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So I'm a guy who likes zombie games that have some kind of good atmosphere and story, but at the same time still retain RPG elements like inventory management etc. I'm not the kind of guy who likes to play multiplayer coop, teaming up with a buddy with headphones on and fooling around like in Day Z. Games like Left4Dead that have zero story and just end up being bullethoses where you slaughter x zombies per second is just not that interesting. And tropical islands just dont cut it as an atmospheric setting for a zombie apocalypse, so Dead Island wasnt for me either. And the Resident Evil games are now more about big scary mutated monsters than the zombies itself, so no thanks. While I liked the Walking Dead a lot, the cel shaded cartoonish graphic novel style graphics might not be everyone's thing, and in any case its more an interactive point and click story than an actual game. I liked the pen and paper style indie game Zafehouse Diaries. Really cool stuff where you explore a town as a 2D map with your survivors breaking into homes, fighting zombies, searching the house and hauling useful loot back to your fortified safehouse.

For me, the best singleplayer zombie video game right now is State of Decay. GTA IV quality graphics, open environment, you can play as almost any character you want, you try to survive with fellow survivors and do errands like looting, scavenging and helping people calling for aid and there's just enough story to keep you going and always wondering what's gonna happen next and whether you're contributing enough to your group or whether you could do that one extra mission really fast.

Resident Evil 1+2 on the PS1. Chances are there will be replies that say they sucked, but man, when those dogs jumped through the windows in the beginning of the first one...*shudder*

Not your typical 'group zombie survival horror' game, but I still think they're some of the best ever made.

State of decay is just oh so good. It's a little rough around the edges, but you forgive all that because of how much it dose and how hard it tries. Like how it still has a story even though every character can die. (and will die if I am playing. Blasted feral killed my best sniper when I played last.) You kind of assume that they wouldn't wast effort giving background and custom lines to characters that might not even get played , but they do and that is kind of neat.

I still need to get around to playing the second DLC of State of Decay, the one with the soldiers.

But yeah, I'd agree that it's the best for telling a zombie survival story... even at your strongest you don't mow through the undead like in say L4D or whatever, because you know all of your resources are ultimately going to run out.

I'm not going to get into to the debate of 'are they zombies or just infected etc' but it sounds like 'The Last of Us' would tick the boxes for you.

I've only played the PS3 version and the DLC but it is an outstanding game. Also one of the best DLC's I've played.

I'm not sure how different the PS4 one is besides graphics though.

Also Day-Z is fantastic but the multi-player element does ruin it ocassionally.

I have to agree on The Last of Us. They're more or less zombies, the combat is outstanding, and the story is superb. The PS4 has a bit better AI pathing and framerate I believe, but the main boost is the graphical enhancement.

Also, I played State of Decay. It was fun, but felt too small time indie game for me. I want my zombie experience to be a big title, not a side project

Going to have to agree with the State of Decay suggestion, I played it on the PC and it did feel like a bad port with some poor design choices, but it's a fun game that I sunk an awful lot of time into. I still need to give both DLC's a try, but the main game has been most entertaining so far.

If looking for something mindless, there's always Nation Red, a simple top-down shooter or the always hilarious the Typing of the Dead: Overkill.

State of Decay seemed like something you'd have to play consistently or not at all given its time mechanics. I have it in my Steam library, but haven't gotten around to installing it because of this. I'm sure there's either a mod that removes it, or just the time consuming process of resetting the system clock every time, however, I just can't be bothered with the hassle at the moment.

 Frankenberry wrote:
Resident Evil 1+2 on the PS1. Chances are there will be replies that say they sucked, but man, when those dogs jumped through the windows in the beginning of the first one...*shudder*

Not your typical 'group zombie survival horror' game, but I still think they're some of the best ever made.

They remade those for the game cube and Wii. And tbh they looked fantastic and were the same games just updated. I agree, once you get over the clunky controls, those games were fantastic. I still did resident evil games, but the first two were just great. 4 was good to even though it had zero zombies in it.

