"Zombies, man. They creep me out."
Kaufman-Land of the Dead 2005
If there is one type of an enemy that seems to be everywhere in pop culture it's the zombie. Zombies have enjoyed a renewed sense of popularity with Resident Evil, 28 days Later and Romero's return to the genre. It seems that zombies are everywhere and they are very eager to eat not just our flesh but the lead that flies from our virtual weapons.
What can I say?
I love zombies and all that they are and most important it's the one end of the world scenario that video games that have actually prepared us for. We have all played Resident Evil or more recently Left for Dead and it's recent sequel Left 4 Dead 2 and now we feel prepared to take on hordes of the undead or so we think?
I mean what makes these walking dead so attractive that's spawned it's own genre of games? Its likely the fact these monsters are just so much cannon fodder and line up to be mowed down and show no fear or any emotion as they are cut down. Zombies tap into that aggression that boils deep down inside of ourselves and we just let loose and have our base instincts take over, kinda scary huh?
I mean think of rush most of you feel as you unload a full clip of ammo into a crowd of them?
Its' a feeling that we all can agree with if you loaded a game of Left 4 Dead or Resident Evil or any number of similar games. Its a mix of desperation when the crowd is running towards you and ammo is in short supply and then instincts take over and it's time to flip the switch to full auto and rock and roll.
Sure, we have other enemies in games that attack en mass but there is something about zombies that really triggers something primal inside of us. There have been attempts in cinema and even games to make us feel remorse for dealing with these threats to ourselves such as Diary of the dead and Resident Evil 5's Majini but ultimately it's the kill or be killed attitude that takes us over.
I could read into this a bit further and say zombies allow us to explore the inhumanity to man and what we do when faced with just each other to rely on but many others before me have talked about it before and so I'll let their words stand on their own.
It's an interesting thought to think such an enemy that exists purely in fiction allows such a rush of intense emotions to be felt and let's something else entirely take over for the few spans of a heartbeat.It could be argued that games like Call of Duty invoke the same blood lust but I think games like this trigger something else entirely within ourselves and just take a step back the next time your playing and see what I mean...
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I will admit, as someone who is terrified of guns and killing in general and doesn't like violence in the least... and also as someone who is afraid of zombies (won't walk through a graveyard if you paid me), the first time I played the arcade game Evil Night and picked up that bright pink shotgun (>_<; pink...) it definitely got my blood pumping.
ReplyDeleteThere's just something about blowing holes in something that looks like a person but isn't really a person anymore, so you don't feel the guilt and remorse you would in killing a "real" person, like you would (or I would, really) playing a war game like Call of Duty, for example.
Humans as a species are really kind of hypocritical when it comes to our baser, more primal urges. Killing, sex, our ancestors did these things to survive, it's part of our genetic makeup, but at some point we decided these things were shameful and wrong, though even at the same time, porn is a massive, successful industry and our country in particular squees in patriotic delight the moment it's time to raise the guns.
But I digress. Zombies. *ahem* Long story short, it's like getting to kill other people, but they're already dead so you don't have to feel bad about it.
Zombie games really don't do it for me. Perhaps I feel this is way to fake. I need something like Uncharted where it is a high action fast paced and believable game. People were raving about the call of duty zombies on cod5 but i saw it once and felt they were missing out on some way better games. Especially ones that were designed specificly for the CELL BE Proccessor. It is simply more beautiful than anything. Uncharted 2 is a perfect example.
ReplyDeleteI always viewed Zombies as creatures for the nerd subculture, we don't want to understand or care for the creatures, we just want to shoot or kill it, so Zombies are perfect, they aren't very intelligent,you can take on many at a time, and their slow enough to give you a chance, also they work great for any nerds favorite holiday Halloween since you can easily just apply makeup fake blood and instead of be another character be a zombie version of you, plus we need a creature as long as those Pain in the ass "Vampires" exist and main stream is dumb enough to eat it up.
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