There are plenty of opportunities to be swarmed by the lumbering undead in games, from narrative, open-world titles to survival adventures, not to forget my favourite – co-op zombie games. With loads of these games offering different, and sometimes unique, gameplay, this genre undoubtedly has a wide style palette.
Some go for the gore, some offer the thrill of surviving an apocalypse, while others simply give you the opportunity to have a fun time with friends. I, for one, can’t get enough of the zombie apocalypse. In fact, the reason I wanted an Xbox 360 back in the day was to play Left 4 Dead with friends.
Despite being tough sometimes, the Left 4 Dead games rarely felt unfair. They give you the tools and incentives, and it’s then up to you to make a decision about when to be greedy or fall back. Playing with friends adds an extra dose of fun without making the game easier, creating memorable moments you will remember for years to come. Meanwhile, story-driven/solo zombie games bring their own set of challenges and worlds to explore.
In this piece, I’ll cover some of the best titles in this genre, including those you play once before moving on, and those you could play daily without getting bored. Note that I’m not including the Resident Evil game series, since I’d argue that it’s better suited for a horror list than a zombie one. As always, don’t shy away from sharing your favourite picks with us on our social media channels.
Left 4 Dead 2
Release date: November 17, 2009 | Developer: Valve | Platforms: PC, Mac, Xbox 360
Left 4 Dead 2 is a highly replayable and chaotic zombie game, with a great emphasis on teamwork and coordination. Whether your zombie foes are controlled by AI or humans, teamwork remains essential for survival. When playing as humans, you need to cover each other’s backs while sharing weapons and first aid kits. When playing as zombies, you must synchronise your strategy, so you can lure humans apart from each other and pick them off one at a time.
The game has a good level of strategy too. When the time comes, do you sacrifice one player to reach the safe zone with the rest of your party, or do you risk it all and leave no one behind? This question arises more often than you might expect, thanks to the game’s AI Director, which controls when and where to spawn normal and special zombies, based on how well you’re doing. This creates a well-balanced experience where you’re kept on your toes, but without the game becoming frustrating.
The Director also manages item spawn locations dynamically, which makes each match unique. Combined, these aspects make Left 4 Dead 2 one of the most replayable games I have ever played, and my 244 hours of playtime on Steam alone can attest to that. No wonder 30,000 players are still coming back to it daily on Steam, even after all these years.
Plus, if you get bored with the official gameplay loop at some point, you can always try one of the plethora of modded servers, which offer community-made maps and skins. There are also custom servers that expand the lobby size to 16 or even 32 players per match, which creates massive chaos.
World War Z
Release date: April 16, 2019 | Developer: Saber Interactive | Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Take Left 4 Dead 2, switch the camera to third-person view, add heaps upon heaps of zombies, and you get World War Z. While the former already had a good number of flesh-eating monsters on screen, World War Z pushes the action to another level, with swarms of zombies rushing at once. It feels exactly like the 2013 movie starring Brad Pitt, so much so that even automatic weapons struggle to clean out the hordes.
Thankfully, these massive swarms only arrive at specific moments in the match, such as while you’re waiting for a boat to slowly start its engine, or a massive door to open for you to cross. This gives you some leeway before the horde is triggered, a peace time that can be used to barricade your location, plant mines, and load your weapons.
As with Left 4 Dead 2, you travel through interlinked levels with your team, keeping the weapons and items you find as you advance toward the climax fight. While you won’t find any modded servers in this game, the included content is already varied enough to keep you going for hundreds of hours.
Dying Light: 2 Stay Human
Release date: February 4, 2022 | Developer: Techland | Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
If you like your games with an open world and a good story, Dying Light 2 Stay Human is an excellent option, whether you like to play solo or co-op. The first game was already super fun to play, thanks to its fluid parkour movements and revolving day/night cycle, and this second instalment perfects that legacy. On top of climbing and parkour, Dying Light 2 now allows you to zip-line between buildings, and even wall-run like a Titanfall mech.
The gameplay focuses a lot on melee weapons, but guns are also available to save you from those sticky situations, particularly if you explore its world at night in the hope of scoring better loot. Unlike our previous picks, Dying Light 2 sways more toward one-on-one combat, encouraging planned attacks and strategic use of surroundings.
Getting surrounded by zombies because you’ve been overconfident is a death sentence. As if this wasn’t enough, in Dying Light 2 you also have to deal with competing human clans chasing the same valuable resources as you, this time armed with guns.
