With that deranged 28 Years Later ending still burned into our consciousness, seeking out good zombie games is at the forefront of our minds right now. Popular culture’s fascination with the undead has given us a constant supply of quality entertainment over the years, which is how we ended up with 250 hours of The Walking Dead. But while the bombast of TV and cinematic apocalypses hits hard, there’s nothing quite like experiencing it for yourself – and there are a host of brilliant PC games that let you do that.
Our list of dead-good hits has everything us zombie enthusiasts could ask for, taking in oppressive wasteland survival, flowing parkour, Lovecraftian eeriness, and even surprisingly colorful home defence. Join us, then, as we wade through the hordes of shambling corpses to find the best zombie games out there. We’re coming to get you, Barbara!
The best zombie games on PC are:
1. Project Zomboid
“This is how you died,” Project Zomboid, The Indie Stone’s incredible isometric zombie sandbox, tells us as we walk gingerly into the overrun American countryside for the first time. We’re beginning to get the sense that this is not going to end well… At least we can drag out the inevitable for a while – eking out an existence through shrewd scavenging, food sourcing, and first-aid skills. Where most zombie games are about hitting the dead with something weighty before moving onto heavier artillery, Zomboid is about avoidance, careful management, and slow-burn strategy.
In our Project Zomboid review, Fraser Brown applauded the game’s bleak atmosphere and detailed simulation: “Though survival is the only objective, it’s a complicated goal,” he writes. “Even managing your exhaustion, hunger and thirst levels becomes a challenge in this dying world, as food becomes increasingly scarce and all the tasks demanding your attention stop you from sleeping.”
Zomboid has been in open development for over a decade now, and has benefited from dozens of substantial quality-of-life, gameplay, and feature updates in that time. And it’s not just the developer that’s been tinkering, as you’ll soon discover if you browse our awesome Project Zomboid mods guide.
2. Left 4 Dead 2
Many have tried to recreate the magic of Valve’s classic, not least a few of the original developers who gave it a damn good try (see the next entry in our list). But ultimately, we all have to accept the inescapable fact that there is no better FPS zombie game than Left 4 Dead 2. Whether working as a four-person team to survive waves of nightmarish undead creatures, or slipping into the decomposing flesh of boss zombie variants in versus mode, Left 4 Dead 2 strikes the perfect balance between pacey action and unbearable tension.
Though cities have emptied after waves of evacuations, humanity feels close enough to touch thanks to the messages scrawled on the walls of safe houses. There’s a unique warmth here, too: the cultural influence of New Orleans and its environs seeps from the swamps to the streets and into the soundtrack.
If you’re jonesing for similar experiences in different settings (or simply want to understand for yourself why Valve’s effort is the king), take a look at our superb games like Left 4 Dead 2 guide.
3. Back 4 Blood
Now, stick with us on this one. Back in 2021 when Turtle Rock released its spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead, the game endured a pretty rocky launch. This was compounded by the fact that the team behind it included seven of the talented crew who crafted Valve’s game – how could it possibly live up to the hype? But in the years since, numerous balance patches and updates have made Back 4 Blood’s campaign a worthy inclusion in our list. But it still never captured that Left 4 Dead magic…
“Whether you’re in the heat of battle or strategising with your friends in a safehouse,” writes Jordan Forward in our Back 4 Blood review. “The shooting is satisfying, the zombies gush and spew and splatter with Savini-esque flair, and the campaign features some spectacularly confident escalations.”
The game also includes a card system that buffs playable characters (known as Clearers), helping you even the odds as the difficulty level is dynamically adjusted – we round up the best ones in our Back 4 Blood cards guide.
4. Dead Island 2
Damnbuster Studios’ sequel to Techland’s original may have been tangled in development hell for a stretch, but it emerged into the dazzling LA sunshine as one of the finest zombie-killing simulators available. That bright-and-breezy setting is one aspect that ensures it stands apart from the moaning crowd, but it’s also blessed with disgustingly excessive gore tech that scratches your darkest itches and helps to showcase the game’s creative weapon-crafting mechanics.
The game’s Hollywood veneer hides some imperfections, but the zombie slaying loop at its core is glorious. As Danielle Rose highlights in our Dead Island 2 review, “Dead Island 2 is an uneven experience; its ups and downs might make you feel like you’re on a rollercoaster on the end of the Santa Monica pier. But the highs are worth sticking out the lows…and the fun you’ll have dominating the zombie hordes will carry you through.”
