Zombie Games: Best Weapons For The Zombie Apocalypse [Op-Ed]

Do zombie games give us the best weapons for a real zombie apocalypse? On the most part, no.

Dead Rising comes close to the most realistic scenario, as you end up fighting off the undead horde with whatever happens to be within reach. As soon as you know it’s happening, you won’t really have time to plan on any weapons. That coat rack is probably your best bet.

If you did have the advantage of planning ahead, there are some weapons suggested by zombie games that would definitely help turn the tides.

Probably the most useful of them would be a crowbar. It’s capable of delivering a wallop without sacrificing the integrity of the tool itself. Crowbars are meant to be used for rough work, making them ideal for combat against the walking dead. Of course, if you have time to plan for it, you might as well go for the biggest variety, the wrecking bar. It not only has a tenacity useful for blunt attacks, but it also has a claw at one end for extra damage.

While a lot of zombie games try to make shotguns the best bet for taking out the undead, the weapon is really quite unwieldy and needs to be loaded after every couple of shots. A shotgun isn’t practical for killing zombies en masse.

What you really want is something capable of firing as many shots as possible, preferably hollow-point to maximize the damage, and requires little reload time. What you really want is a semi-automatic assault rifle. You don’t want to fire off a barrage of ammo at once with a single trigger pull, as that’s a waste of bullets and you might want the ammo for later.

Now what if you’re surrounded by them? Obviously a bomb would work, but it would also take you out with them, and fire would be just as deadly for both sides. Probably the most useful weapon you could use is a simple blade. A good well-tempered sword would be best, as anything smaller would leave you exposed and anything heavier would just be hard to hold. Though when the sword starts getting dull, you really want a way out. The undead aren’t going to wait for you to re-sharpen your weapon.

You could try making custom weapons like Dead Island and The Last Of Us allow, but most of them are really not practical in the long run. And no, the classic chainsaw would eventually run out of fuel, and then you’re just left with a heavy blunt weapon you would have to swing for any useful damage.

Are there any weapons from zombie games that you think would be useful in a zombie apocalypse?