THE proliferation of zombie games in recent years has turned the whole genre into something of a meme unto itself, the shambling undead having shifted from unpredictable brain eating terrors to just another enemy to be blown away with an overpowered shotgun. So as games have evolved so too has the zombie itself, going from a slow, shambling menace (which you swiftly realise, in game terms, you can easily outpace) to turning up in a variety of flavours. Some quick, some strong, some smart – all deadly.

As with any game, the key is to keep players off balance and never quite sure where the next threat is coming from – otherwise a nightmarish survival horror is liable to become a walk in the park. Of course, some games do it better than others and to save you rotting your brain deciding which is best (a rotten brain is hardly going to get you any zombie suitors) we’ve put in the work on your behalf. Grab a gun and come along for the ride, but remember: aim for the head.

Fallout

The zombies in Fallout are technically called Ghouls but they are handled in a very different way to most other representations and it’s often for the better. Ghouls are the result of regular people having far too much exposure to the radiation that pervades the series imagined future. Some Ghouls still have their wits about them and can be helpful allies, or cunning opponents. However, some are too far gone, having turned feral and acquired a hunger for human flesh. Nothing else to do with that variety but put them down.

The humanising aspect of this particular strain of zombies is what makes them a fascinating faction, as does their interaction with the other denizens of the Fallout world who often react out of fear and loathing even when the Ghouls in question are friendly. It sets up some wonderful moments, and in a series of games that revolve around big moral choices can provide you some fascinating dilemmas.

The House of the Dead

An on rails arcade shooter that sees you grabbing a handy lightgun peripheral and blasting apart the hordes of the undead. Zombies are there alongside all of their shlocky B-movie chums, but the action is kept super tight and there is a actually a decent story churning away in the background. The fact that you could have branching storylines in an on rails game was massively novel, and made for a great amount of replayability in what was potentially a fairly short game. When the number of peripheral based games started to die off, this was lost in the wreckage but there have been rumours of a remake doing the rounds recently.