Poll: Anyone else getting tired of zombies?

[Extra-Ordinary]

Yeah, I burned out on zombies after Left 4 Dead 2. I still like Resident Evil, but everything else, I'm just kind of "meh" about.
My friends ask me if I watch "The Walking Dead" and they flip out when I tell them I watch "Hell On Wheels" AMC.
It's half-annoying and half-funny. "OH EM JEE How could you not like The Walking Dead?!"
And I tell them the same thing I said here: "They just don't intrest me anymore. I'm sure it's a good show, but it's not my thing."

 

[Muspelheim]

Yes, I'm exceptionally tired of zombies. They're not a bad device on their own, it's just that we've been subjected by a veritable landslide of them recently. I mean, Pride, Predjuice and Zombies, for heaven's sake.

And I'm also getting a bit tired of the whole Nerd-Zombie apocalypse fantasy. It's as if some people are actually crossing the fingers at the prospect, so they can go off and build a fortress somewhere and beat down the zombified jocks and rule the lands.

Zombies aren't bad. But there's so much more than just zombies in the way of horror/apocalypse scenarios.

 

[natster43]

I still don't have a problem with Zombies. I more wish that games would make them a slightly bigger threat, most games just make them bullet fodder, with no real penalty for fighting or getting bit by them.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Just now? I've been tired of zombies for a while now.

 

[Reaper195]

Dead Silnad (Island. But I typed that first and thought it was a cool looking word) almost had it. The combat was really good, the large areas were cool. I wasn't a fan of the boss-like zombies, and fucking hated the running ones. But the part that made me rage the most was the level scaling. Why can I bash heads open with broom sticks at the beginning, but the higher level I am, it takes about four slashes with a sword to the face to kill a normal walker. The story/voice-acting/characters were crap...but everything else was done really well. It was the first Zombie game I've played where I generally felt unsettled playing it at the beginning. Then I just got annoyed when Infected would run at me, speed attack and kill me before I could kill them with my epic machete of rape but do nothing because of my level 39 status....

Yeah, too many survival horror games have become action-horror, we need to have more games like Dark Corners of the Earth, Silent Hill, or Amnesia, ones where you can't fight back easily or at all, therefore giving more suspense and tension for immersion. It's not scary if you can gun down every monster like expendable mooks.

...I saw this post. Then I came with the force of a thousand suns.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

I could never get tired of zombies in any way. They are my go-to favorite "creature". Not only in games, but in films, books, whatever.

That said, the gaming industry has been leaning on them pretty heavily in recent years. I remember a time when zombie stuff was actually pretty rare. But now fans of the undead have an embarrassment of riches. Not that they are all gems mind you.

The gaming related problem with zombies is that they can never really be true to themselves. What makes zombies work in film is that even though they are slow, they are an ever present threat, creeping up in the darkness to try and turn you into lunch. In games you pretty much have to be an unstoppable badass who takes them out en masse so you never really get the full on creepy factor that zombies have the potential to deliver. A few games have come close, but mostly you still end up mowing them down like crazy or they have to add giant mutants to be the "real' threat like the Lickers and Hunters and Smokers and Tanks.

To be honest, that new Naughty Dog game looks like it'll try to really bring the goods. I'm hoping it can be a fresh start for showing zombies as a threatening enemy without having to rely on Resident Evil style mutations to deliver some true sense of danger. I hope to one day see some game that really makes a good Romero style zombie game where you have to defend, scour the land for salvage, and if bitten can lose the game by contracting whatever made up disease turns you into an undead.

