The Most Comprehensive List of the Best Zombie Games Ever

As Halloween approaches, most of us will be looking for ways to subject our brains to as much irrational fear as possible. It's the holidays, after all.

Fear keeps us motivated; we're afraid of failure, of dying, of being alone. Most of all, we're afraid of zombies. Scientists agree that the zombie apocalypse is right around the corner. The only questions left are "When exactly?" and "Will they be L4D-style infected or Dead Space-like necromorphs?" Unfortunately, even if we had these answers, we'd only reveal them in exchange for rations and ammunition.

What we do have is a tidy list of the best zombie games ever made. You know, for practice. Enjoy!

Rise of Nightmares was destined to fail from the moment of its conception. Just like every other hardcore-ish game released for Microsoft's controller-less Kinect, it's rotten at its very core, and no amount of polish or forethought could have changed that.

Still, you can't blame Sega for trying. A game where players use their arms and legs to physically mutilate legions of undead is undeniably appealing to a huge chunk of gamers. Of course, no one was going to get this right the first time. The important thing is that other developers learn from Sega's many, many mistakes. We hope Rise of Nightmares paves the way for future hardcore Kinect slaughter fests, and for that reason, it deserves a spot on this list.

Admittedly, Shellshock 2 is really not a great game. It may not even be a good game. But it is a zombie game. And that's what this is about, after all.

In case you're wondering, the original Shellshock was a third-person PS2 shooter set in Vietnam, and it didn't even have zombies in it at all. Its sequel, developed by a different studio, is also set in 'Nam, but it does have zombies. Unfortunately, it was plagued with awful reviews in addition to undead Viet Cong soldiers. Like the Little Zombie Game That Couldn't, it had its moments, but overall, it was a budget title—and it showed. Notably, Shellshock 2 placed zombies in historical wars before it was cool. Take that, COD.

Alive 4-Ever Returns, despite ripping off the "4" from Left 4 Dead, is one of the finest zombie experiences on the iOS platform. A classic top-down perspective, multiple modes (including campaign, survival and horde) and a multitude of characters, skills, weapons, upgrades, and other RPG elements give A4ER more replay value than many of its counterparts on more traditional systems.

The atmosphere and production values are all spot on, and the dual-stick controls, despite their overuse in the genre, work well. Between the budget price and the excellent four player co-op, A4ER is a title worth any zombie fan's time.

Zombie Gunship gets points for being one of the only zombie games on the iOS platform that actually tries to do something different (along with Pro Zombie Soccer, which was just shy of making the list). Players take control of an AC-130 gunner (just like in Modern Warfare), except instead of enemy soldiers and vehicles, the prey is zombies. There's a nice variety of enemies, and survivors are thrown in to force players to be more careful about their shots.

It's not a huge concept, but it works really well, and a nice upgrade system will keep players' interest well beyond the normal 30 second lifespan of most iPhone games. Also, it's only, like, a buck.

Deadly Premonition is similar to television series Twin Peaks and The Rocky Horror Picture Show in that everyone agrees that it's bad, and a few people consider it so bad that it's good. It's set in a small American town, and follows the antics of an FBI agent as he investigates homicides and encounters various supernatural phenomena (including, you guessed it—zombies).

The story is bizarre, the characters strange, the dialogue nonsensical, the music often incongruous with the gameplay, and the controls just plain bad. Perhaps the best part is that it's unclear whether the game's developers are completely moronic, totally ingenious, or just consumed copious amounts of psychedelics during the game's creation. To some, this is enough reason to label the game a masterpiece. To others, it's just a crappy game. One indisputable fact, however, is that it has zombies in it. Thus, it is on this list.

Typing of the Dead is what you get when you mix House of the Dead with Sega's eccentric mindset of the late '90s. Remember Seaman? TotD isn't quite that weird, but it is the only arcade game we can think of with two QWERTY keyboards instead of joysticks and buttons.

What it boils down to is a mod for House of the Dead in which the light guns are replaced with keyboards, and players type random words ("daffodil," "ping-pong") to kill zombies instead of shooting them. On paper, this sounds incredibly silly, and it is. But it's also slightly ingenious. The really ironic part is that there are a ton of zombie fans out there who can type 100 words per minute, but have never held a gun. Good luck when the real zompocalypse comes to town!

