Zombies, WTF!

Today is soap box day. I haven’t had the greatest week and I need to  blow off some steam in the form of an editorial. So, to start things off, I’m going to discuss my growing concern with Zombies.

Zombies, our favorite brain-eating undead hooligans from movies, TV, and other sources of fiction have become much more than just cult idols. Zombies are everywhere, and its fucking annoying. Long gone are the days where zombies represented a frightening horror. George Romero’s zombies are rolling in their grave because they have become the fodder onto which the masses now feed…blindly. Zombies, when used sparingly are the stuff of nightmares, ripping the pink flesh from your limbs. Today, zombies have become so clichéd they are in everything from Call of Duty to tampon commercials (well maybe not).

I applaud Valve for creating left for dead. They have a very interesting take on survival horror as a genre, and used Zombies to achieve that goal. I will give respect to any developer (I.E. Capcom) who uses zombies as a way to tell a story, but not blatant money making. I do take offence to Call of Duty with zombies. To me, its almost the pinnacle of laziness. “How can we as a developer easily make a coop mode that doesn’t require a lot of effort?” Answer: Zombie Mode. Lets just make a small map, put in 4 players and just send wave after wave of zombies at them. No need to innovate, just give extra EXP and bonus points. No one will notice.

When and where will this trend of zombification stop? Will Madden NFL 2013 have a zombie mode wherein you can literally play as or against the Monsters of the Gridiron? All puns aside, is this really what gamers what or are gamers as brainless as the zombies they shoot? Killing zombies is best left for people who have limited ammo and no high tech weaponry.  Lets just make a game where zombies fill the screen, you can press a red button to nuke them all. Now, that’s what I call Modern Warfare!

“Hey, psssttt…..the zombies are YOU, brah!”