There’s no bad time to play the best zombie games, but the fall is arguably the best time to play them. That’s because, like the best horror games in general, it just feels right. I’m someone who has never wavered from my love for zombie media, be it TV shows, movies, or games, so I take our list of the best zombie games ever made very seriously. I don’t throw just anything on here because it’s new or because it focuses on the undead.
No, this really is the list of the best zombie games. If you think it’s missing something awesome, do let me know, as it may mean I’ve sadly missed it until now, and I’ll want to fix it. On the flip side, if you’re new to the subgenre yourself, I envy you, because you can jump into any one of the games listed here and have a great time. Here’s GameSpot’s definitive list of the best zombie games of all time.
DayZ
- Developer: Bohemia Interactive
- Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5
Beginning its life as a mod, DayZ really tapped into the “survival” side of survival-horror. The game drops you on an island overrun with zombies, tasking you with finding everything you need to survive when you get there. While the computer-controlled undead are a major problem, your real worry is the fact that you might run into other player-controlled survivors. They might choose to help you, or they might try to kill you and take everything you’ve got. Never knowing what you might face is part of DayZ’s appeal, and it left such a strong impression that it helped give rise to the survival genre of games, and later, battle royales.
Dead Rising 2
- Developer: Capcom
- Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS3, PS4, PS5
The Dead Rising games take the opposite approach to titles like The Last of Us, Resident Evil 2, and The Walking Dead. These titles put you in places overrun by zombies, but the atmosphere is a little campier and there are quite a few more ridiculous costumes at play. Navigating through the hordes is less about terror and more about creatively overcoming a big, mindless obstacle–and you get some ludicrously fun ways to do that. Dead Rising 2 lets you craft ridiculous weapons to shred, cook, electrocute, explode, and otherwise dismantle zombies, while also offering a big world with lots of other characters to find and rescue. It’s a funny, overwrought take on the end of the world, and if you like killing zombies in ridiculous ways, this one’s for you.
Read our Dead Rising 2 review.
The Last of Us series
- Developer: Naughty Dog
- Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, PS5
The Last of Us is about a world overrun by “infected,” and while they’re not actually zombies–the mindless humans have fungus growing in their brains and that’s what turns them into killing machines–the game is basically set in a zombie apocalypse. What makes The Last of Us work is its well-drawn characters and the realism and intensity it brings to its setting and premise. It’s hard to separate the two games in the series, since their narrative and mechanics are so essentially intertwined. In both The Last of Us games, developer Naughty Dog has created a story that feels populated by real human beings stuck in an impossible situation. Both games are incredibly emotional and often raw, while also putting you into frightening, violent fights for your life.
Read our The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2 reviews.
Left for Dead series
- Developer: Turtle Rock
- Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
When you think of quintessential zombie game experiences, it’s impossible not to come up with the Left 4 Dead series. Developer Turtle Rock Studios used a zombie apocalypse to define a whole subset of multiplayer games, placing you both in the role of a group of survivors fighting their way through the horde, and in that of some vicious special zombie creatures that can ravage those poor humans. The essential part of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 is teamwork, whether you’re the human crew blasting your way through hordes of infected enemies, or you’re the monsters themselves, trying to lure the humans away from one another to pick them off. The zombie apocalypse is a perfect setting for a cooperative game, and Left 4 Dead created some phenomenal gaming moments by leveraging it.
Read our Left 4 Dead review and our Left 4 Dead 2 review.
Project Zomboid
- Developer: The Indie Stone
- Platforms: PC
With Project Zomboid, the zombie apocalypse gets a sandbox survival approach. You’re a survivor of the zombie apocalypse, as usual, but here the work of staying alive requires a whole lot more effort. You not only have to deal with hordes of the undead, you also have to construct buildings and defenses to protect yourself, craft items so you can make food, and stave off other problems, like depression or infections. Project Zomboid brings a whole lot of additional depth to the usual tasks of scoring headshots on zombies, and while it’s still in early access, it’s constantly being updated with new features as it goes through the development process.
Resident Evil 2
- Developer: Capcom
- Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5
In no small part, the popularity and straight-up terrifying nature of the Resident Evil games is responsible for the zombie trend that has lasted for more than two decades. Several of the games in the franchise capture the best and most frightening parts of the horror subgenre and are worthy of your attention–including Resident Evil Remake and Resident Evil 3–and others aren’t quite “zombie” games but are still excellent riffs on the genre. But the remake of Resident Evil 2 might just stand above the rest. It puts you in the midst of a city tearing itself apart as it’s ravaged by a horde of zombies, and while there are plenty of other creatures vying to scare the hell out of you, there’s nothing quite like the realization that the entirety of Raccoon City is shuffling toward you, arms outstretched and hungry.
Read our Resident Evil 2 review.
State of Decay series
- Developer: Undead Labs
- Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
The bigger the world, the more frightening the zombie apocalypse that annihilates it, which is what makes State of Decay work. It puts you in a huge open world that’s filled with zombies, in which you have to think seriously about risk and reward if you want to survive. Fighting the horde is never advisable, so what’s the best path to your next objective? How can you avoid the undead to keep yourself safe? You can address your problems in different ways, especially as you meet more characters and add them to your group of survivors–and control them as you see fit. Each character has their own stats and capabilities, requiring you to harden them through combat and allowing you to use them to their strengths to help your entire group survive. Having access to lots of characters fighting for survival gives State of Decay a different strategic spin on surviving the undead.
