I’ll point out that in the book (which is far, far, FAR better than the movie, to the point they basically share the title and nothing else), zombies (which aren’t runners) become a nothingburger pretty much as soon as the first phase of population boom ends (which is, admittedly, pretty devastating). The military sets up killzones for mass extermination, people start killing zombies whenever they catch them in small numbers, and, because zombies are dead no-natural-body-heat-generation meatbags of coagulated blood they basically completely stop whenever temperatures get near close to freezing.
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Beat me to it, that’s probably why most of the stories in the book focus on the beginning of the outbreak. after awhile the book just becomes about the indomitable human spirit
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Yeah but surely you can be a bit more creative with how the zombies remain a threat. I’ve seen stories do it pretty well.
Looks interesting. I’m going to check on Amazon to see if it’s worth a read.
I don’t know how I’d make Romero’s zombies not become just a nuisance after a few years, but specifically about them managing to take down a modern society, I don’t think brute force is convincing, not even if you use arrogance as a motive. I don’t think an M1 Abrams would have any trouble making pâté out of a horde of human bodies, let alone dead bodies.
I liked how Project Zomboid dealt with this specific type of zombie. You have an initial period of airborne and food/waterborne infection (IIRC) that spreads rapidly across much of the world in a few days, collapsing the whole of society at once. It’s only after this collapse that the traditional rules of bite and fluids reign again, and we have TWD’s scenario with the survivors wandering around.
But I think the key is to sometimes simply suspend your disbelief. I’m addicted to the original Zombie Exodus, even if the book’s apocalypse and Romero’s zombies don’t make much sense.
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Well yeah that was the idea, just find a way to make the disease spread faster, then have it die down into regular fluid transfer if need be.
I’d think the horror comes from humanity trying to survive the aftermath of most everyone being dead, and not the zombies themselves, but I could be wrong of course.
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Strongly recommended. Like you, the author really thinks through the implications of the zombie apocalypse; and even if you end up finding a few bits implausible, it’s still a terrific read.
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I need to read that. I grabbed a secondhand copy a few years ago, but I haven’t made time for it yet.
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The only sore spot I really had with the book was that there is no possible way the zombies as presented should have been able to withstand artillery strikes. I don’t care if every part of the zombie attached to the head keeps moving until you destroy the brain, if they’re in the artillery blast, there is simply not going to be enough left of them to get back up, let alone crawl. You just kill them after the rest are dealt with. And while the explanation for a military trying shock and awe tactics faltering against zombies who don’t scatter in fear makes some sense, that also means you have a thick heard of targets you can keep bombing.
My point is the Battle of Yonkers went far worse than it should have due to this fact. There are a few minor points I could critique but this is the only one I can think of that would alter the story significantly.
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My problem with zombies stories and especially COG Zombie games is that they tend to bloat the casts so they always have fodder for the zombies to chew on, which results in the cast at large barely being characters since otherwise it’d be too obvious who’s gonna get killed next.
Like Zombie Exodus has a lot of good points but it’s cast isn’t one of them.
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I think going by the human standard is kinda, weird when there’s other beings, and the bounds of a species is argued irl anyhow, besides there are a ton of settings where being a zombie (and or zombie analogues) isn’t a complete loss of function or they can just be full people, never mind even in the typical one a cure might spring up or being actively implemented. Especially given the examples of weak zombies where you could just immobilize them.
Dc’s Poison Ivy at one point was a cannibal. Though fantasy wise I’ve usually seen those big monster type plant people being meat eaters.
State of Decay 2, didn’t do 1. AI is running algorithimic tests, lab tests, and kept competent troops out of areas of testing. A space bug of some sort?! Space virus?! Something, the AI can control. The virus mutates victims.
Some zombie elements are good while others are not.
Keeping in mind, US has actual Zombie apocalypse scenario events and rules. They play out worst case and stifle it.
Its bit annoying to see some zombie stuff ignore how competent emergency forces really can be.
A soldier on the line.
“Halt or we shoot!”, “Halt!” After that second one, expect shots. Because technically if the first soldier can’t stop them. Others have opportunity to open fire then. Depending on the restriction areas/levels makes a big factor.
Always wince at how soldiers are really dumbed down in most zombie stuff. Trained to know our targets. Forgot key component: privates are even able to take charge if necessary due to knowing goal.
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One pet peeve of mine is any time a setting (typically fantasy or space opera) says a land or realm has been at peace with no major crises for like, thousands of years before the main plot throws everything into chaos, or that a single dynasty has ruled uninterrupted for that time with relative peace. Having a lengthy period of stability is fine but the scale here just doesn’t work. There has NEVER been a period of thousands of years without any major crises. It’s statistically impossible.
Most of the longest reigning dynasties have typically had periods where different family members waged entire wars of succession without the family itself being overthrown or them being made puppet rulers for other people or just had no de facto power as their empires were divided into car warlord states who nominally pretended to be loyal to the state that only existed in theory for that period. Sometimes they got overthrown and had to regain power.
There has also never been a period lasting thousands of years without ANY major crises in a given region or with anything even resembling the status quo being maintained. Like, to put that into perspective, the fall of the Roman Empire was less than two thousand years ago. Look at all that’s happened between then and now.
The worst examples I know of have like, a hundred thousand years of a certain status quo being maintained uninterrupted. So ten times the age of human civilization as a whole.
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What I hate most in choice games… is shallow romance! Romance that doesn’t feel natural, doesn’t tie into the main story, and feels like something just tacked on. I want to feel immersed and emotional and connected, but I can’t do that if I don’t know them!
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Not to mention medieval fantasy having the same culture and technological level for thousands of years.
We were reeling from an ice age only ten thousand years ago.
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“Over 90% of the population is illiterate, all we have are stories and gossip passed down verbally. The people who can read tell us that our gods put them, specifically, in power, and that divine right is eternal. As far as anyone you know knows, life has always been just like this, everywhere, forever.” Just doesn’t have the same ring to it, I guess.
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It might not, but I would read that story (expecting the main character finding out how everything they were taught was a lie).
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Also hate the argument that we would stop inventing things if magic were real because magic can do those things. People literally just invent stuff because they can all the time. A great many scientific discoveries that have huge practical applications now very much did not start that way. People just wanted to see what happened.
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Absolutely. Inventions would build on magic, they wouldn’t stop happening. Magic shouldn’t equal tech stagnation – that’s an unrealistic dream of a romanticized faerie.
But not all the inventions we know would happen. If you’ve got healing magic that makes people better without the need for surgery, I wouldn’t bet on people’s curiosity alone leading to the invention of the laparoscope.
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Inventing stuff and actualy implementing it are two completely different things. Things are accepted only when there is a need for them. So yes, a steam engine could be invented in a magic setting, but it would be just a little curious toy, not a moving power for idustrialization. And magic is usually available to a chosen few and that’s that, unlike education which was hard to obtain in ye olden times but still doable. So progress in magical driven society surely would exist, but differently.
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