Games

Upcoming Zombie Games

Published

2 mins ago

October 26, 2024

Christoph Rediske

Key Takeaways

Zombie games need to be unique and high-quality to capture modern audiences’ interest amid over-saturation in the gaming market.
Expect a wave of upcoming zombie games, from indie to AAA, with diverse settings and genres to keep players excited.
Keep an eye out for projects like STALKER 2 and Projekt Z offering fresh takes on the zombie genre.

The zombie genre ruled the entertainment landscape for the better part of the last decade, and though audiences are currently a bit fatigued, it’s a post-apocalyptic setting that comes back in waves. It’s been that way since George A. Romero released Night of the Living Dead back in 1968.

These days, a zombie-focused video game can still capture audiences’ excitement and anticipation, but they need to deliver something that feels refreshing, unique, and/or of unmatched quality. More games, both AAA and indie, are released in the modern era than ever before. That means that there’s likely more than a handful of upcoming zombie games to look forward to at any given time.

Updated October 26, 2024 by Mark Sammut: October 2024 produced a couple of zombie games, although their receptions have been all over the place. Arizona Sunshine’s remake mostly went down fine, even if it is perhaps not a “must-own” upgrade for people who already played through the original version. The Killing Antidote entered early access to a mostly decent reception, but the same cannot be said for No More Room in Hell 2. The sequel has garnered quite a bit of criticism and is not ready to be a replacement for its predecessor. That’s not to say it will never get there, but NMRIH2 is very much an early access title that emphasizes the “early” part.

Fortunately, the month is ending with quite a big zombie game…or, to be more exact, expansion.

As long as its monsters are similar to zombies, a game will be considered even if it assigns a different name to them.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (PC)

A Long-Awaited Port Of An Open-World Western Masterpiece And Its Awesome Zombie-Themed Expansion

Red Dead Redemption

Released: May 18, 2010
Developer(s): Rockstar San Diego
PC Release Date: October 29, 2024

Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption is hardly a new game, with both the vanilla content and the Undead Nightmare expansion launching in 2010 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. However, the ambitious open-world game never made its way to PC, and that seemed set to remain forever the case when, in 2023, Rockstar opted to only port the project to the Nintendo Switch and PS4. PC players seemed destined to never get to experience John Marston’s iconic and timeless story, along with missing out on arguably one of the greatest expansions of all time. Undead Nightmare is an absolute blast to works pretty well as a standalone experience, to the point of originally being released like that.

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Fortunately, Rockstar finally decided to throw a bone to the PC scene and deliver Red Dead Redemption, with the package containing both the canon content and Marston’s ridiculously entertaining zombie-infest alternate adventure. Obviously, the main game is the primary reason to pick up this port, but Undead Nightmare is not just a minor bonus. It is long, fun, and just the right mix of silly and serious. The expansion features an open-world and everything that comes with it, combining for roughly 10 hours of gameplay. Honestly, Undead Nightmare shows that Rockstar could probably put together one of the best zombie games ever, if the developer decided to go down that route.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Open-World Survival

Systems

Released: November 20, 2024

Regardless of the circumstances, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was always going to be a big deal. GSC Game World’s franchise has amassed an impressive cult following on PC, and the sequel’s console availability and Game Pass Day 1 launch should significantly expand the license’s audience. Even if some entries are better than others, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has yet to produce anything resembling a bad project, and the anticipation for a modern game has been steadily building up over the last decade, especially since the last release was 2009’s Call of Pripyat.

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Utilizing Unreal Engine 5, Heart of Chernobyl will allow long-time fans and new players to return to the Exclusion Zone, a nuclear wasteland that is slowly trying to rebuild. Faction warfare, anomalies, and strange artifacts are just a few things players can anticipate, along with (presumably) a heavy focus on survival mechanics. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 should be one of the biggest games of 2024.

Dying Light: The Beast

An Open-World First-Person Zombie RPG

Techland’s Dying Light is well-established as one of the best open-world zombie franchises. While not getting glowing reviews, the original project blended action, parkour, and exploration in a sublime way that did not negatively impact its capacity for horror. Even all these years later, Dying Light holds up as an impressive sandbox that manages to be scary and constantly fun. The sequel, Dying Light 2 Stay Human was more of an action RPG with some horror elements than vice versa, which garnered a somewhat mixed reception from die-hard fans of its predecessor. Nevertheless, the positives outweigh the negatives, making it a worthwhile option for anyone craving a zombie romp.

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A recent job listing hints that Techland, the studio behind the popular Dying Light franchise, may have yet another unannounced project in the works.