I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 is both subtle and completely obvious. It's obvious what designer James Silva is criticizing within the games industry; it's a satirical commentary on developers' and publishers' tendency to choose the safe route and the low road every single time, defaulting to zombie games and other overdone tropes when the creative well goes dry. Judging by how many games are on this list, it's a much needed lesson.

What creeps up on players, though, is the subtle fact that it's also an awesome game. Whether purposely or not, Ska Studios created an Xbox Live Indie with a diverse array of weaponry, excellent balance and a radical soundtrack (consisting of one over-the-top track, eponymous with the game's title, which was also created by Silva). It's a testament to both his skill as a developer and the staying power of zombie games as a whole. Which is a little ironic, actually.

Fear Effect filled an interesting niche for survival horror fans at the turn of the century. Released on the PS1 just after Resident Evil 3 and just before the Dreamcast's Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Fear Effect came along at what some would argue was the height of the genre's popularity.

Of course, it was really less survival horror and more clunky action game with a survival horror control scheme, but it did have a few other things going for it. Only about a third of the game focused on zombies, while the rest told a cyberpunk tale of Espionage in the heart of futuristic China. The gorgeous FMV backgrounds and fancy-pants voice acting required the game be spread across four discs. Oh, and players got to take control of the drop-dead sexy (forgive the term) Hana as she battled zombies wearing nothing but a wet towel. Yowza.

In the late '90s, Half-Life was undoubtedly king of the first person shooters. One of the best parts about Valve's style, though, was that they released the game's engine to the community. Counter-Strike is the most lasting and significant of the resulting Half-Life mods, but another user-created mod, They Hunger, deserves a nod as well.

They Hunger was released in three parts between 1999 and 2001, and it was one of the finest mods around at the time. It borrowed little from Half-Life, and for the most part was an incredibly high quality standalone game. It follows the unfortunate tale of a troubled writer who encounters horror after horror in a fictional mountain town overrun by zombies. The production values were amazing for a mod, and anyone with the capabilities should play this saga from beginning to end.

This free-roaming zombie vacation nightmare may not be the best or brightest game out there, but you've got to admit it's ambitious. Oh, and it had one hell of a trailer, too. Would anyone have really noticed it, though, without that trailer? Yeah, probably—it has zombies, after all.

And it does a lot of things that would-be apocalypse survivors have been wanting in their games, like co-op, melee combat and a huge, open world. It moved the genre forward in some ways, while taking other steps back (the bugs) or in the wrong direction (first person and melee often don't mix very well). Overall, we can't help but feel a pang of loss for the game Dead Island could have been.

The House of the Dead and all its sequels rank among the very best in the never-ending parade of arcade shooters. The game especially heated up in co-op mode, and few other games ate up quarters as quickly—or inspired players to give them up so easily. It was a zombie game before zombie games were cool, and for that alone it deserves recognition.

Even more amazing is the franchise's ability to stay somewhat relevant, even as it shows its age. The House of the Dead: Overkill hit the Wii in 2009, and a PS3 port is slated for this very month. In addition to being incredibly obscene in almost every way, it actually got good reviews. For an aging franchise, that's an accomplishment, and fans of raunchy zombie shooters and on-rails, arcade style romps should definitely give it a try.

In addition to having one of our favorite titles for a game ever, Stubbs is significant for being the only game on this list to feature a zombie as the protagonist, and humanity as the enemies. It's not a mindless slaughter, though—it's a morbid tale of lost love, heartbreak and revenge. And we mean morbid.

Luckily for us, vulnerable mental state that we've been in all our lives, it's also hilarious, and it ends on a happy note (sort of). It also features a scene in which Stubbs gives a rousing speech, consisting of the word "brains" uttered in varying tones and volume levels, to his legions of undead followers. They respond in kind ("BRAAAIINS!!"), their spirits raised and their hunger for revenge (and brains) reignited.

In the 16-bit era, few games struck the same chord as Zombies Ate My Neighbors. This gem came out during the Super Nintendo's launch year, yet its colorful graphics, excellent sense of humor and arcade-like co-op gameplay somehow weren't enough to make it stand out at the time. Luckily, it's since become something of a cult hit, doing extremely well when it was released for Nintendo's virtual console in 2009.

