Zombies -- All About the Bite

Contagion

Zombies. We all know them. We all have re-deaded hundreds, if not thousands, of them. We all have a love and/or hate relationship with them. With all this experience, with all the popularity they've had, there is still one area of zombies that I rarely see done well (or at all) in gaming -- the infection. This is certainly going to be focused more towards the video game market than tabletop -- tabletop tends to do it fairly well, or just get it hacked in by the players. Video games, on the other hand, rarely introduce the infection to the players. Prime examples being the Left 4 Dead series or the Dead Island series where all of the player characters are inherently immune to the disease, or in any number of RPG that features hordes of zombies and no player infection. Now, the video games are not completely devoid of the infection -- two examples on PC right now are Contagion and the Source mod No More Room in Hell (both of which are the screenshots for this article).  Not only do these games feature the infection, but I would say No More Room in Hell features it in one of the best ways I've seen as it persists and any medication found will only buy you a bit more time.

Contagion

I'm harping on the infection here because I feel it is one of the most important aspects of a zombie setting. Zombies, by themselves, are really not that scary, nor are they terribly threatening (except in massive quantities, but then, isn't everything?). All they really have going for them is their relentless nature and resilience.  The infection, however, changes that. Knowing that only one stray bite, scratch, or spray of bodily fluid could infect you and turn you into a ticking time-bomb is far scarier than the zombies, themselves. It is this vulnerability and need to always be aware and careful that, when combined with the zombie's relentlessness and resilience, the whole package starts to come together. And that is what I want to see more in zombie games.

Many people would say that zombie games are past their prime and should be carted off to the morgue. I, however, think there is still room for improvement. That there is still at least one really good zombie game waiting to be made.  We just need one that truly distills the essence of the zombie apocalypse. And for that, it's gonna need some bite.