Sorry, I can go on about zombies forever. But to put a button on it, no. I am not in the least bit tired of zombies in any way. Good thread though. *smiley face*

 

[Kanova]

Really, I am waiting for one game. It would be set in a town, completely multiplayer. Starting out (Game set like Day 1. Day 2. Day 3 so on.) Day 1, each player would start in a house or apartment in the town, and would have to meet up in order to survive. Day time would be for exploring the various homes, building or stores. Gathering items like food or things to use as weapons. Night would be when the zombies would come out and you would have to have a place to hide out at. They wouldn't know where you are unless you leave an obvious sign like lights, music playing, teammates outside or whatever. They would wander, go in if the door is open or mob if they knew someone was there. Of course there would be zombies at day, just not in huge swarms like at night. Think "I am Legend" but less super fast moving ghoul things.

Anyways, as days past you would have to change up where you stayed or looked and more and more varieties of monsters would show up. I don't know what kinds but more then just the shufflers. You win when the army arrives or some kind of help, Iono. Day 90 or something.

I think that would be a fucking awesome game with a bit of work on it.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Yeah, I burned out on zombies after Left 4 Dead 2. I still like Resident Evil, but everything else, I'm just kind of "meh" about.
My friends ask me if I watch "The Walking Dead" and they flip out when I tell them I watch "Hell On Wheels" AMC.
It's half-annoying and half-funny. "OH EM JEE How could you not like The Walking Dead?!"
And I tell them the same thing I said here: "They just don't intrest me anymore. I'm sure it's a good show, but it's not my thing."

The best zombie books/movies/shows are actually not about the zombies at all. They are about the human drama that can arise when surrounded by an unknown and unstoppable enemy. And Walking Dead is one of the better ones I've seen.

Of course if you don't dig it you don't dig it and that's fine. But the zombies are never really the center of the story in Walking Dead. It's all about how the characters are trying to make a life for themselves and zombies are just the catalyst for moving things forward.

I haven't watched Hell on Wheels yet. Sounded good though. Maybe I'll catch it one of these days.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Nope. Because BRRAINS

Om nom nom.

Heh, that's my Twitter background image.

 

[Zyst]

Nope. Because BRRAINS

Om nom nom.

Heh, that's my Twitter background image.

Yes, pretty much. Zombies are awesome! I am not tired of them, at least yet.

 

[thedoclc]

Yeah, too many survival horror games have become action-horror, we need to have more games like Dark Corners of the Earth, Silent Hill, or Amnesia, ones where you can't fight back easily or at all, therefore giving more suspense and tension for immersion. It's not scary if you can gun down every monster like expendable mooks.

Saw this early in the thread and saw the OP nearly said what I feel. My only quibble with this post is not that horror relies on a weak protagonist and powerful enemies. Horror relies on making the threat disquieting. It relies on mixing primal and adult fears, throwing in human frailty (moral as well as physical), and leaving the audience sympathetic to the characters yet sure many or even all are doomed. That said, I think the OP is completely right. When the protagonists are either never in real danger because they are so badass, or when the protagonists are all such jerks we don't care about them, the horror genre loses all traction.

I'm not saying the protagonists have to be weak or ineffectual, but they have to be both physically -and- psychologically vulnerable. You weren't freaked in Dark Corners of the Earth when the shoggoth showed up because it is the scariest monster in gaming. You were freaked because the main character started hallucinating, muttering to himself, limping along, and gibbering. In my first attempt, he wound up shooting himself rather than face the monster.

That mind game is what makes horror.

Back on topic:
Can I say I'm more tired of zombie fanboying than of zombies themselves?

Yes, yes, zombies are a fine plot device. Decidedly American style horror. Usable in anything from modern horror to high fantasy to science fiction. Perfect empty vessels for you to stick in whatever symbolism, ideas, or horror tropes you want to include. Heck, you can even play them for horror comedy or even comedy that deconstructs the zombie genre.

I'm more annoyed by the over-reliance and the gushing fanboys, but that's just my preference. And if you are tired of it, do what I do. Avoid those games and shows you don't like, then let other people go enjoy them.

