The Source Engine: Plagued With Undead

The Source Engine, one of the most versatile game engines on the internet today. People have made some amazing experiences using that. For example, mods/games like Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike Source, No More Room In Hell, etc. There's a ton of good ideas but one thing that really bothers me about the engine is the over saturation of zombie mods/games. Sure, there's a couple gems in the bunch but it's when people start tossing these mods out, and not focusing on making them different/unique which really grinds my gears. There's a ton of potential with the Source Engine and people releasing the exact same "wave survival" mod about zombies is really...sad.

No More Room In Hell: The best zombie mod

Above we have No More Room In Hell, which is pretty much the best zombie mod you can experience on the Source Engine. For me, in past experiences everything else fails in comparison to this mod. It's not boring, and usually each play-through/round is different. Unlike your typical formula in most zombie mods, but I won't be naming any. Or at-least I don't think I will, but it is nice to tell people "Don't waste your time!"

Then, there's other mods that are really, really poor. The main reason for this is not adding anything new to the zombie genre, and using the same recycled mechanics we've seen with other wave based survival crap. For example, Situation Outbreak. That mod had a ton of potential, but their survival system felt weak, even though the idea of the in-game store worked, and was actually pretty cool. However, everything else didn't really jive with me since it was essentially the same mechanics we've seen in other "survival" modes, and really didn't do much to spice it up. I think the lack of servers is what killed this mod.

Situation Outbreak: It looked pretty, but didn't appeal.

 

Then, we have the mods that are just down-right terrible and feel like someone copied the entire code for another game, and re-released it as a textural update, and what-not. I really can't describe this next one, but it's by far the worst use of zombies I have ever seen in a mod, and totally shat on one of my favorite Source Mods of all time. Welcome to, Zombie Master: Black Edition. A mod designed by some kids that were fans of Zombie Master? I really don't know.

All I know is that Black Edition had the inclusion of blobs as enemies. Yes, blobs in a zombie game. They didn't fit, and felt completely useless. For me, it feels like they wanted to make a unique enemy but nobody knew how to develop 3D models and thus a blob was born. Plus, all enemies had a one hit kill which I think was meant for realism, but ended up just being tacky and frustrating.

 

Zombie Master Black Edition: Blobs...yeaaaah.

 

So, what do you guys think about how many zombie mods are being pushed out onto the Source Engine lately? Just now while writing this article I've came across three or four, I don't really remember. I'd really love to hear what others think, and I don't want to be the only guy shitting on this kind of thing.