If you fancy an introduction to the six playable slayers, each of whom change the way you’ll experience this zombie outbreak, may we suggest having a read of our Dead Island 2 characters list.
5. Call of Duty Black Ops 6: Zombies
We could have picked any of Treyarch’s Call of Duty games for this list – their round-based zombie horde modes are the best around. Hell, even Infinity Ward’s Infinite Warfare would be a solid choice. But right now we’ve fallen hopelessly in love with the latest Zombies mode grafted to Black Ops 6’s burly body.
It’s densely packed with stuff to discover, and serves up addictive ‘just one more go before bed’ magnetism. “The longevity of Zombies correlates to how deep its secrets go,” Paul Kelly writes in our COD Black Ops 6 review. “Players will hunt for days looking for the next easter egg, and the maps here are dense and dangerous.”
On that point, while the game launched with just two Zombies maps, that offering has since expanded to five – whet your appetite by checking out our comprehensive Black Ops 6 Zombies maps list.
6. State of Decay 2
If you’re looking for a captivating central storyline, the original State of Decay is a better bet. However, the sequel does a wonderful job of fleshing out the first game’s systems to make for a much more satisfying open world. It plays like an RPG, with a simple-yet-satisfying core loop, casting you as a particularly unlucky Quantum Leaper tasked with picking a protagonist from your community of survivors and heading out into the wild to find the necessary food, fuel, and medicine to keep everyone alive and well. Once you collapse into bed at the end of the day – or, just as likely, fall as a result of blows and bites from the undead – you take control of another character from your homestead, along with their background, personality, and combat abilities.
“State of Decay 2 is full of these mini narratives you create for yourself,” writes Harry Shepherd in our State of Decay 2 review. “Undead Labs plant story seeds across the world – another Enclave might steal your supplies for you to hunt down, an exiled community member might ask for your help to clear their name – but you can take full ownership of your community and decide to do whatever work you please.”
The game benefited from six years-worth of updates before support for it ended, and the version you get today is significantly improved from the one we reviewed at launch. It’s not an easy game, though, so if you want to get ahead of the biters check out our State of Decay 2 guide.
7. Plants vs Zombies
Tonal shift alert… Okay, so you won’t be wrestling with harrowing life-or-death decisions and juggling scarce resources, but Plants vs Zombies is truly one of the greatest zombie games ever made. Who needs guns and knives when you have Peashooters, Potato Mines, and Wal-nut blockers?
These horticultural heroes are all that stands between you and the cone-hatted rotting wretches trying to get coagulated blood all over your pristine patio. The gameplay loop is simple, yet so incredibly effective, and you can spend hours going through all 50 levels of the adventure mode (if that’s not enough, there’s a neverending mode, too). The series has evolved into a third-person shooter, sure, but the original strategy game will always have a special place in our hearts.
If you’re like us (or, indeed, zombies) your appetite for this kind of stuff can never be sated. So with that in mind, why not peruse our list of the best tower-defence games out there.
8. They Are Billions
Steampunk base building meets extreme crowd control in this taut and urgent strategy game. The tense standoffs you must endure as you attempt to keep the undead from breaching your city walls make for an unusually fretful entry in the genre. And there are so many of them – the slightest misjudgement results in disaster and death flooding into your sanctuary to cause untold destruction.
The campaign isn’t as strong as the survival mode, sure, but Numantian Games makes the most of the game’s setting, leaning into a rich aesthetic, robust lore, and a deep upgrade system to deliver a unique mash-up of gameplay mechanics.
If management is your thing, we have a whole swathe of strategy games recommendations for you, too.
9. Resident Evil 2
What self-respecting best zombie games list would be complete without a Resi game (or two, for that matter)? It was a long time coming, but Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 remake delivered on most of our hopes in a big way. Opting for Resident Evil 4’s over-the-shoulder camera rather than the fixed angles of the original, it offers a whole new perspective on the iconic police station, surrounding streets, and other creepy locations – all filled to the brim with zombies waiting to eat your face off.
Oh, and the constant specter of Mr. X stomping around like he owns the place, of course. Anyway, we absolutely loved the game, even if some of its more outlandish personality traits got lost in the wash. “Capcom’s remake is a spectacularly gory game that brings a classic in line with horror titles of today,” writes Chris Priestman in our Resident Evil 2 review. “And only at the loss of some of the original’s beloved goofiness.”
