Reaching back to the time before huge colossal bosses such as those seen in World of Warcraft, you will find the standard bearer of all that is evil and bad in video game land: the zombie. What is the zombie? What has he done for us as gamers? What does future undead killing hold in regards to multiplayer gaming?
The zombie is a very simple opponent. While some games focus on the classical aspect of the creature (they want to eat your flesh) as opposed to the more modern definition of a virus infested freak (they want to beat your flesh), zombies have always had a single purpose. And that is to make your day a bad one. No creature can go from silly to scary in such a quick time. When traveling the long hallways of Doom II, nothing was more comedic then seeing a lone zombie shambling towards you. Pity goes along with a single zombie kill, maybe a little bit of remorse. It is when the dying screams of that lone zombie call its 20 brothers from both ends of the hallway that turn a Marine’s blood cold.
Zombies are the gaming equivalent of comfort food. With a few exceptions, the majority of zombies seen in video games act the same way, fight the same way, and die the same way. Their mass produced nature, even across different developers and systems, lends a sort of calming quality to their presence. Now developers do, from time to time, like to mix things up. This is true of all over used monsters. Resident Evil developed the Crimson Heads, a type of zombie that was much faster and harder to kill than your standard T-Virus victim. One of my favorites has always been the chain gunner in Doom. Co-op through Doom remains to be an unbeatable experience; heightened by the incredible splat those chain gunners made.
Zombies in the context of multiplayer experiences have come a long way since the days of co-op Doom II. There are some games and development ideas on the horizon that do show that maybe just killing the undead might not be as fun as being the undead. Three distinctive games come to mind as what is, and what could be, a leap forward in rotted flesh game play.
House of the Dead series:
This series has become a poster child of the co-op zombie genre. Now it could be said that House of the Dead does not have that much competition, but amongst light gun games House of the Dead has consistently proven to be one of the finest. House of the Dead is a classic example of horror co-op. It is simply more fun to get by on the skin of your teeth with a friend than it is by yourself. Pumping quarters into an arcade machine doesn’t feel like such a waste when there is another person doing it with you. It was a game within the game to compete with fellow zombie killers as to how quickly you could mow down a row of corpses. Saving your partner from an inevitable bite because he is in the middle of reloading is a great way to pay him back for not taking that shotgun upgrade earlier.
An aside to this particular sub genre that I was very impressed with was Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii. It is an incredible romp of zombie blasting with a friend that you don’t have to put quarters into. Also, as an Honorable Mention, is the cult hit Typing of the Dead, a typing tutor based on House of the Dead 2. What could be a better way of teaching your son two skills at the same time? Learn the QWERTY system as well as the all-important headshot.
Left 4 Dead:
This game is starting to get a lot of talk around the LANGaming water cooler, meaning this website. Detailed in my Great in 08 article, Left 4 Dead is set to take a huge risk this year when it unveils it’s unique game play. Players will be able to take control one of four human characters through a series of objectives in order to flee a host of infected maniacs. Humans can also take part as the infected themselves and attempt to thwart any human from escaping. What appears to be a creative respawn system that really emphasizes the difference between the good guys and the bad guys could be turnabout in LAN party gameplay. This title seems perfectly geared for getting together with your friends from the same area and shouting obscenities to each other like “Damnit man, I needed my head.”
Kojima’s Insane Zombie MMO:
What could turn out to be the Super Mario Bros of zombie games, the one to define and shape it for the next 20 years, is a small blurb of an idea born in the head of Hideo Kojima. Known famously as the creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, Kojima held a roundtable discussion about creating games with follow developers Shinji Mikami and Suda 51 last year that produced a very clever idea for an MMO. Much like Suda 51 let Kojima have the floor, I will leave it to Kojima’s own words to describe his idea:
"The zombie idea I have is a bit different. Imagine a large town where half the inhabitants are zombies. Users would subscribe, get inside the town and get bitten. At that stage they become undead and can't control their character - all they can do is modify the camera angles... They'd see their character attacking humans and have to pay just to watch! The only way they could end it is by opening another account, hunting themselves down and killing themselves. Of course, the problem is that your second character can get bitten as well."
And born amongst us is the greatest money making MMO to date. Can you imagine World of Warcraft where you have to create another account in order to save your original account? Konami would be fools to pass up on this scheme.
So, whether you are blasting off heads with a friend, murdering each other in the streets, or even sobbing quietly because your account cost doubled, zombies are sure to provide much fun and grief to gamers for years to come. Enjoy the bloodshed folks!