Beyond its fun gameplay and great world design, this game also offers a story where your choices dictate the outcome. It doesn’t have the most memorable story, but the game would feel empty with out it, and the narrative still helps adds immersion to the world and explain the relations between its factions.
Dead Island 2
Release date: April 21, 2023 | Developer: Dambuster Studios | Platforms: PC, Mac, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.
If you want a lot of gore, dismemberment, and uncensored brutality, look no further than Dead Island 2. The game takes place in infested Los Angeles following a zombie outbreak, where you combine your forces with other survivors to stay alive. Dead Island 2 lets you choose from a character roster, with option rocking unique abilities and character stats. It’s then up to you to tailor your gameplay to the character’s strengths, making you more deadly.
Once more, the gameplay favours melee weapons to showcase the game’s unique and highly detailed FLESH system. Standing for Fully Locational Evisceration System for Humanoids, it provides procedural body damage, where every zombie 3D model is constructed from layers of skin, fat, muscle, and internal organs. All these parts can be individually damaged and cut during combat to reveal the underlying layer, in a highly realistic way. Blunt weapons shatter bone, blades and swords slice through tissue, and Molotov cocktails melt through skin.
The story is enjoyable too, if a bit light, with some funny moments that shine thanks to its voice actors’ talents. Aside from the highly detailed body damage model, I also enjoyed exploring Dead Island 2’s world, especially the Bel-Air area with its flashy celebrity estates.
Overall, Dead Island 2 is more about fun and gameplay than story or deep mechanics. It’s a simple, yet engaging, game to play solo or with friends. Considering that it remained stuck in development hell for a decade, I was pleasantly surprised it turned to be this good.
Days Gone
Release date: April 26, 2019 | Developer: Bend Studio | Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5.
Keeping with open-world zombie games, we have Days Gone, the first on this list to feature a player-controllable motorcycle. On top of being mandatory for exploring this game’s vast world, the bike is also an important tool to stay alive. Unlike many zombie games, where enemies are slow and easily outrun on foot, here, you can easily be surrounded, especially when bothering zombie nests. As a result, having the bike close by is paramount to your survival.
While your bike is a gift, it can also be a huge burden if you don’t plan ahead. On top of occasional repairs, you’ll also need to provide fuel, which adds another layer of strategy to each expedition outside of protected camps. The latter are far apart, as humanity has been reduced to a small collection of barely functioning enclaves. That said, the juice is worth the squeeze, since exploring Days Gone’s world on top of the bike is highly satisfying.
When it comes to combat, it’s important to know when to keep a low profile and when to go in guns blazing. Zombies, or Freakers as they’re called in this game, can be super-fast and deadly, so planning ahead for an escape route is important. That also goes for fighting human enemies, as they can use firearms to take you out from a distance.
With that said, the most dangerous and spectacular aspect of the game is when you tickle a zombie nest and witness hundreds of them rushing at you. Days Gone is truly a worthwhile use of your time if you’ve not yet played it.
State of Decay 2
Release date: May 22, 2018 | Developer: Undead Labs | Platforms: PC, Xbox One.
State of Decay 2 takes the zombie genre, adds community and base building aspects, then sprinkles some permadeath on top of it all. Unlike the other games on this list, State of Decay 2 is as much a zombie-bashing game as a management sim. You get to create and manage a community of survivors, constantly scavenging for resources and new members to keep the lights on.
In State of Decay 2, finding new members of your team is as important as building fortifications. That’s because each character comes with different traits that allow them to craft specialised items, such as meds and explosives. You can also take control of any of them to take advantage of their speed, stealth, or combat ability, though at the risk of losing them permanently if you die.
Yep, death is more serious here than in other zombie games, and it’s a mechanic that encourages you to act cautiously instead of going all in and hoping for the best. That said, you can’t simply hide inside your camp and call it a day; you will need to use the your characters, so you can upgrade their skills, forcing you to take risks.
To help you explore and transport the countless resources needed to maintain your base, you get access to a plethora of vehicles, ranging from small, two-seat cars to large vans with loads of storage space. Like Days Gone’s bike, these vehicles require a constant fuel supply and maintenance to keep going, particularly as running through zombies causes damage you often can’t avoid.
Likewise, fighting the hordes is not always advisable, especially since weapons can break due to wear and tear. State of Decay 2 is undoubtedly a game where risk and reward are deeply intertwined.
Basically, this game is less about scoring the most zombie kills, and more about creating a self-sustaining community. If you like a pinch of base building and management with your zombie cocktail, this one is for you.