So it’s just more realistic now, right? Well, we checked in with a cop and a paramedic to answer that question…
10. Resident Evil 4 Remake
Capcom worked its magic a second time with yet another hugely successful remake, this time revitalizing one of the most beloved games of all time. The Resident Evil 4 Remake may not feature traditional zombies like the first three games do, but its malevolent infected villagers are considerably more terrifying than their predecessors – and their arrival changed the way we thought about Resident Evil games.
“Pay close attention to the way Resident Evil 4 Remake handles its small moments…and I’d argue you have a game that is, if not as transformative as the original, at least the new watermark for games of its kind,” writes Ed Smith in our Resident Evil 4 Remake review. “In terms of the experience of shooting – of aiming, firing, and witnessing the resultant blood and carnage – this is the best game I’ve played since The Last of Us or Max Payne 3, and perhaps even better.”
If you want to squeeze every last drop of blood from the game, our extensive Resident Evil 4 Remake unlockables list should be just the ticket.
11. Days Gone
They Are Billions might have the competition sewn up when it comes to sheer numbers of undead on screen, but Days Gone’s tumbling swarms come a close second – and worse, you’re right there in the fray rather than looking down from above. Bend Studios crowd tech still feels fresh six years on, and results in an experience that’s sometimes more akin to fighting bodies of water than zombies – but bodies of water with teeth, nails, and a burning desire to turn you inside out.
The game starts slowly, fleshing out its world and genuinely likeable protagonist. But once it ramps up, the pace is unrelenting, as Ian Boudreau discovered in our Days Gone review: “Days Gone makes you wait a long time for its strongest material, but the spectacular horde battles and charming characters make the journey worthwhile.”
Days Gone shrinks its world (but, unlike many other zombie games, not its level of threat) with a trusty motorbike. And if the thought of the open road appeals, boy do we have a wanderlust-inducing best open-world games list for you.
12. World War Z: Aftermath
World War Z: Aftermath doesn’t garner the same level of attention that genre stablemates like Left 4 Dead and Killing Floor 2 do, but we’re here to tell you that Saber Interactive’s co-op zombie swarm shooter is criminally underrated. Like They Are Billions and Days Gone, the undead tumble towards you in huge numbers, but now you can put them down with friends in tow.
Released in 2019, the game is based on the movie rather than the (also excellent) book, and tasks you with decluttering a procession of landmarks and cities from across the globe. There are a variety of classes to choose from, a satisfying weapon upgrade system, and – thanks to 2023’s Aftermath update – you can now play in both third and first person.
It’s a seemingly small tweak that makes an already astonishing spectacle even more terrifying. Thank goodness you won’t have to face it alone, then… If you need a break from the onslaught but not from your friends, have a browse of our best multiplayer games list.
13. The Walking Dead
Telltale’s The Walking Dead series could be described as a conversation system tied to a timer, driven by social anxiety. Okay, so that doesn’t sound like much fun, but trust us: the resulting cocktail is very morish. It’s a mix shot through with a sense of interpersonal warmth but framed by overarching gloom, like a campfire on a cold night. It frequently disarms you with humor and periods of relative calm, before cruelly swiping at the characters you have come to care about deeply. Telltale Games, we have learned over the years, is clearly made up of evil geniuses.
In our The Walking Dead: The Final Season review (there are four main seasons, by the way, as well as a couple of other shorter outings), Matt Purslow writes: “The setup for this four-episode story is strong…although that’s hardly surprising given the largely consistent level of quality of Telltale’s whole series. What is surprising is the level of presentation on show. Telltale has never made a game that looks and feels this good. For this final season, the developer has opted for an over-the-shoulder camera, making environments feel more claustrophobic and unsettling than ever, which in turns brings the game closer to Resident Evil.”
That’s two for one when it comes to zombie goodness, then. If you want to branch out into other narrative-focused experiences, spend some time with our best adventure games guide.
14. Dying Light: Definitive Edition
Techland’s early Dead Island games may have been mired in technical issues, tonal whiplash as a result of an uncharacteristically moving reveal trailer, and the controversy surrounding that Riptide promotional statue, but it emerged as a pretty good series in the end. And from that hastily reinforced foundation sprung something even better: the parkour-inspired Dying Light series.