Read our State of Decay review.
Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season 1
- Developer: Telltale
- Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch
Before The Walking Dead had quite become a full-on television phenomenon, there was Telltale’s take on the iconic comics. Another story of the zombie apocalypse as it unfolded all over the country, the point-and-click, narrative-heavy adventure game followed Lee, a former convict, as he worked to care for and protect Clementine, a young girl who’d lost her parents. The bond created between Lee and Clementine, as well as the often terrible choices the game would put to players as they fought to stay alive at the end of the world, turned The Walking Dead into a classic, and one that works to make the zombie apocalypse something frightening to play through.
Read our Telltale’s The Walking Dead review.
They Are Billions
- Developer: Numantian Games
- Platforms: PC
Zombies are useful to a lot of genres of video games. In They Are Billions, zombies are the antagonists of a real-time strategy game in which you’re tasked with protecting the colonies of the last surviving humans. As the title suggests, however, the zombie hordes are enormous and overwhelming. You’ve got steampunk technology at your disposal, though, allowing you to fight back the enemy with some unconventional approaches. And while They Are Billions is a real-time strategy game and thus requires you to act on the fly to use tactics to stop the zombie advance, it also allows you to pause so you can think about your actions before you commit to something that might get you and your colonists turned.
Days Gone
- Developer: Sony Bend
- Platforms: PS4, PS5, PC
Days Gone might not have reached the same heights of other first-party PlayStation games, but there’s no denying that the fact that game absolutely nails its zombie apocalypse setting. With humanity reduced to a collection of barely functioning enclaves, the rest of the Oregon environment is a haunting and hazardous slice of post-apocalyptic ruin and viral danger. Days Gone’s hyper-energetic Freakers are a force to be reckoned with, bloodthirsty cannibals who are at their deadliest when a mob mentality kicks in and a swarm of infected rage comes charging at you.
Throw in savage wildlife and opportunistic bandits, combine that with underrated motorcycle customization in a hostile frontier, and finish it all off with some pulse-pounding encounters and you’ve got a rock-solid game of survival in an unforgiving landscape.
Read our Days Gone review.
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
- Developer: Rockstar
- Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS3, PS4, PS5
2010’s Red Dead Redemption was one of the biggest hits of the year, but with that initial release in the rearview mirror, Rockstar’s return to the American Frontier was a surprising dive into zombie territory. Could two different genres, seemingly worlds apart, be successfully combined? The answer is a resounding yes, because Undead Nightmare successfully remixes Red Dead Redemption with a spooky edge and supernatural threats that’ll keep you on your toes constantly. While the original game is a melancholic journey through the end of a cowboy era, Undead Nightmare is an intense fight for survival in an unforgiving world cursed by unseen forces.
Read our Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare review.
Dead Space (2023)
- Developer: EA Redwood Shores (original), EA Motive (remake)
- Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS3, PS4, PS5
The original Dead Space is arguably one of the most important games in the horror genre, a beacon of sinister light that helped resurrect a genre, like a slasher pulled from beyond the void to torment misbehaving high-schoolers. So how do you improve on one of the best survival horror games of all time? With a remake that goes deep into the digital DNA of what made the original game so special and amplifies what made it so special in the first place.
When it comes to surviving against hordes of humans that have been warped and twisted by malevolent forces beyond mortal ken, Dead Space is still a masterclass in gore, thrills, and action. But with thoughtful touches, modern enhancements, and a graphical update that makes every limb-dismembering scene encounter that much more stomach-churning? It becomes an essential experience for any horror enthusiast.
Read our Dead Space review.
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners
- Developer: Sundance Interactive
- Platforms: VR headsets
While Telltale’s beloved narrative adventures come to mind whenever you mention The Walking Dead, 2020’s Saints and Sinners is an excellent entry in the franchise that pushed the envelope on VR gaming with gruesomely interactive action. Released on the first PlayStation VR headset, Saints and Sinners puts you in the boots of the Tourist, a local legend who just so happens to be immune to the infection that transformed humanity into a population of ankle-biters. It’s an exhilarating first-person adventure when you’re taking care of walkers when they don’t grossly outnumber you, terrifying when the odds arestacked against you, and loaded with nuanced systems that make it a VR treat for the ages.
Dying Light: The Beast
- Developer: Techland
- Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5
Dying Light: The Beast is the best version of Techland’s open-world zombie series to date. With a great map that combines cityscapes primed for the game’s parkour features and spooky forests full of super-zombies called Volatiles, this is Dying Light with added emphasis on survival and horror. All three Dying Light games so far could make a case for being on this list, but The Beast strips back the power fantasy in most ways, leaving you more vulnerable than ever, and to me, that’s the way it always should’ve been.
No More Room In Hell 2
- Developer: Torn Banner
- Platforms: PC
The first No More Room in Hell was a beloved but under-the-radar and quite janky co-op horror game in the vein of Left 4 Dead. The sequel, from the studio behind Chivalry 2, polishes the game quite a bit, expands its world and systems, and turns it into one of the tensest zombie games going today.
Though it’s still in early access, and thus changing often, NMRIH2 is already one of the best zombie games because it’s the sort of game where every shot counts and playing smartly is key. Zombies can quickly flank and overwhelm you if you’re not constantly paying attention, and the game’s way of dropping you and seven others into the open world in different sections, then leaving you to find each other, is a fascinating wrinkle on the L4D formula.
