Zombies might be flesh-hungry creatures that should fill us with fear, but they also happen to be a whole lot of fun to play with — so we've listed a selection of our favourite zombie-slaying games on Xbox.
With Dambuster Studios' fantastic Dead Island 2 now offering a gore-filled rampage through the streets of Hell-A, we thought it would be a great time to give this list a slight refresh. You can see the refreshed list below.
When George A. Romero introduced the world to Night of the Living Dead back in 1968, he probably wasn't aware that his social commentary about people's inability to work together would kickstart a pop culture craze that would captivate audiences for decades to come. Those who followed in his directorial footsteps gave us shambling reanimated corpses that would comically cry "brains," while edging towards their would-be victims with arms outstretched, rage-induced carriers of some mutated virus, and other interesting takes on the shambling cadavers. From comedy to horror, no matter the genre, the ravenous flesh-craving monstrosities fill us with fear, excitement, adventure, and happiness. They're a little scary and a little exciting, but wholly awesome!
No matter if the creatures are slow and braindead or bestowed with the agility of a cheetah, one thing is for certain — people seem to love chopping and blowing them into pieces. They've become quite a staple in the video game world over the years, and Xbox has a fantastic selection for you to choose from. So, whether you're looking for a nightmarish thrill, horde-decimating adventure, or a cute and cuddly experience to share with your kids, this selection of our favourite zombie games should have something for everyone.
Dead Island 2
Dambuster Studios has just rebooted the Dead Island series with the highly anticipated Dead Island 2, taking us to LA to slaughter the undead with more gore than a chum bucket. After playing through the game for our Dead Island 2 review, it was clear that this slasher deserves a spot on this list without a doubt, thanks to its stunning set pieces, incredible gore engine, and respectful continuation of many systems that made the original Dead Island great. Set after the events on Banoi, this instalment sees us step into the shoes of an infected Slayer as they use an arsenal of makeshift weapons and zombie-fuelled Fury mode to escape Hell-A soon after the outbreak begins. Naturally, Dambuster has upgraded some of the systems to make this reboot their own, including the ability to use zombie parts for weapon modifications, an extreme gore system that allows us to pull off visceral finishers, and a customisable skill system that allows us to make our characters our own. It's a great way to bring back a franchise, and we're looking forward to seeing what the team can do with future content.
Dead Island 2
The much-loved zombie saga is back! Dead Island 2 is a thrilling First-Person Action RPG with a unique formula of horror, dark humor and over the top zombie-slaying.
A deadly virus is spreading across Los Angeles, turning its inhabitants into zombies. Bitten, infected, but more than just immune, as you uncover the truth behind the outbreak, you'll discover who - or what - you are. Survive, evolve and become the ultimate Zombie Slayer.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
It's only fitting that we feature Call of Duty: Black Ops first after name-dropping George A. Romero in our intro, because the Godfather of Zombies himself makes an appearance in the game. While many of the subsequent Call of Duty games have included the mode, much like the legendary director's first film, Black Ops brought the Zombies mode to our attention in all the right ways. While Call of Duty: World at War introduced the mode to the world, it was Black Ops that really struck gold for us, thanks to the Call of the Dead, Kino Der Toten, and Moon maps. The famed Zombies mode sees four players battling for survival against waves of zombies, while simultaneously attempting to complete various "Easter Egg" objectives around the map. The catch, though, is that each wave adds even more zombies into the mix, causing you to become overwhelmed if you stop even for a second — grab a gun, run like crazy, and never let go of the trigger is the best advice we can give you for this. Teamwork is quickly thrown out of the window on the higher waves, with each player controlling their own 'train' of zombies, praying that they don't accidentally cross paths with someone else's train. Almost every Call of Duty game has had some variation of this mode since, but Black Ops' varied maps, the arsenal of available weaponry, and the inclusion of Romero himself are the reasons that this game has earned a spot on our list.
Call of Duty®: Black Ops
Call of Duty®: Black Ops takes you deep behind enemy lines into the world of deniable operations as a member of an elite special forces unit engaging in covert warfare, classified operations, and explosive conflicts across the globe. With access to a variety of exclusive weaponry and equipment, your actions will tip the balance during the most dangerous time period mankind has ever known.
Dead Rising
Dead Rising is a game that encourages you to have fun during the end of days, embrace the messed-up world that you find yourself in, and treat the shambling zombies like playthings. The game locks you inside a shopping mall and tasks you with attempting to survive by any means necessary. The mall is littered with a huge number of different items that you can use to kill, avoid, and generally humiliate the undead, with protagonist Frank (he's covered wars, you know) using everything from candid photography to wrestling moves to put the mall's masses in their place. While it's perhaps not as extravagant as some of the later entries into the series, Dead Rising still stands as one of the most entertaining zombie games to ever grace our screens. Whether you're slicing the undead to bits in a wrestling ring, having a shootout with a group of bandits that decide to start unloading a vehicle-mounted machinegun at you, or just putting Frank West's photography skills to use, one thing's for certain — you'll uncover the truth behind the epidemic with style. We know many players prefer Dead Rising 2, and while it's a great game, the sheer nostalgia we have for the original launch of Dead Rising far outweighs the technical improvements that were added in later games. The freedom offered by Dead Rising was delightful in many ways when it first arrived on the the Xbox 360, putting the series on the map and searing its playful zombie-slaughtering antics onto our hearts.
