5 Best Zombie Games You Need To Play

Whether you call them “walkers”, “biters” or just the plain-old “zombies”, there’s something quite timeless about the undead hordes which we love to kill. Video games have been incorporating those shuffling corpses since the beginning of the medium, and to celebrate that we decided to look at the 5 best zombie games in recent years.

Dying Light

Dying Light 2 is a great game, but the original just has something special about its setting and story. Developed by Techland, this open-world zombie-parkour-survival far exceeded expectations, throwing you into a ravaged city full of rivalling factions, undead monstrosities, and interesting things to discover. The parkour system was sublime for a first-person game, and the freedom you have to move around the city is still unparalleled.

Left 4 Dead 2

It may be old, but it’s still gold. The original Left 4 Dead lived up to its promise and the sequel took the brilliant co-op survival chaos even further. The premise of Left 4 Dead 2 remains the same as the first: survive hordes of the undead, as well as some other nasty creatures, until you reach a safe house or evacuation point. There is some kind of story involving an outbreak of a virus, but at the end of the day, you just gotta kill a whole lot of zombies, and L4D2 does that better than just about any game out there.

World War Z

Despite the World War Z movie hitting cinemas a good 10 years ago and the original novel releasing all the way back in 2006, we finally got our first taste of a fully-fledged World War Z game in 2019. However, there’s no Brad Pitt and no introspective look into the human psyche – this is a straight-up zombie-shooter from beginning to end, which isn’t a bad thing whatsoever, as it provides a focused and well-designed experience, despite a few rough edges.

Dead Island 2

As a zombie survival experience, Dead Island 2 ticks all the boxes. It may be a more campy take than something like The Walking Dead, but it works in its favour. There’s some really enjoyable and meticulously detailed level design, where finding and scavenging for things feels intuitive and interesting; while the combat is satisfyingly bloody and indulgent thanks to the gorier moments. Well worth a play if you have any inkling or interest in zombies, hitting things, and rounding up some virtual survivors.

Dead Rising

Dead Rising can very well be considered the OG of horde zombie experiences. The game was a technical marvel when it launched on the Xbox 360 back in 2006, and leveraged inspiration from George Romero’s Dawn of the Dawn, throwing you into a shopping mall full of zombies, as you have to use your wits, makeshift weapons, and survival instincts to make it through the ordeal. Thankfully, for those who may have missed the original (or want another visit to Willamette Parkview Mall), the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is now available).

The Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a full graphical overhaul of the first game, and has been fully voiced, supports auto-saves, and has various other quality-of-life features. You can purchase your copy of it here.

Which zombie games do you think deserve to be on the list? Let us know in the comments section below: