Notable examples: Clickers, the Flood, Husks, every zombie game in existence Zombies are a blight. They are everywhere in games. No matter what genre you play, you will likely encounter at least one game that has zombies as a major or minor antagonist. You can avoid them, but sooner or later, they'll pop up in a game you like, whether they're a necessary element or not. Zombies are a loathsome archetype because they are easy to make and can fit into just about any story or genre. Zombies don't have any character elements beyond a motivation (usually eating brains or attacking people for whatever reason), which is why they are uninteresting and generic enough to fit anywhere. That means they will show up where they are least needed, often hidden away by the PR flacks under the guise of avoiding spoilers. Sometimes they're just there to justify including a shotgun in the game's arsenal (like in Halo). Even worse are the times when producers and PR guys insist that their zombies are not zombies, like what happened during The Last of Us's press junkets (yes, I know it's a fungus, but the end result is pretty much the same). Unfortunately, we're in what feels like a decade long (and counting) stretch in zombie popularity. There have been so many zombie games or games with zombies in them over the past few years that blur together, even worse than FPSes do. Story or creative gameplay gets lost in the never ending, sledgehammer to the face "This is a zombie game" advertising that these games or zombie themed DLC employ to rake in the money from the masses that haven't burned out on zombies. Part of me knows that zombies keep being used because they're non-controversial (unless you show them attacking a kid or something). That doesn't keep me from wishing they'd be dumped in that hole with all those Atari ET copies for the next decade or so, though. Disagree with this list? Have your own candidates for worst archetypes? Let us know in the comments below.
Living in Florida, enjoying the weather when its good, writing for a living. TV, Film, Animation, and Games are my life blood. Follow me on Twitter @xbsaint. Just try not to get too mad when I live tweet during Toonami.