Players take control of two kids out to save as many of their neighbors as possible after zombies (and a horde of other classic monsters) take over their 'hood. Plenty of games have riffed off ZAMN's idiosyncrasies, especially Dead Rising, which took the use-anything-as-a-weapon gameplay to the next level. Still, we owe a lot to Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and it's stood the test of time well enough to warrant checking out today.

Dead Nation and Zombie Apocalypse have a lot in common for two games developed by different companies and released more than a year apart. Their isometric perspectives, dual-stick shooting controls and unending waves of zombies can make it difficult to differentiate between the two, so we figured we might as well count them as one entry and make room for another game on the list.

That said, both games are definitely worth the few measly bucks it costs to download them. Dead Nation (a PS3 exclusive) will be better for players who enjoy a more linear campaign, while ZA will probably satisfy high score junkies more with its arcadey, arena-style gameplay. Both games, however, will please people who like to tear up waves and waves of zombies in gruesome, visceral fashion. And that's what really matters, right?

Although just one of many DLC expansions ultimately released for the excellent FPS/RPG hybrid known as Borderlands, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned stands out because, well, it has zombies. Lots of zombies.

It's also got werewolves, Frankenstein monsters, mad scientists, and a host of other ghouls 'n goblins. Mostly, though, it has zombies. Borderlands was a fantastic game to begin with (especially in co-op), but when they added zombies to the equation, everything else went out the window. The humor and sheer addictiveness of Borderlands are practically unmatched, and quest objectives like collecting hundreds of brains from slain undead for a friendly zombie questgiver to munch on make Zombie Island a borderline classic.

Plants vs. Zombies is about as untraditional as a zombie game can get. It also happens to be one of the best zombie games in existence, in no small part for the fact that it somehow managed to bridge the gap between hardcore and casual players before either party knew what had hit them.

It's a tower defense game without the towers, and a zombie apocalypse game without guns, horror or gore. The gameplay is simple yet deep, varied without being overwhelming. The replay value present is unmatched. More than any other PopCap title, Plants vs. Zombies sets the bar for casual games without shallow gameplay. It's also one of the funniest games we've ever played. At this point, it's been released on almost every console, so there's no excuse for not playing it.

While it may not be a zombie game in the strictest sense, some of the wretched creatures in the idyllic small town hell known as Silent Hill could definitely be classified as undead. In the end, though, it's all just splitting hairs, and Silent Hill definitely deserves a spot on this list.

Silent Hill was ahead of its time in so many ways—while its rival series, Resident Evil, was making players jump with cheap scare tactics, Silent Hill slowly eroded their sanity with incredible atmosphere and psychological malevolence of a kind unseen in any prior video games. The sequel, Silent Hill 2, is considered by many to be the scariest game of all time. Don't just take our word for it though—check out the HD collection when it hits PS3 and Xbox 360 next year. Just don't say we didn't warn you.

The COD Zombies saga began when the Zombies modes was released as part of Call of Duty: World at War in 2008. At the time, it was viewed as a novelty, but since then it's become much more than that.

After all, what two enemy types do players like shooting at more than zombies and nazis? Combining the two with the visceral, lightning-fast COD gameplay was a true stroke of genius. Up to four players defend against wave after wave of undead, unlocking new weapons and map areas as the game progresses. It's simple, but irresistible. Judging by the popularity of all the Zombie DLC packs, the spin-off games on iOS, and the continuation of the Zombies game mode in last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops, there are plenty of gamers who agree.

Just when the Resident Evil formula was beginning to stale, along came RE4 with a number of new innovations and overhauled gameplay elements that set the genre on fire. Gone were the static perspectives and non-interactive settings, replaced by a more action-oriented over-the-shoulder view and world. The traditional shuffling zombies were ousted by the more lively Ganados, and though the production values improved exponentially over previous RE games, the plot became, if anything, even campier.

