Players have known these monsters by many names: walkers, living dead, and infected. However, the name attributed to them most often is zombie. These creatures have gone through several evolutionary stages in gaming but several truths have remained the same in their history. Video games have created them with viruses from aliens, fungus, rabies infection, biological agents, black magic, Voodoo. The results are never-ending hoards of evil undead, better known as zombies.
These shambling corpses have become an easy target as villain. Once human, they have mutated to a tragic degree into brainless and soulless monstrosities. Zombies have lost their humanity, replaced by a singular goal of gluttony. They desire more and more food and that food source often becomes any human they can grab. The zombie’s lack of soul and horrible eating habits make them easy targets for gamers. They become a blank slate virtually free of any race, color, creed and socio-economic standing. Zombies not only lose their own identity but they then spread this infection through bites or other contact. The fear of losing humanity, will and identity crosses all typical socio-economic barriers. No one is safe from this plague. Each victim soon passes from unfortunate soul, to dead, and finally, mutates into mindless beast. It is an equal opportunity threat in an age of political correctness. Creating an ever-expanding and consuming source of danger.
While the basic story of the zombie remains fairly similar throughout the ages there have been several evolutions in their presentation. I will focus on the early years in this week’s writing. Zombies first invaded gaming as one of the many endless hoards of evil minions in action and adventure games. They are simply the beasts that intend to stop the player must save their homeland from the evil doers. The game widely considered the first zombie game is named simply Zombie Zombie (ZX Spectrum,1984). The game was a very simplistic isometric game the gamer could manipulate the terrain then lure the zombies to follow them off the blocky cliffs to their second death.
As years passed the zombie masses got much larger and became a part the mass of monsters determined to stop the player from completing their mission. Zombie gaming split into two basic types of gameplay, “action” and “adventure”. Games like Wolfenstein (id Software, 1992) is a prime example of the “action” type of zombie gaming. Wolfenstein had the player wading through countless minions, including Nazi zombies with machine guns protruding from their chests. The main objective of these games is to kill, kill, kill. Other games in this style include the campy but entertaining action game Zombies Ate My Neighbors (LucasArts, 1993) and the “on rails” shooter House of the Dead (Sega, 1997). More recent games include the cute instant cult classic Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap, 2006) and the simple yet addictive crafting/survival game Minecraft (Mojang, 2011).
The game Alone in the Dark (Infogrames, 1992) typifies the “adventure” style of gameplay, typically known in zombie gaming as “survival horror”. The game is often considered the first 3D survival horror game. The game has a story and the player is tasked with solving a mystery as well as killing all the evil creatures (including zombies) that cross their path. This style give the game a bit more depth by providing a bit more of a plot. This game preceded more adventuring in games such as gloomy space marine adventure, Doom (id Software, 1993).
Survival horror got a shot in the arm with the Resident Evil series (Capcom, 1996). Survival became an even greater focus of the game. The bullets and supplies were limited so headshots and running away from enemies became critical strategies to conserve precious bullets. The element of survival strategy is added to the adventure element provided by the player’s mission to solve the mystery of a series of horrible murders in Raccoon CIty.
The early years of zombie gaming provided a gradual up-scaling of difficulty and depth in the player’s experience. The zombie has humble roots as a faceless enemy minion. They provide an obstacle to be overcome and/or avoided. In the next installment I will take a look at the next step in the evolution in zombie gaming as they progress into the modern world.