Dead Rising
Frank West, a freelance photojournalist on the hunt for the scoop of a lifetime, pursues a juicy lead to a small suburban town only to find that it is being overrun by zombies! He escapes to the local shopping mall thinking it will be a bastion of safety, but it turns out to be anything but.
Dying Light
We originally had Dying Light 2: Stay Human in this slot, but after seeing that many of you much prefer its predecessor, we decided we'd show Dying Light some love — as is evident in my Dying Light 2 review, I personally love the sequel, but there is no doubt that the original game is a fantastic entry into the genre. For those of you that don't know, Dying Light is developed by Techland, the team that created Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, and a small bit of the DNA from that franchise is apparent in Dying Light. In this first-person zombie-basher, we take on the role of Kyle Crane, an operative for a global agency sent into the fictional city of Harran to recover some classified files related to the viral outbreak. Crane ends up helping the survivor's of the overrun city, uncovering a conspiracy along the way, and taking down a thuggish faction that decided it could profit from the chaos. One of Dying Light's most notable features is its parkour systems, which allow us and up to three friends run around the city's rooftops, vault of walls, scale buildings, and take ont he more vicious, mutated monstrosities roaming the streets. With an awesome day/night cycle that ensures the nightime hours are far more deadly than the day, Dying Light broke into the genre with its own style that has solidified it as a must-play for any zombie fan.
Left 4 Dead 2
Building on the incredible foundations of its predecessor, Left 4 Dead 2 helped mould the co-op shooter into the wonderful genre it is today, spawning a plethora of games — including the latest game from Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock Studios: Back 4 Blood. We really like the developer's latest game, but there is little doubt in our minds that Left 4 Dead 2 was a crowning achievement. Its four-player co-op gameplay pairs perfectly with the story-based campaign that sees you fighting hordes of flesh-craving monsters through linear missions, filled with special infected, traps, and an arsenal of deadly weapons — with each level climaxing with a fight-for-your-life defensive objective that can easily bring a run to a crashing end. On top of that, the PvP mode places an enemy team in the shoes of the special infected, which can make the missions ridiculously chaotic with ambushes galore. Left 4 Dead 2 is a must-play for anyone that enjoys the excitement offered by the living dead, which makes it all the more disappointing that we never got a true sequel.
Left 4 Dead 2
New from Valve® — creators of Counter-Strike®, Half-Life®, Portal™ and Team Fortress® — Left 4 Dead™ 2 is a new game that casts up to four "Survivors" in an epic struggle against hordes of swarming zombies and terrifying "Boss Infected" mutants. Are you ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
Cowboys, zombies, and the steeds that carried the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse — Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare DLC blends the open-world Western themes of the main game with a zombie apocalypse beautifully. Do we really need to say anything else? Probably not, because everything you need to know (and inevitably love) about the game is summed up in that first sentence. Undead Nightmare focuses on John Marston again, who is out searching for a cure to the zombie virus that is plaguing the Frontier. Your adventures will have you taking on infected folk in the extremely satisfying Red Dead way, as well as hunting down various undead creatures and mythical beasts. Honestly, Undead Nightmare could well be one of the best DLC packs to ever be released, and we really hope Rockstar gives us another zombie-filled outing at some point.
Undead Nightmare Pack
The Undead Nightmare Pack features an entirely new single-player campaign following John Marston as he tries to find a cure for the highly-infectious undead plague spreading across the frontier.
Resident Evil 2
Considering how popular (and brilliant) Capcom’s 2002 GameCube remake of the original Resident Evil was, it’s quite surprising that it took the studio 17 years to get around to giving the sequel the same treatment. It was worth the wait, though, and by delivering familiar locations and threats in stunning 4K while toying with conventions and expectations in creative ways, Resident Evil 2 serves as a perfect example of how remakes should be done. For the most part, the old-school Resi games play to the classic slow, lurching zombies trope, mixing things up with all kinds of other freakish enemy types. As the most common enemy, the standard shambling brain-munchers have clearly had a lot of work put into them, and the level of detail on display is incredible, both before and after you start blasting chunks out of their bodies or completely dismembering them. They’re tenacious, too — even when missing limbs, they’re relentless in their assault, diving in for lunging bites while armless or dragging themselves towards you when they can no longer walk (a point-blank shotgun to the legs will do that). Better yet, you have to handle them with the typically limited ammo supplies as found in most survival horror games, and while being stalked by the terrifying Mr. X as he roams the halls of the Raccoon City police station and beyond. Capcom’s Resi 2 remake does the PS1 classic proud, and it stands as one of the finest implementations of ‘traditional’ zombies in modern gaming.
Luke was full of praise for Capcom's latest remake in his Resident Evil 4 review, calling it a "fantastic remake that revives and, to a degree, reinvents a classic for a new generation." While it's undoubtedly awesome, Resi 4's enemies aren't quite zombies, so Resident Evil 2 remains the conquering Resident Evil hero for this list.