Whether your heart lies with the first or second game will come down to personal taste, but for our money it’s the earlier release (and its excellent DLC) that burns the brightest. “Early on, I thought it almost matched Mirror’s Edge, though it lacked that game’s grace. Now, I couldn’t say which one has superior movement,” writes Fraser in our Dying Light review. “[Because of] Dying Light’s RPG-like progression, it takes a while before hero Kyle Crane – a gloriously awful action movie name – reaches his peak. But it’s his occasional fumbles, the moments where he’s completely out of breath, his vision clouding, that make running high above the zombie hordes so compelling.”
If you, like us, get a rush from this kind of life-or-death situation in the face of dwindling supplies, there are plenty more stressful experiences to be had in our best survival games list.
15. The Last of Us Part I
While some staunch zombie purists bemoan any deviation away from the classic shambling archetype – hell, some people are still upset about 28 Day’s Later’s sprinting rage-virus victims – we firmly believe that variety is the spice of (recently expired) life. And the cordyceps-infected enemies in The Last of Us are among the greatest variants ever conceived – their fungal blooms somehow even more horrifying than reanimated decomposing flesh.
We would happily have any of the series in this list, they’re all incredible, but if you haven’t yet experienced it then we really have to insist that you start at the beginning – specifically 2022’s ground-up remake which revises gameplay and controls, bolsters lighting and performance, and adds some new accessibility options. To make the most of it, read our guide on the best The Last of Us Part 1 settings.
Beyond the immediate body horror, it’s the depths of human depravity in a post-apocalyptic setting that are truly terrifying – something that The Last of Us tackles head on. An astonishing story of loss, family, and survival, it has since enjoyed a much-lauded HBO treatment, and two (count ’em) remakes. When it comes to deciding whether or not to play it, that doesn’t leave mushroom for doubt…
16. DayZ
Originally created as a mod for Arma 2, DayZ received a standalone release in 2018 – the culmination of a chunky five-year early access period. Bohemia Interactive’s multiplayer offering is a zombie fan’s dream, dropping you at a random point of the game’s expansive map with only a handful of items and the clothes on your back and then tasking you with scavenging for survival.
The undead are the least of your worries, however, as you’ll also have to gauge other players’ intentions when you encounter them. “I’ve met and teamed up with random survivors before with very mixed experiences,” writes Nick Wilson in our DayZ review. “Some will defend you ’til the death, others will lure you into a trap. I’ve even traveled with two others for a number of hours, only to be axed in the back the moment a disagreement arose. It makes DayZ an unusually tense and odd experience: you’ll repeatedly feel your fight or flight instincts kicking in at a moment’s notice.”
We can’t guarantee you’ll encounter friendly people, but we can offer you a list of the best DayZ servers to join for your preferred flavour of apocalypse.
17. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
While some remasters simply tweak frame rates and resolution, Capcom went all in with Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster and ported the whole shebang to RE Engine. The result not only provides overhauled graphics and welcome quality-of-life changes, but also addresses the deeper flaws that sometimes undermined the spirited and playful original.
The Dead Rising remaster feels like an example of where games, even if they are less than 20 years old, might benefit from a second draft,” writes Ed Smith in our Dead Rising Remaster review. “It achieves more than preserving the essence and energy of the original game. It heightens it, and enables you to experience it in a more direct and concentrated form.”
The game tells the story of Frank West, a freelance journalist who finds himself trapped inside a shopping mall filled with zombies, and a 72-hour wait for help to arrive. What better way to spend that time, then, than to make use of the various stores’ wares and go to town on the undead with everything from a katana to a stuffed bear (results may vary). Fans of mucking about with a world full of toys will find much to love in our best sandbox games guide, too.
18. Organ Trail: The Director’s Cut
A cheeky homage to the 1971 teaching aid and now classic computer game The Oregon Trail (though this time not aimed at children – we think…), Organ Trail is all about getting your group to the end of an arduous journey. To make things even more harrowing, developer The Men Who Wear Many Hats takes a leaf out of XCom’s book and lets you name your party after your friends – so that you can then watch them die in awful ways, one by one. Lovely.
Like so many zombie outings, your primary concerns are keeping a good stock of food, medicine, and ammo, all while avoiding the ever-present roaming packs of flesh-eating undead. However, the real stars of Organ Trail are the random events, which will continue to catch you off guard hours into the game. You have to be prepared for anything, whether that’s being chased by gangs of raiders, or facing off in a boss fight against infected bears.