Thus began the zombie game revolution. Judged by more than a handful of gamers to be one of the best games ever made, RE4 paved the way for games like Dead Space, which further improved upon the new formula. It's too bad Resident Evil 5 couldn't do the same again; though most reviewers failed to find something concrete to fault with the sequel, it failed to embody the same magic as RE4. At least we'll always have the Wii port.

Forget all the bad sequels, failed series reboots and terrible movie spin-offs; no matter what fell misfortunes have afflicted the series since, 1992's Alone in the Dark stands as the original 3D survival horror game. Even Guinness World Records says so.

It set several important genre standard, from pre-rendered backgrounds to clunky, frustrating tank controls. Without AitD, there would be no Resident Evil, Silent Hill or Dead Space. Besides, we can't think of another game that lets players kick zombies to death. Our hats go off to you, Alone in the Dark.

When it comes to more traditional survival horror experiences, Dead Space is nigh unbeatable. In borrowing mechanics from countless predecessors, EA has created a practically perfect package. The atmosphere and setting are top-notch, with the USG Ishimura feeling at once both enormous and suffocatingly claustrophobic. The enemies are horrifying and gruesome, the weapons varied and satisfying, and the plot laden with deep satirical and psychological aspects.

The Unitologists responsible for the zombification of the planet-cracking ship's crew are a commentary on the insanity of real life Scientologists, and the sequel, Dead Space 2, delves even further into the consequences of allowing a money-driven cult to take control of a populace—especially when that cult is based around supernatural facts. Point taken, EA. Down with Scientologists! Ahem.

When the first Dead Rising came along, it seemed like every zombie fan's wet dream. An entire mall to explore, survivors to rescue, an unending flood of shambling post-dead to destroy—Dead Rising had it all. And despite a host of hard-to-ignore flaws, it hit just the right spot for many fans.

More recently, the sequel promised a better story, even more zombies (10,000 onscreen at once!) and a weapon crafting system that lets players strap chainsaws to kayak paddles. To top it off, they threw just enough nods to Romero and other undead classics to sate the appetites of purists, while keeping the setting and mechanics fresh as a steaming plate of brains. Despite its flaws, the Dead Rising series is, for many, the ultimate zombie franchise.

Above and beyond any other entry on this list, Left 4 Dead and its sequel have managed to capture the essence of the zombie phenomenon. Free of confusion and unnecessary complexity, L4D is an experience pared down to the essentials of an awesome game: fast-paced combat, varied enemies, satisfying weaponry, and cooperative gameplay.

Four survivors of the zombie apocalypse undertake a grueling journey to salvation while swarms of infected, from lightning-fast runners to bullet-sponging tanks, dog them on their way. Players are forced to cooperate as they're continually overwhelmed by enemies, and trying to lone wolf it is the quickest way to a bloody demise. Additional players can even take control of the special infected types during some multiplayer modes.

All in all, the best thing that can be said about L4D is that Valve can be momentarily forgiven for endlessly delaying the Half-Life finale, when this is the kind of thing they're working on in the meantime.

As we've already learned with Borderlands and The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, the best way to make an amazing game better is to add zombies. Nowhere is this more true than in Red Dead Redemption. Few games can match Rockstar's wild west epic in terms of atmosphere or scope, and the same goes for their ambitious zombie expansion to the game, Undead Nightmare.

In order to make the expansion work, Rockstar actually retconned their original ending and split the plot into two possible conclusions; one, the game's poetic final stand and familial, final vengeance, the other, a campy, tongue-in-cheek zombie outbreak that sees protagonist John Marston riding the four horses of the apocalypse into battle with rotting, undead grizzly bears. It's that magnificent.

The biggest joke is that we can't decide which ending we prefer.

It's not the game that started it all, and it's not the game that revolutionized the survival horror genre. It's not the best zombie game ever made, and it's not the funniest, the scariest or the most difficult. It's just the one we like the most. And for the purposes of this list, that's what really matters.

The original Resident Evil didn't begin the survival horror genre, either, but it did almost single-handedly popularize it. Despite its awful controls, worse voice acting, and abysmal localization, it took the world by storm. The REmake, released exclusively for the GameCube in 2002, addressed most of the original's faults, replaced the muddy textures with the shiniest graphics we had ever seen, and added another game's worth of additional content.

It also scared the bejesus out of us. What could be more important than that?