 KingCracker wrote:

 Frankenberry wrote:
Resident Evil 1+2 on the PS1. Chances are there will be replies that say they sucked, but man, when those dogs jumped through the windows in the beginning of the first one...*shudder*

Not your typical 'group zombie survival horror' game, but I still think they're some of the best ever made.

They remade those for the game cube and Wii. And tbh they looked fantastic and were the same games just updated. I agree, once you get over the clunky controls, those games were fantastic. I still did resident evil games, but the first two were just great. 4 was good to even though it had zero zombies in it.

I still say RE2 deserves a proper remake, not a port to the cube :( Though to this day, RE2 is by far my favorite in the franchise. Oh, how many pairs of underwear did I soil as a child when I tried to play RE2 and always failed to get past even the first quarter of the game :p

 Wyrmalla wrote:
State of Decay seemed like something you'd have to play consistently or not at all given its time mechanics. I have it in my Steam library, but haven't gotten around to installing it because of this. I'm sure there's either a mod that removes it, or just the time consuming process of resetting the system clock every time, however, I just can't be bothered with the hassle at the moment.

The time thing is annoying. I'd say State of decay has 3 big flaws. The game will play when your not around. The stealth system is unless, but the game tells you it is awesome. The base and survivor management is hard to understand.

The game playing when your gone is kind of self explanatory bad. It means unless you play constantly bad things happen. It's maybe a little more annoying that you basically have to quit and come back in order for some actions to happen. (Weapon and vehicle repair.) With the stealth system going stealth is basically not worth the effort. It takes a lot longer and your better off just springing in and beating up zombies then trying to stealth kill them all. The base management stuff is a lot to learn your first time playing, It works kind of how you expect it to, but so much happens without your input that 5 games in and I still don't know the specifics of most actions other then they are good.

The playing while you are away thing is pretty minimal if you have a decent base setup. I've left and come back after a week or two and been fine.

Actually I'll probably catch some slagging for this.

I loved ZombiU, it's gritty, the zombies are realistic in terms of strength and durability (as in more than 1-2 zombies can be very deadly.)

The movement scanner (almost Alien in concept) is very fun and adds to the terror, although the combat can be a bit awkward sometimes I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Also the whole concept of killing your former self for equipment and other people who have failed is quite cool. It's multiplayer but without other players

yeah well lets not derail this thread by talking about non-PC console/handheld exclusives, shall we? I know there are plenty of awesome zombie games out there but not releasing for PC grinds my gears


Automatically Appended Next Post:

nomotog wrote:

 Wyrmalla wrote:
State of Decay seemed like something you'd have to play consistently or not at all given its time mechanics. I have it in my Steam library, but haven't gotten around to installing it because of this. I'm sure there's either a mod that removes it, or just the time consuming process of resetting the system clock every time, however, I just can't be bothered with the hassle at the moment.

The time thing is annoying. I'd say State of decay has 3 big flaws. The game will play when your not around. The stealth system is unless, but the game tells you it is awesome. The base and survivor management is hard to understand.

The game playing when your gone is kind of self explanatory bad. It means unless you play constantly bad things happen. It's maybe a little more annoying that you basically have to quit and come back in order for some actions to happen. (Weapon and vehicle repair.) With the stealth system going stealth is basically not worth the effort. It takes a lot longer and your better off just springing in and beating up zombies then trying to stealth kill them all. The base management stuff is a lot to learn your first time playing, It works kind of how you expect it to, but so much happens without your input that 5 games in and I still don't know the specifics of most actions other then they are good.

Time only continues to pass for 24h after you quit. So if you play the next week, or the next month, only 1 in-game day has passed.

About the stealth - well I dont know about you but in the beginning I really needed it. Endgame ok we all have rifles and over a hundred bullets and half a dozen silencers and molotovs, but in the beginning, getting into needless fights that attract more and more zombies just isnt an option.