RESIDENT EVIL 2
A deadly virus engulfs the residents of Raccoon City in September of 1998, plunging the city into chaos as flesh eating zombies roam the streets for survivors.
An unparalleled adrenaline rush, gripping storyline, and unimaginable horrors await you.
Witness the return of Resident Evil 2.
State of Decay 2
State of Decay 2 is a zombie apocalypse simulator more than it is an open world to mess about in. To survive this title, you need to carefully learn how to micromanage your community of survivors, build and maintain your base, scavenge for supplies, and fight off hordes of undead. The game adds pressure to your exploits by limiting your inventory space, ensuring weapon degradation is a very real thing, and ammo is scarcely available. It's a great way to learn about yourself, and your friends if you decide to play cooperatively, because brash decisions can and will get you killed before you even know what happened. As a first-party game, this is a zombie-infested Game Pass title, and one with 2,400G up for grabs at the time of writing, although unlocking all of that will take a good deal of time and effort...
State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition
State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition is an improved version of the popular zombie survival game and includes the all-new Homecoming Update – a fully remastered, open world version of Trumbull Valley for the core game, reintegrating the Mount Tanner and Fairfield regions to the map, and adding new sites to scavenge, along with new sights to behold.
The Walking Dead
You know what? Maybe all these scary zombies are just too grim to look at time after time, day after day. Maybe you just want them to be a backdrop to the events of a very human drama… one that may or may not have reduced many a grown man to tears. The Walking Dead was the first Telltale game to really nail the episodic format, introducing us to Lee and Clem along the way. You watch as they become surrogate father and daughter thanks to your involvement over the course of six well-paced episodes. The dialogue, from memory, is really well-written and it is clear that the team had the luxury of time while making this one — something that became clearly lacking in later Telltale projects. The structure allows for a road trip of events and places, small but impactful moments that blossom into a greater thematic whole, but it works perfectly by keeping that central focus on the two core characters. The drama surrounding the pair often reflects upon what makes Lee and Clem tick, forcing the player to examine their own closely held relationships and make them consider how much they pay attention to the needs of those they love. The choices you make are pretty shallow by today's standards — a lot of smoke and mirrors — but if you haven’t played a Telltale game before, it can be frightening to see “Clementine will remember that” pop up on your screen. A solid story with the contextualising zombie outbreak gives The Walking Dead a worthy place on this list, plus it's a dead easy completion, so give it a go if you haven't already.
The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season
Winner of over 90 ‘Game of the Year’ Awards, The Walking Dead Complete First Season includes all 5 episodes of the critically acclaimed series, plus special episode ‘400 Days’.
World War Z
Based on Max Brooks' book, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, World War Z is a third-person co-op shooter game that tasks four players with battling their way through various locations around the world. The game features some of the most impressive zombie hordes we've seen to date, filling your screen with hundreds of ravenous creatures. The gunplay in World War Z is fantastic, and there is something extremely satisfying about unloading an assault rifle's magazine into a tower of the undead. World War Z's missions are varied enough that they don't feel too repetitive, either, giving the game a lot of replayability, mostly due to mission objectives changing slightly each time you play. While it's no longer on Game Pass, it's regularly on sale and well worth the asking price.
World War Z
World War Z is a heart-pounding co-op third-person shooter for up to 4 players featuring massive swarms of hundreds of zombies and fast-paced gruesome action.
Battle swarms of hundreds of zombies in gruesomely spectacular firefights
Co-op story-driven campaigns
Fight other survivors in Player vs Player vs Zombies modes
Level 16 character classes and weapon upgrades to take on greater challenges
Special Mentions
This list is not exhaustive, and there are hordes of other zombie-focused games out there, from vibrant and playful hits to other violent affairs that just didn't quite make it onto our list. Here we wanted to mention a few of the games that stand out the most for us. First up is Plants vs Zombies, a family-friendly tower defence game that deserved a sequel but never got one, although it did lead to Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, which is a worthy successor, depending on who you ask. Just as colourful, yet a little less family-friendly, is Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Cause, a nostalgic remake of the OG release of the same name. Playing as Stubbs, you'll tear around the city of Punchbowl devouring brains, partaking in dance battles, and petting sheep.
Next up we have Lollipop Chainsaw, the fantastic Xbox 360 game featuring every country's national treasure, Juliet Starling — that latter part might not be entirely true. Personally, Lollipop Chainsaw is one of my favourite zombie games to ever release, thanks to its awesome soundtrack, wonderful characters, and colourful twist on the zombie genre. The only reason this fantastic game hasn't made it onto the list above is purely because it's not backwards compatible, and not everyone has an Xbox 360 laying around — but with Dragami Games hopefully dropping a remake later this year, it might well shamble its way onto here anyway!
As for other darker zombie-based wonders, the likes of Zombie Army 4: Dead War, Zombi, and How to Survive are also fantastic experiences, offering co-op action, solo-exploits, and zombie survival experiences respectively.
These are just some of the incredible zombie games available on Xbox. Everything here is based on our opinions, and it's not always going to align with yours, so we would love to hear your thoughts on other worthy options. Let us know down below!