Dying Light: The Beast appears to be a throwback to the 2015 entry’s style and tone, including the return of Kyle Crane as the protagonist. Set in Castor Woods, the standalone adventure starts with Kyle escaping his imprisonment, setting him loose in an environment that has changed a lot over the last decade. More importantly, Kyle has some zombie DNA, which gives him unique abilities.

The “Beast” in the title seems to refer to both Kyle and a monster roaming Castor Woods. At least, that appears to be the case based on the currently available information.

The Beast should have most of the staples associated with the franchise. During the day, players will be able to explore relatively freely (although not without risk); meanwhile, the night brings out the worst horrors found in Castor Woods. The game also supports 4-player co-op, which should be a fun alternative to a solo run.

Dead Season

Turn-Based Tactics Zombie Game

Dead Season

Systems

Released: 2024-00-00
Developer(s): Snail Bite

Although typically associated with first-person shooters, zombie games cover a relatively wide range of genres, even if there is always room for expansion. For example, Dead Season is a tactics game that puts players in charge of survivors who must work their way through 16 missions of turn-based combat, which seems to use an invisible grid system akin to something like XCOM or, to a lesser extent, Baldur’s Gate 3.

If nothing else, this project takes the genre in a fresh direction, at least in terms of gameplay. While zombie games usually thrive on creating chaotic environments that constantly threaten to overwhelm poorly prepared survivors, Dead Season‘s more deliberate pace could have a similar impact by forcing players to regularly examine their next move to ensure they do not attract more enemies or lead one of their characters to their slaughter.

On its Steam page,
Dead Season
has a demo.

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando

Co-Op Shooter

Revealed in June 2023, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando introduced itself with a gloriously cheesy ’80s trailer soundtracked by Bon Jovi. Set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun with zombies, Toxic Commando looks set to be a co-op first-person shooter with a class system and a quirky sense of humor. Any horror project that carries John Carpenter’s name comes with higher expectations, but this game at least left a positive first impression.

Saber Interactive has an extensive resume that includes World War Z, another co-op zombie shooter that was received fairly well. Toxic Commando appears to retain that release’s overwhelmingly massive hordes, which is the best part of that game; hopefully, the upcoming title fine-tunes and improves upon World War Z‘s ideas.

Projekt Z: Beyond Order

Co-Op FPS

Projekt Z: Beyond Order

Released: 2024-00-00
Developer(s): 314 Arts

Hard to imagine that a game simply called Projekt Z will be released too soon, but this World War II zombie shooter has made quite the impression with its trailers. Not only does it provide a captivating atmosphere that infuses a bit of horror into the well-treaded genre setting, but visually the game offers beautiful lighting and textures.

title image video game zombies that talk draugr skelly jake baker

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The developers are a fresh new German indie studio called 314 Arts comprised of nine total employees. It’ll offer both single-player and online co-op zombie killing spectacles as players try to uncover Nazi secrets hidden on an occupied island.

Killing Floor 3

Co-Op FPS

Technically, Killing Floor‘s zeds are not zombies, but they essentially play the same role and the games cater to the same crowd. Tripwire’s co-op shooter is finally gearing up for its comeback, and while not much has been revealed about Killing Floor 3, the franchise is generally quite reliable. Killing Floor 2 has enjoyed a very long shelf life, and it is still fairly active considering it has been around since 2016; still, the title is starting to show its age, and plenty of similar games have entered the market over the last few years.

Set in 2091, the upcoming sequel will be taking on an almost cyberpunk theme by presenting a megacorporation as the core evil. Unsurprisingly, this organization has decided to weaponize zeds, forcing a resistance group to rise and rebel. Outside this basic plot summary, Tripwire has kept most other details under wrap, although the developer has confirmed that Killing Floor 3 will support 6-player co-op.

State Of Decay 3

Sandbox Survival

Systems

Undead Labs feels like a game developer destined to deliver a truly remarkable zombie experience in the world of video games. Their first entry in the genre was a lower-budget arcade-style zombie survival game that won the hearts of players despite its many bugs and issues. Its sequel, State of Decay 2, took the series forward.

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In 2020, State of Decay 3 was revealed, and interviews with the studio suggest they’re working on making this the zombie survival game they’ve felt they were capable of delivering. Now owned by Microsoft and overseen by Xbox Game Studios, it seems that the third installment in the State of Decay series could be the one that puts Undead Labs on the map in a major way.

After spending a few years out of the limelight, State of Decay 3 made its big return during 2024’s Xbox Games Showcase, dropping a new trailer that hopefully suggests a release might not be that far away.