And while I agree that there should have been a more extensive base management tutorial, the concept of being the leader of a ragtag band of survivors and learning how to manage the base on your own instead of someone holding your hand is I think a very rewarding experience. It makes you really feel like you're running things - youre the one calling the shots, you know? If you are good then awesome, if you suck at it thats also an experience of surviving in a post apocalyptic world where each day matters.

My only gripe with this game is that I have already finished it, and only 16 hours in. I only managed to explore most of the 1st village (Spencers Mill) and of course all the other story related locations throughout the county, but for example never felt the need to move the base over to Marshal and eventually the Trumbull county Fairground. There should have been missions that force you to relocate, like a zombie invasion, or sickness, or a fire or just your survivors egging you on, perhaps with a fight breaking out as to who wants to move and who wants to stay etc.

re2, RE4 and last of us are my favourite zombie like games.


Wish state of decay was available on ps3.

 Sir Arun wrote:

nomotog wrote:

 Wyrmalla wrote:
State of Decay seemed like something you'd have to play consistently or not at all given its time mechanics. I have it in my Steam library, but haven't gotten around to installing it because of this. I'm sure there's either a mod that removes it, or just the time consuming process of resetting the system clock every time, however, I just can't be bothered with the hassle at the moment.

The time thing is annoying. I'd say State of decay has 3 big flaws. The game will play when your not around. The stealth system is unless, but the game tells you it is awesome. The base and survivor management is hard to understand.

The game playing when your gone is kind of self explanatory bad. It means unless you play constantly bad things happen. It's maybe a little more annoying that you basically have to quit and come back in order for some actions to happen. (Weapon and vehicle repair.) With the stealth system going stealth is basically not worth the effort. It takes a lot longer and your better off just springing in and beating up zombies then trying to stealth kill them all. The base management stuff is a lot to learn your first time playing, It works kind of how you expect it to, but so much happens without your input that 5 games in and I still don't know the specifics of most actions other then they are good.

Time only continues to pass for 24h after you quit. So if you play the next week, or the next month, only 1 in-game day has passed.

About the stealth - well I dont know about you but in the beginning I really needed it. Endgame ok we all have rifles and over a hundred bullets and half a dozen silencers and molotovs, but in the beginning, getting into needless fights that attract more and more zombies just isnt an option.

And while I agree that there should have been a more extensive base management tutorial, the concept of being the leader of a ragtag band of survivors and learning how to manage the base on your own instead of someone holding your hand is I think a very rewarding experience. It makes you really feel like you're running things - youre the one calling the shots, you know? If you are good then awesome, if you suck at it thats also an experience of surviving in a post apocalyptic world where each day matters.

My only gripe with this game is that I have already finished it, and only 16 hours in. I only managed to explore most of the 1st village (Spencers Mill) and of course all the other story related locations throughout the county, but for example never felt the need to move the base over to Marshal and eventually the Trumbull county Fairground. There should have been missions that force you to relocate, like a zombie invasion, or sickness, or a fire or just your survivors egging you on, perhaps with a fight breaking out as to who wants to move and who wants to stay etc.

I did not know it was only 24 hours. I guess it's better, but I still don't like the mechanic.

I never needed stealth much not even at the start. It's just really slow and it's not that hard to take out zombies with melee attacks or a car when things get harry. Maybe I should have been using stealth more, but it's just hard to see when it could be an advantage. If you start using guns then things can spin out of control, but being actively stealthy crawling through bushes and bushes is something that I almost never do.

I think it would have helped a lot if you had more control over your base. It dose a lot of things by itself without your input. Then hey could just iron out some of the unintuitive elements like that how scavengers don't actually take everything.

Project Zomboid is my favourite. It's in indefinite early access though as its being made by a one man developer AFAIK.

As for actual Story content, nothing beats The Walking Dead.

Dayz Standalone is horrid, Not zombie survival at all, just a buggy mess, with PVP tacked on. No actual skill to suceed.

