2012)
While the authors of Metal Gear Solid and The Last of Us made zombies part of their authors’ statements, and in Plants vs Zombies they were just making fun of the dead, the creators of Mass Effect delved into the details and nuances of the origin of the reanimated corpses.
One of the most memorable (and first to encounter) enemies that the player meets are husks — synthetic zombies (essentially robots). Husks are created from the bodies of fallen victims using the technology of the Reapers, the main antagonists of the game. As befits zombies, they are devoid of their own will and serve their masters, including not only the Reapers themselves, but also the synthetic geth race, as well as the enigmatic Collectors. However, unlike their organic counterparts, husks are fast and agile, and by their very nature are not limited to the human race and can be created from various inhabitants of other planets. An elegant point in the image of husks is the way they are obtained: the bodies of the victims are literally strung on mechanical spikes.
It’s not limited to robots alone, and another stand-in for zombies in the Mass Effect universe are the Thorian creepers — creations of an intelligent plant organism. Strictly speaking, the creepers are not people at all, although they look like them, but all the formal attributes are there: deadly pale skin, lack of will and bizarre, putrid flesh.
Into radioactive ashes. Fallout series (1997–2018)
The ghouls from Fallout were lucky: thanks to the emphasis on story, they received a lot of attention, were given the right to vote, and as a result, they are one of the most memorable characters in the series.
The setting of a nuclear apocalypse turned out to be a suitable background for the living dead: in the hopeless world of a collapsed civilization, ghouls not only express the general decay of society, but also directly exploit people’s bodily fears, relying in full on body horror aesthetics.
Actually, there are many varieties of ghouls: there are feral wretches that lost their human essence, and intelligent creatures that are remarkable for their longevity. Then there are rare varieties, like Harold, a tree mutant who fell victim to the virus.
And, finally, the most unexpected (and, perhaps, incomprehensible) property of the ghouls is their ability to give hope. In Fallout, the apocalypse struck, and that okay — some survived, while others generally became mutants. How cool is that?
Clear metaphors. Donut Punks (2022)
The fact that the apocalypse can be cool was not forgotten by the developers of the mobile shooter Donut Punks. Horror here is replaced with frivolous satire, the end of the world is presented as a liberation from dull social norms, and zombies are walking metaphors.
Here, the undead are literally adults who surrounded children with meaningless restrictions. And therefore being a zombie in this universe embodies all facets of conformism and ossification. In their turn, the main characters, teenagers, are not willing to bow down to the dictatorship of boomers, and the emphasis in the story is not so much on survival as on rebellion. Players also get the opportunity to work through all the deep childhood traumas. Psychotherapeutic and fun.
Bypassing the regular rules, not only the heroes, but also the zombies themselves can boast of individuality here. Their image often embodies certain vices of the “adult” world. For example, the walking Mr. President has money flying right out of his posterior, and the notorious clown and patron of fast food is drowning in his own fat.
In the final analysis, games loosely expanded on the original idea of zombies as living corpses, if not abandoned it altogether. It seems that this flexibility contributed to the popularity of the walking dead. A variety of subtexts also contributed to their success. Anxieties about death, fear of “others”, fear of the crowd and social stratification, dreams of permissiveness and the need to express anger — zombies always met these demands. However, none of them can be prioritized over another.
Games not only continue to look for new metaphors in zombies, but they also find them, not forgetting to exploit the animal instincts of the players. So, the potential of these creatures as heroes of pop culture is yet to be depleted. Should we look forward to new discoveries?