 

[ianeddy44]

I am REALLY getting tired it. I get the feeling that it's become one of those awful fads, for example: chest-high walls (a la Zero Punctuation). Once one game did them and did them well BAM they became a staple of the mainstream and haven't moved since. There's nothing interesting about the cover system and chest-high walls anymore. Indeed some would say that it's stifling innovation as developers choose a "safe" mechanic to ensure return on their product. Zombies have become that go-to filler creature when you DON'T have russian/arab soldiers to gun down.

Don't get me wrong though. I really love me some Killing Floor because Tripwire did the zombie genre extremely well. They understood that the whole reason Zombies are good and frightening is because they're lurking and you can hear them but you don't know if they'll be around the next corner or not. It makes you feel like their prey, which is a very primal human fear. Having zombies that just run at you for the sake of getting shot is NOT a "zombie game" it's a "horde game" with Zombie creatures as the horde. Similar, but distinct differences here. For that, I am tired of the "horde game with zombies," and I am NOT tired of "zombie games."

 

[TilMorrow]

Well I wouldn't really call zombies villains now, they generally fit evil forces' cannon fodder rather than actual villains. But am I bored of zombies? Well if they are used right then no. However, if I have to walk through them like an everyday occurence (e.g. Dead Rising) then it gets boring and annoying.

Oh wait unless you mean the frequency with which they appear in games? Well lets have a looksey at the iPod App Store. *looks* yea half these games right here contain zombies and don't make any sense.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

In a way, yes. It seems like you can't take two steps without falling over a zombie-expansion of some variety. I like zombies but I liked it a bit more when there was some sense of context. Granted, it's a bit odd contextually for zombies to infest Non-Vegas (Dead Raising 2) but it made more sense then John Marsten stumbling over a hoard of the Undead one day and, context is just thrown out of the window when Castro, Nixon etc, are fighting off even more undead (too bad Roosevelt wasn't there).

I don't want for zombies to go away, they make great fodder (unless they call themselves Draugr in which case they can be annoying as hell) but it would be nice if zombies were forced into every last thing.

 

[Aprilgold]

This thread again? I mean, for real.

No, its like getting tired of robots, you just can't. I certainly love how theres always a thread like this within a month or so of the last one. I also find it ironic that people say they hate zombies because its over used, then goes out and buys a war game like Call of Duty and others since thats a overused thing, military games. Better yet, Space Marines, look at how many Halo-esque clones exist.

Look, if you hate zombies because their overused, think of all the other over-used things in your life that you have bought. I'd think that also milking a franchise counts, if you own Modern Warfare 3 yet say that you hate zombies because its over-used, then look at CoD, its a over-used brand.

Ok, hands down: How many Zombie-focused games and movies were released last year?

Dead Island, maybe 1-5 flicks with Zombies... I can't recall more. Why should I be tired of them if my last encounter with them was in L4D2 (released in 2009)?

True. There haven't been many big zombie games in a while, or any big zombie movies. I think the latest thing for zombies is the Walking Dead TV show.

 

[A.A.K]

I've always been tired of the undead. I never liked them. I went through a brief spell enjoying the bloodied and mysterious vampire, as well as the ravenous ever changing werewolf...but beyond that I'm pretty darn sick of it.

 

[babinro]

Not at all.

Then again I pace my zombie material out and don't get overexposed to it.

I plan on buying RE6, the last game that used zombies that I bought was Plants vs Zombies. Before that it was RE5 and RE4.

For similar reasons, I'm in no way tired of military FPS games, or sports titles, etc.

 

[latenightapplepie]

No. But only because I keep seeing zombie games that just aren't quite right. If there was one that really captured zombies well for me, perhaps I could understand retiring them for a little while.

 

[Johann610]

Zombies aren't an enemy, they're a disaster (movie). Put the heroes on the run, yay. Even in an apocalypse scenario, they're too stupid to threaten a few humans--maybe it's conservation of ninjutsu. I fall back on the Law of Bruce (a.k.a. Villians Write the Plot):

"A movie of good guys vs. bad guys can ONLY be as smart as the baddest guy. "