 KingCracker wrote:

 Frankenberry wrote:
Resident Evil 1+2 on the PS1. Chances are there will be replies that say they sucked, but man, when those dogs jumped through the windows in the beginning of the first one...*shudder*

Not your typical 'group zombie survival horror' game, but I still think they're some of the best ever made.

They remade those for the game cube and Wii. And tbh they looked fantastic and were the same games just updated. I agree, once you get over the clunky controls, those games were fantastic. I still did resident evil games, but the first two were just great. 4 was good to even though it had zero zombies in it.

RE: Remake is actually different from RE1. It was more of a remake with tighter controls and a little bit different areas than just a straight up port. 2 and 3 were straight up ports IIRC. Sidenote: DId you ever play 0? Was actually pretty good


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sir Arun wrote:
yeah well lets not derail this thread by talking about non-PC console/handheld exclusives, shall we? I know there are plenty of awesome zombie games out there but not releasing for PC grinds my gears

Pardon me, my sides are splitting do you know how many PC only games I can name on hand I WISH had come to consoles?

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Project Zomboid is my favourite. It's in indefinite early access though as its being made by a one man developer AFAIK.

As for actual Story content, nothing beats The Walking Dead.

There's four of them IIRC. One artist, a sound guy, a coder and ...another guy (who handles everything else I guess). The next patch should have the Erosion mod implemented, which means that the world decays over time and nature takes over. I'd like to see where the mod maker took that as far as changing it for the main game, but it was pretty cool as just a mod (ridding the typical post-apocalyptic movie problem of "who the feth keeps cutting all the grass?!". Give it a couple of years and whole towns will be indistinguishable from forests, bar having an odd number of square hills). Vehicles too are going to be coming soon with that game, and hell, those are a definite requirement. Not so much to drive (though bugger walking across that whole map), but rather just for immersion as there's no vehicles at all in the game right now.

Ah, but that's me going off on a bit of a fan spank there.Yeah, as for recent zombie games that I've played (and disregarding ones which aren't out yet like Survive the Nights) Project Zomboid is probably my favorite one. For the moment, and I presume after the story is implemented, its really more about survival than straight up action. Zombies are going to have an AI update at some point which will make a lot deadlier too, though for the moment its hardly one of those games where you can just go about shooting up the place without having a couple of hundred undead folks coming to munch on you. I do like the gun mechanics too however, as its fun to get better and better over time (if you have the ammo to sustain that training curve), but no matter how good a shot you are, you have to be checking behind you all the time, as its not like those shots will just attract the zombies down the street...

A good game, but too early in its development to say the best. Leave that until the big cities are in the game along with Fort Knox. That and other survivors to contend with along with the zombies. Still, silly thing for the devs to set the game in Knox County and then say "oh we don't want to have loads of guns". They replaced an arms depot from the real world with a train yard for that reason. There's a mod (Real Kentucky Firearms) made by a guy who lives in the area which adds the kinds of weapons (not strictly guns, knives are incredibly common) you'd find there, whilst not having every other loot stash filled with assault rifles (I trashed the guns store and came away with a load of pistols, shotguns and a few hunting rifles, not all US made. The M4 I found was sitting alone in the armoury of a Police Station, but the mod maker points out that odder weapons can be found in private use. ...Ie there's a chance of finding a Barrett in private hands. Hopefully the game's developers will do something similar. Having defensive and hunting guns widely available, but the better stuff being available, but rarer ...or harder to access, ie Fort Knox being a zombie filled hellhole like the existing Mall).

There is one other game I'd like to mention, and that is Contagion.

It is a left 4 dead style game, but the pacing of the game is a lot slower. While L4D focuses on how many zombie hordes you can gun down in a minute, Contagion focuses a lot on atmosphere.

You can play it solo as well, and the graphics are amazing. Seriously creeping me out. You really do feel like a survivor exploring derelict building complexes in search for ammo to make it out of the area. Its on steam and really worth playing.