Just like the original, you’re always on the back foot, managing your party’s gradual descent into illness and hysteria one horrific encounter at a time. Every fight you manage to scrape through feels like a herculean accomplishment, and it’s that feeling that drives your feeble station wagon onward. If you fancy seeking out some other computer classics, we have a great list of the best old games on PC, too.
19. Killing Floor 2
Another mod-to-standalone glow up, the Killing Floor series’ storied lineage goes all the way back to a 2009 total-conversion mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. And Killing Floor 2 is the undisputed sweet spot in the line up, pitting you and five friends (or enemies – do remember to keep them closer) against wave after wave of grisly ghouls called ‘Zeds.
This wildly satisfying extreme violence is soundtracked by rambunctious heavy metal and characterised by one of the most creative FPS arsenals out there. And there’s an engaging tactical element, too: do you spend your blood-soaked resources now or save them for a more brutal future confrontation?
Rounds feel more chaotic and less curated than Left 4 Dead’s, but there’s an ‘only just keeping things under control’ vibe that ensures your adrenaline levels never dip. Killing Floor 3 released earlier this year, but the current package doesn’t convincingly improve on the second game. Give it time, though – never underestimate what an update or ten can achieve. If good FPS games are your jam, we have all manner of other good FPS games to recommend if they’re your jam.
20. Atom Zombie Smasher
If you haven’t played BlendoGames’s wonderful turn-based space opera Flotilla, we urge you to do so. There’s a sequel, too, and both games blend deceptively simple elements to create something much deeper than the sum of its parts. The studio brings that trademark thinking to bear on the RTS genre with Atom Zombie Smasher, putting you in charge of the city of Nuevo Aires’ defense forces and tasking you with saving as many citizens as you can. From your top-down perspective, you call in rescue helicopters, direct sniper teams, and make monstrous sacrifices to achieve your goal.
For most maps, your goal is simple: air-vac as many citizens as possible. You tell your helicopters where to land, place your marine teams, and set up explosives. Then, when you hit start, zombies flood in from different entrances around the level. If a zombie reaches a civilian they are instantly infected, and city blocks can all too quickly become swamped with the undead if you lose track of the bigger picture.
Sometimes, you have to cut your losses. Every time you put up a game-saving blockade, you are inevitably trapping some of your charges on the wrong side. The distanced perspective – which casts yellow dots as civvies and pink ones as zombs – encourages utilitarianism. You are not Francis, Bill, Zoey, or Louis this time – you are the military dropping bombs on their heads. And if you’re into that kind behaviour, you might find even more to enjoy in our best RTS games guide.
21. 7 Days to Die
The Fun Pimps has been in the zombie-hunting game for over a decade now, and its open-world survival horror epic 7 Days to Die has gone from strength to strength in that time, despite all those decomposing muscles. The beloved survival hit has long been a Steam favorite, and earlier this year it celebrated the launch of its 2.0 overhaul which introduces unique environmental hazards in each biome, a dynamic storm system, and two new special infected zombie types – the Plague Spitter and Frost Claw (in case you’re wondering, they’re not friendly).
It’s convincingly sweet icing on the game’s already delicious voxel-based scavenge-build-and-defend gameplay cake, which blends FPS, survival horror, tower defence, and RPG elements. A heady brew indeed.
Obviously, this kind of game attracts creative players who can’t help but tinker, and that means loads of excellent mods – we’ve rounded up the best 7 Days to Die mods here.
22. Unturned
Unturned has also been built with creative players in mind, thanks to extensive in-game map editor and an open-arms approach to modders that has filled the games Steam Workshop with thousands of mods, items, weapons, sounds, and even mechanics.
At its core, though, is a free-to-play DayZ experience that is continually updated by developer Nelson Sexton. The visuals won’t be to everyone’s tastes (it began life as a Roblox mode called Dead Zone, and has retained that aesthetic despite moving over to Unity), but there’s more than enough charisma here to let you move past any initial misgivings.
It may not be the most realistic survival game out there, but comes to life when you’re patrolling the zombie-infested streets with a few trustworthy buddies.
We think this is a pretty strong list, but do let us know if we’ve missed one of your favorites by nipping over to our community Discord. If you’re still on the hunt for scares, we have an excellent selection of the best horror games to keep you on the edge of your seat. But if you’d rather have a cup of chamomile and settle down, our best relaxing games list will help you de-stress before bedtime.
Our regularly updated upcoming PC games list will keep you apprised of all your future potential favorites, and if you just want to know what the best PC games to play right now are, then we have you covered, too.
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