I thought this would be a two-part series, but I realized I had more to say on the subject of the zombification of the gaming industry. Here are links to the previous posts regarding zombie graphics and zombie AI.
It's not that I have anything against zombies themselves. (Other than that those rotting, lumbering, infernal abominations are trying to harvest my mind, that is.) It's that we've seen game designers use these tricks before.
The hordes of bad guys used to be aliens or demons. It's a much easier task for the graphics and animation department. We don't expect to be able to read the emotions on the puss of a slobbering green monster. In fact, in many games, these creatures never change expression at all. Contrast that with how we'd react to a human-looking opponent whose face betrayed nothing but a perpetual Zen-like calm in the midst of horrific carnage.
We also cut aliens or monsters slack as well in the behavior department. We assume that the monster just isn't smart enough to realize that charging directly into the barrel of a BFG-9000 might not improve the chances of its survival. We expect aliens to follow their own, alien logic. We don't expect them to have human reactions. Besides, they're far from home and in unfamiliar territory. It might not occur to an otherwise highly advanced alien that standing next to a primitive barrel of flammable liquid is a bad idea.
In earlier generations of computer and console games, the excuse was that the technology simply wasn't capable of these feats of graphics and gameplay. To have returned to zombies, aliens and demons once again in the current era of gaming is simply laziness. Game designers have exploited these tired old story devices ad nauseam. We should demand more.
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