The Five Greatest Zombie Horror Games of All Time

As someone who grew up during the zombie craze of the mid-2000s, this little sub-category is one close to my heart. There’s just something about the mindless, viral, shambling hordes of the undead that makes them so much more frightening than calculated predators like Vampires and even Werewolves. Maybe it’s the totality of their threat – a vampire can kill a couple of people in a movie, but ultimately, you can kill it or run away, and the problem solves itself. Zombies however, represent the literal apocalypse, typically ending the lives of billions of people collectively in their media. 

I was actually quite surprised when I first heard someone say that zombies were considered a horror genre monster – in my mind, they were a lot more of a strict action movie trope, but now I think about the scale of their threat and their supernatural roots, it starts to make a little more sense. In this list, we’re going to take a look at the best zombie horror games of all time. These options were selected for having fun gameplay first and foremost, as while a cinematic story can be cool in its proper place, nothing beats the feeling of mowing down hordes of undead with a rifle in hand.

#5 – Resident Evil 5

Somewhere in this list, there had to be a Resident Evil game. It somewhat goes without saying that it’s the king of zombie franchises overall. It’s hard to pick one particular installment to be the standout favourite, but for me, Resident Evil 5 is my go-to game in the franchise. I have to admit that the puzzle-solving, slow-paced style of gameplay of earlier franchise entries is just not what my illogical brain enjoys, whereas this game was the first to make the hard break into a more action-oriented shooter.

But that’s not the reason I enjoy it so much. What really made this title shine was the inclusion of a 2 player co-op mode, and specifically, the delightfully janky implementation of it. You see, I was one of the five people in the world who bought a PS Move, Sony’s half-assed attempt at creating a Wii remote for the PS3. Most game devs never even touched this thing, but RE5 was one of the few to do so; and boy, was it wonderfully bad. Lacking the buttons to move the character on the Move controller alone, all you could do was point and shoot – and unless you spawned a third hand, you wouldn’t be able to operate one character alone. 

It’s not what it looks like, I swear! Image credit: https://consolecentral.co.uk/products/playstation-move-motion-controller-twin-pack-v2-cech-zcm2e-ps3-ps4-preowned

So, what was the solution to this? What happened was that my father (who also loves all things zombie) would control the character’s movements and interactions, while I served as the gunner, shooting the zombies as we progressed through the level. Was the game’s use of the move controller “good” per se? Not in the slightest. But did this makeshift bastardisation on an on-rails shooter make for a ton of really fun childhood memories that stick with me to this day? Hell. Yes. 

#4 – Dead Island

A slightly more recent game hailing from the PS4 era, Dead Island is an open-world hack and slash that sees you complete a series of fetch quests throughout an infected holiday resort with the ultimate goal of escaping the island to safety.

The missions can be a little repetitive, but the game is fairly short at around 20 hours, meaning that the simplistic formula doesn’t manage to become painfully dull by the time you finish. The combat mechanic is at the heart of this game, and while some elements of taking damage can feel a little clunky, there’s nothing better than doing thrown weapon damage – just yeeting a machete at a zombie’s head, then retrieving it to do it over and over again.

The weapons have a system where they become damaged quickly, which can get irritating fast, as well as upgrades that are finicky to unlock, but for what it is, this game is still a lot of fun. 

The biggest issue for me is this being one of those games that can be single player, but tries to railroad you into playing online. The story doesn’t make a ton of sense in single player, as a group of completely random characters will show up for important cutscenes and then vanish again, because the game takes it for granted that of course you couldn’t be playing alone… right? The story is a little disjointed and hard to follow because certain cutscenes can be skipped or triggered in the wrong order, but for a game that is mostly about the gameplay, this is a small issue that I can happily overlook for the sake of a good time. 

#3 – Project Zomboid

Project Zomboid scratches the itch for a Walking Dead game based solely on gameplay, not story. A harsh, unforgiving, and very detailed survival sim, this game puts you in the shoes of an apocalypse survivor, and completely embraces the idea that the goal isn’t to escape – just to stave off your inevitable death for as long as you can. There is no ‘winning’. 

The Game’s mascot is named Spiffo!

The game is rendered in a delightfully retro ‘The Sims 1’ art style, asking the question of ‘what would happen if a zombie outbreak occurred in SimCity suburbia?’. A lot of the mechanics can be a bit opaque and densely technical for a casual gamer like me, who often doesn’t go deep enough to understand fiddly gameplay, but I can willingly admit to that being a skill issue.

It also has a very large map size and a great online multiplayer that makes the whole town feel alive with survivors doing their own thing, meaning you have a ton of opportunity to roleplay and make your own story of the apocalypse.  If you want a crunchy survival sim with a top-down perspective, look no further than Project Zomboid.

#2 – Left 4 Dead 2

What can I really say about Left 4 Dead 2 that hasn’t been said already? This is a fun little zombie game that sees you slash and shoot your way through a series of multi-stage levels, facing off against hordes of zombies all hell-bent on tearing you to shreds. Teamwork is core to the gameplay, with the special enemies designed so that they can only be countered with the help of other survivors.

While co-op first online games often vex me, this is one of the few exceptions. It’s super fun to play both alone and with friends, it has fantastic gore and fast-paced action, and really doesn’t come with much to complain about. I’ve personally sunk days into this game, and it’s one of my game-night go-tos when I’m looking for something to play with a group.

Check out my retro review of Left 4 Dead 2.

#1 – Dead Nation

I first played Dead Nation when it was given away as one of the free ‘sorry’ games following the month-long PSN outage in 2011. This is a top-down shooter that sees you dash between various maps and checkpoints, taking out hordes of zombies as you go. I would describe it as an isometric Left 4 Dead, except it isn’t specifically designed with teamwork in mind.

This was another game I sunk hours into with my father. As he can’t play 3D games for more than a few minutes without experiencing crippling motion sickness, the things we could play together were very limited. Luckily, this game has great two player functionality, allowing you to explore the map and fight zombies together.

There are five scaling difficulties that gives the game a ton of replay value, with everything after ‘hard’ needing many, many attempts to clear each level. There’s a ton of diverse and fun weapon types, cool special infected, and even a serviceable set of cutscenes that set up a decent pretense for each level to take place. The gunplay is satisfying, and the horde sizes insane.

This game was locked on the PS3 for a long time, and while there is a PS4 port, I’d love to see this come to Steam and modern consoles in 2025, as for both nostalgia and gameplay reasons, this is my favourite zombie game of all time.

Conclusion

Zombie games come in many shapes and sizes, and I think that the best are ones that put the emphasis on survival and fun gameplay. The games identified range from horde shooters all the way to methodical survival sims; but they all have one thing in common: lots and lots of zombies.

The key to a good zombie game is horde-based action. While horror often revolves around running away and being actively scared, zombie media is one of the few that puts you in the seat of power – fear comes not of the unknown, but of the overwhelming challenge that is facing you down. Whether it’s machine gunning thousands of zombies per minute in Left 4 Dead or Dead Nation, hacking them to pieces the old fashioned way in Dead Island, or conserving ammo and tactically eliminating your opponents in Zomboid or RE5, this genre has something to offer anybody who enjoys fun.

If you enjoyed this list, be sure to check out our list of the most controversial horror games of all time!