The “Break it Down” Blog

Zombies and video games have always gone well together. In the past there have been some great zombie based games like Dead Rising, the Alone in the Dark series, and the Resident Evil series. While these games have their fans they don’t tend to be as mainstream as titles like the Call of Duty and Madden games.  However, that looks like it is about to change with a lot of new zombie related games coming up.

The biggest of these upcoming titles is probably Left 4 Dead.

Left 4 Dead is being developed by Valve who is know for taking their time and releasing quality titles.  The game is a 4 player co-op survival shooter.  The game puts you into 4 “Movies” with 3 teammates where your goal is to survive long enough to escape. To make sure every time you play is a unique experience Valve has developed an “AI Director” that will control not only the enemy zombies, but also any friendly AI players.  The AI Director will bring in new enemies and strategies based on how you and your team are playing and reacting.  In addition to the 4 Movies there are also multiplayer modes allow you to play as either a zombie or human.  Left 4 Dead is expected to release on November 18th for Xbox 360 and PC.

In addition to Left 4 Dead the board game Zombies!!! is being brought to Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, and Steam. The development of Twilight Creations’ Zombies!!! is being done by Big Rooster.  No specific release date has been set, but Zombies!!! is expected to release in 2009. Zombies!!! puts you in control of yourr fate as you try to escape ever advancing zombie hordes. “Players must use a combination of wits and brawn to be the first to the heliport and certain escape. The only problem is, the zombies are everywhere, they appear to be very hungry and your opponents would really prefer if you didn’t escape.”

Not convinced Left 4 Dead or Zombies!!! will end up being a mainstream game?  Even if both games only get played by fans of survival horror games mainstream gamers can get their zombie fix in Call of Duty: World at War.

Treyarch, who is developing Call of Duty: World at War, announced in the latest GameTrailers TV that it will include a Nazi Zombie Mode. Completing the single player campaign will unlock the mode which sends waves of Nazi Zombie enemies at the defending players. The Nazi Zombie Mode includes an economy system which gives players the ability to get new weapons and rebuild defense to slow down the zombie onslaught. It sounds sort of like Gears of War 2’s new Horde mode, but with zombies instead of Locust.  Call of Duty: World at War is scheduled to released on November 11 for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation 2.

Is this a sign of things to come?  I’m not sure anyone can answer that yet, but if you’re a fan of zombies you’ll have plenty of opportunities to fight them until you become infected too in the months to come.