The 10 Best Free-To-Play Zombie Games

Image via Complex Original

I’m sure you all remember how Crazy Taxi worked, right? Well, add the undead, subtract The Offspring, and you’ve got Zombie Taxi 2. Sort of.

Zombies have taken over the town to, you know, do zombie stuff. Those who were too daft to escape early must now band together and repel the zombie horde while searching for food and weapons simply wait for a cab ride out of town.

Select your vehicle, slap on a sweet decal, and hit the streets. Rescuing citizens grants extra time and cash, which can later be spent on faster, fancier vehicles.   

Oh no. I can’t help it. YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH!

Play it here.

This game is worth playing if only for the multi-paragraph outbreak explanation at the beginning. Seriously, read it. There’s science involved. And rats.

Once you get past the damn novel, you’ll find an enjoyable top-down game with simple RPG elements. Shoot zombies, level up, increase your speed, health, and weapon proficiencies, rinse and repeat. You’ll also be slaughtering the undead to such metal anthems as “GoreBastard” and “Demon Slayer12,” so you’ve got that to look forward to.

It’s not super deep, but Project Validus: Survival does serve as a nice distraction between TPS reports.

Play it here.

You probably don’t have Liam Neeson’s mad daughter-saving skills, but zombies don’t run underground sex-trafficking rings either, so it’s okay.

Zombies Took My Daughter tasks you with finding your kidnapped little girl within 36 hours. You start out Gordon Freeman style, with only a crowbar and a pistol, but you’ll soon find rocket launchers, chainsaws, and machine guns to up your arsenal.

The cities are also randomly generated, so you’ll have a different experience every time you play. When you take into account the abundant side quests and tons of clues to find, this game has a staggering amount of content.

Oh, and I won’t judge you if you drop this quote while playing.    

“I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for zombies like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.” 

Play it here.

Boxhead: The Zombie Wars is an isometric shooter – and a difficult one at that. Sure, things start out simple with only a few dozen zombies, but as you progress, you’ll soon be up to your neck in the undead.

But your little blocky dude is far from defenseless. Using pistols, shotguns, exploding barrels, metal barricades, and more, you'll fight off waves of zombies in beautiful, open environments. Make no mistake, however, Boxhead's most advanced levels are keyboard-slamming difficult. 

Play it here.

You got your zombies in my Myst.

Desolation 2: The Bunker of Fear confronts players with an entirely unseen premise: a zombie illness has afflicted the local population, and you must search for a cure.

This over-the-shoulder title is primarily a point-and-click adventure game, though you’ll see a fair share of combat as well. Using arrows to look around your environment, you’ll check out items of interest and solve puzzles to progress.

Desolation 2 is definitely for those who will willingly pass up some raw action in favor of thinking.

Play it here. 

Sonny 2 is a surprisingly deep turn-based strategy game with impressive production values. It’s got a sprawling ability tree, character classes, attributes, team management, item stores, and a bunch of other fancy RPG staples.

Sonny was a regular dude, but after waking up on a ship all zombified, things (understandably) weren’t the same. Now you have to help him fight scary dudes with spikey shoulder armor. 

If you were looking for the deepest, most elaborate game on this list, you’ve just found it.

Play it here.

Rocco is a food vendor who one day ran out of ketchup. When he orders more, a biohazard vehicle pulls up (impressively fast) and a hazmat-suited man hands him “Improved Supreme Tomato Ketchup.” This special sauce turns his customers into – you guessed it – zombies.

You’ll defend your cart from waves of the undead as you travel across the city. Eighteen achievements and dozens of unlockable weapons give you something fun to work toward.

And people say videogames aren’t capable of addressing mature topics…  

Play it here.

If you’ve ever enjoyed a “choose your own scare” Goosebumps story, Dead Frontier: Outbreak 2 should suit you.

On a quest to find medicine to treat your wife’s cholera (weird, right?), you begin the adventure by deciding what to wear. From there out you’ll contemplate which weapons to carry, which modes of transportation touse, and how to interact with any survivors you may come across. One wrong choice (like hotwiring a car instead of riding a bike) may bring about your quick doom, so be careful.  

Hint: Put on shorts and a t-shirt for the ultimate in zombie protection.

Play it here.

Too cheap to buy Dead Space? Check out The Breach, a game that borrows heavily from the plot and ambiance of Visceral Games’ survival-horror series.

The crew of Hermes, a prototype starship, is failing to respond to any communication attempts. Now, we all know they’re just too busy sleeping or drunkenly partying all the time to pick up the phone, but let’s send a guy to investigate just in case.

You’re a space dude in a space suit with a space gun. Kills will earn you experience which you can use toupgrade health, damage, and shields. It’s nothing too out of the ordinary, but it’s still a solid side-scrolling shooter. And the visuals are all done in an endearing, hand-drawn art style.

Check it out, then slap yourself for not trying Dead Space yet.

Play it here.