The best zombie games to play right now
Much like their subject matter, zombie games tend to come in hordes. With so many scrambling and clawing for your attention, it’s hard to know which one to aim at. Luckily for you, we've munched through all of their brains to find out which ones are the tastiest.
Zombie games don't share a genre, but they do share a theme. There are strategy games, shooters, and even open-world titles where splatting undead heads is the order of the day. With so many to choose from, I won’t include games with zombie sections – sorry, Half-Life 2, I still love you – and will only focus on the games where zombies are almost the entire point.
Like a reanimated corpse spooning handfuls of intestines into its mouth, let’s dig in.
Project Zomboid
The Indie Stone
Death is inevitable in Project Zomboid, a strategic survival game where a lack of food or an injury that festers can end you quicker than a bite. It’s alright, though, since you can always find your zombified former character and stove their head in with a chair leg.
It might have simplistic graphics and an isometric style, but there’s a surprising amount of depth to be found here. Craft, creep, fight, and build your own base of operations to see how long you can last. Zombie action with brains.
The Last of Us Part 2
Naughty Dog
It gets around saying the word “zombies”, but those mushroom-headed people are definitely some kind of reanimated flesh eaters. With a similar gritty vibe to The Road, The Last of Us and its sequel take zombie fiction seriously.
As a survivor on a revenge mission, you have to fight other humans and the infected by using guns, arrows, molotovs, and stealth. Just watch out for those clickers.
Resident Evil 2
![resident-evil-2-remake[1]](https://videogames.si.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_700/MTkzNDg1NDY1ODk3MTUwMTQx/resident-evil-2-remake1.png)
Capcom
Resident Evil 2’s remake is exactly what you want from a zombie game. For starters, unlike Resident Evil 7, it has actual zombies in it. Secondly, look at that gore system. You’ll never forget the first time you see a zombie reach towards you as you fire, causing your bullet to travel the full length of its arm, splitting it open like a stick of celery.
Despite how dark and gruesome it is, Resident Evil 2’s police station will feel like a second home by the time you’re done. A second home with a secret, crest-activated exit to the sewers.
Dying Light 2
Techland
Techland’s open-world zombie sequel fell short of the first game in a few key ways, but you can’t deny its ambition. Multiple choice dialogue options, a sandbox world to parkour around in, and a crunchy melee system make this one of the best co-op zombie games around.
It didn’t fulfill all of its promises, but it offers tons of content to keep you busy if you're a completionist. It looks gorgeous, too.
Dead Rising
Capcom
There’s a whole series of these, but Capcom never topped the first game. A Romero movie kicked through an anime convention, Dead Rising is more of a comedy than a horror. Set inside a shopping mall, everything can be used as a weapon, from katanas to traffic cones.
Then there’s the fact everything takes place in real-time, meaning you have to prioritize your objectives and choose what you want to achieve and who you want to save before the time runs out. Add in a brilliant photography mechanic and you can see why it’s such a cult classic.
They Are Billions
Numantian Games
They really are though. It doesn’t matter if you’ve built your base inside a honeycomb of walls – at some point, they’re probably coming down. They Are Billions is a base-building strategy game where the objective is to survive against increasingly large and aggressive hordes of zombies.
You’ve got snipers watching the main gate, three layers of walls, and barbed wire and traps along the perimeter. There’s just one problem: they’re attacking from the other side this time.
State of Decay
Undead Labs, Xbox
Flawed but interesting, the first State of Decay is still the one to play. Take control of a group of survivors and try to make a life in the middle of a zombie outbreak, but watch out for those conflicting personalities.
State of Decay focuses in on the human aspect that so many zombie games forget, and I don’t mean cannibalistic survivors. The people you live with are just as important here as what’s happening beyond the bounds of your base. Just be ready to rifle through a lot of drawers.
Days Gone
Sony, Bend Studio
The main character of this zombie game is actually your motorbike. Set in a virtual recreation of Oregon, you’re a roaming biker who takes on odd jobs for other survivors in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
The bike acts as your lifeline, allowing you to gun it away from the screen-filling hordes that roam the map, but you have to keep it repaired, upgraded, and topped up with fuel. The fact your bike takes actual fuel leads to cool emergent moments where you’re pushing your bike downhill, hoping you don’t disturb a horde sleeping in a nearby cave, praying you find fuel as you go.
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
Rockstar, TakeTwo
Yes, this is an older game, but still one of the best examples of how to make a zombie expansion for your game. Undead Nightmare adds an entirely new single-player campaign to the game - yes, it's zombie themed - on top of a couple of new multiplayer modes.
The multiplayer might not be very populated in 2023, but it's still worth playing that campaign. This expansion can be bought standalone, and is cheap and easy to find now, which is great since it plays at a full 4K on Xbox Series X.
Dead Space (2023)
EA
The Dead Space Remake totally counts as a zombie game, thanks to the alien mutant necromorphs - the clue is in the name, nerco. They're dead alright, and therefore, they're zombies. Dead Space (2023) brings the series into the modern day with some magnificent gameplay tweaks and map updates that make it feel like a modern game in almost every way.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Capcom
Okay, so they're not technically zombies, but they are borderline mindless shambling corpses of former humans. Regardless of the cause, they're basically zombies, right? Right! And Resident Evil 4 Remake is some of the best zombie-smashing action ever released. The original game is a masterpiece, and its remake is worthy of the name. One of the best zombie games to play, and one of the best games of 2023.
UNDYING
One of the most unique art styles on this list.
Vanimals, Skystone Games
UNDYING is what happens when you cross Project Zomboid with Stardew Valley, Ico, and Persona 5. You play as a mom who's infected and only has so many days to live, during which she has to teach her son all of the skills he'll need to survive on his own. You'll be scavenging supplies, hitting zombies in the head with baseball bats, managing relationships with other survivors, cooking, crafting, planting crops, and more. Whenever you do anything, you take little Cody with you and have him learn from you, giving him new skills and trauma along the way. Get ready to have your heart torn out in more ways than one.
Telltale's The Walking Dead
Set the tone for a once celebrated studio.
Telltale
Say what you want about The Walking Dead now, but at its peak it was an absolute phenomenon, and Telltale's The Walking Dead game still stands as one of the best games the studio ever made, and that's why every game that followed emulated the same style and approach. A mistake with hindsight, sure, but this game put the studio on the map, and cemented the franchise as something incredibly important.
