The past decade has been groundbreaking when it comes to video games, but The Last of Us has set new standards with what’s possible in this storytelling medium. The Last of Us has reached even greater levels of popularity after the release of its exceptional HBO series. The Last of Us is praised for the thoughtful and complex relationship that’s forged between Joel and Ellie.
However, it’s also a title that includes a terrifying zombie-like enemy known as Clickers. Clickers are the final mutation of those who are infected by the Cordyceps fungus and at this point their brains are fully infected. Video games have a long history with zombies and there are certain undead monsters that manage to put The Last of Us’ Clickers to shame.
10 Las Plagas Allows Its Mutated Monsters To Maintain Their Motivations
Resident Evil
Resident Evil has emerged as a foundational franchise when it comes to zombies and it’s been fascinating to watch the evolution of the series’ supernatural monsters. The T-Virus produces classical mindless zombies and variations on this like the G-Virus and T-Veronica Virus are frightening in their own ways.
Resident Evil 4 introduces a parasite known as Las Plagas that transform their hosts into tentacle-like creatures from out of The Thing. Las Plagas victims aren’t brain-dead like standard zombies and their commitment to their goals is what makes them so chilling. It’s also believed that the fungal mold from Resident Evil 7 is an extension of Las Plagas.
9 Necromorphs Are Reanimated Alien Hybrid Corpses That Need To Be Hacked To Pieces
Dead Space
Dead Space is a creepy and claustrophobic survival horror series that also embraces science fiction with its space station setting. The primary antagonists in the Dead Space franchise are Necromorphs, malformed and reanimated corpses that have come in contact with an extraterrestrial parasite.
Necromorphs are undead human and extraterrestrial hybrids that can only be killed through copious dismemberment. It’s a brutal dimension that forces encounters with these creatures to become personal Necromorphs, and they also come in radical shapes and sizes, all of which could quickly silence any Clicker.
8 The Haunted & The Lost Are Festering & Feral Combative Corpses
The Evil Within
Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil and Dino Crisis fame returned to the survival horror genre with The Evil Within. This game features conscious corpses known as the Haunted, who are the result of a radical science experiment gone wrong.
Not only are the Haunted reanimated corpses, but they're riddled with glass, nails, and other debris for extra effect. The Lost, which replace the Haunted in The Evil Within 2, are a more feral and erratic form of living corpse that rapidly loses more of its humanity over time.
7 Zombie Soldiers Force Painful Reflections
Call Of Duty
Call of Duty has been a leading first-person shooter that's prided itself on its ability to pull from real history. However, one of the most popular aspects of these games over the past 15 years is the addition of outlandish zombies into multiplayer maps.
Zombies first appeared in 2008's Call of Duty: World at War and they've since become a tradition for the war series. These are technically just "regular" zombies and lack a bit of the creativity that's found in the Clickers of The Last of Us, but Call of Duty's zombies are particularly effective since they evoke PTSD and the actual horrors of warfare.
6 Endless Crowds Of Corpses Chase After The Player
Dead Rising
Dead Rising was a breakthrough in zombie video games upon its release, but despite four titles, Capcom's overwhelming zombie franchise has more or less fallen into obscurity. Dead Rising's zombie outbreak is triggered by genetically altered wasps that are created through an experiment that's meant to ultimately lower the price to breed bovine.
The zombies in Dead Rising are fairly par for the course, but what makes these undead stand out is that the game features hordes upon hordes where hundreds of zombies attack en masse. It's a helpless feeling that's not always present with Clickers, despite their ferocity.
5 Society’s Strangest Civilians Are Represented Through These Tenacious Undead
Lollipop Chainsaw
Lollipop Chainsaw is a bewildering burst of creativity as far as the zombie genre is concerned and it’s set for a 2023 remake so new audiences can experience its unpredictable mayhem. Lollipop Chainsaw mashes together zombies and anime's magical girl genre. Zombies are normalized and the main character, Juliet, even comes from a long line of zombie hunters.
This chainsaw-wielding cheerleader is as unique as the Undead that get in her way. The personality and humor to these zombies makes them scarier in some respects since their humanity can still be detected. The boss battles are also in a league of their own and push this mutation to extreme heights.
4 Zombies & Unholy Creations Work Alongside Robot Terrorists
Cannon Spike
Cannon Spike is an entertaining shooter for the Dreamcast that's largely gone overlooked due to how it hasn't been ported over to any other consoles. This Capcom release is an odd crossover that features characters from Street Fighter, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Darkstalkers, and even Mega Man himself.
Cannon Spike's dystopian realm is largely plagued by robot threats, but one spooky stage also brings zombies, gargoyles, and unholy creatures into the fray. Zombies working in tandem with machines is a troubling threat, but more than anything else it's just a lot of fun to blast through corpses with Mega Man's Buster.
3 Transformed Creatures Attack From The Land & Sky
House Of The Dead
House of the Dead is an iconic light gun rail-shooter and a property that's helped influence zombie video games in major ways. Curiously, the undead corpses from House of the Dead are considered to be "creatures," as opposed to the more unoriginal "zombie."
The standard creatures in House of the Dead aren't anything remarkable, but it's another instance where the boss battles go above and beyond. There are absolutely bizarre creations that the player must take out, many of which wield extravagant weapons or have the ability to take flight.
2 Endless Undead Can’t Compete With Swimsuit-Wearing Zombie Slayers
Onechanbara
The gratuitous Onechanbara series has found surprising life over the years and even received a live-action feature film. Onechanbara features bikini-clad zombie slayers who engage in intricate swordplay as if they're skilled samurai.
Onechanbara is hack-and-slash chaos that's not meant to be taken too seriously, but it most importantly manages to stay fun. This is another case where the sheer excess of the game's Undead, as well as their distinct personalities like in the case of the Zombie Sisters, helps elevate these corpses to something greater.
1 Zombies Have Free Range Of This Segregated Feeding Ground
Dead Island
Dead Island is an appealing premise that's had diminishing returns, but it still deserves credit for what the original game was able to accomplish. Dead Island's zombies are the result of Kuru, a neurological disease with origins in Papua New Guinea.
These zombies don't stray too far from the norm, but they're particularly terrifying because of the closed-off island setting. Dead Island features growing numbers of zombies that already begin at an intimidating level. The fact that escape is impossible on this isolated island makes the whole experience even worse.