Old zombies or new 'running' zombies?

[jakefongloo221]

well slow zombies are psychological usually ending up with a survivor not dieing becuase of zombie attack but because of hopelessness of either said survivor or another one entirly so slow zombies are more of a direct threat upon your mind. if your physically strong then you may want to go the fast zombie route but if your willfully strong slow zombies are the key.

(LEFT 4 DEAD WOOT!) this game here has both fast and slow. They lumber around or lean against walls until you get they're attention then its close your eyes and think happy thoughts

i would go with the slow zombies

but fast zombies are not zombies?
No zombie reanimation is caused by virus infection of the nervous system. Fast zombies just have better command of the nervous system

 

[LewsTherin]

Slow, because to me it is a metaphor for death itself; unstoppable, legion, and creeps up on you when you aren't looking.

That, and I'm tired of these silly "infected". I want some old school necromantically animated corpses please!

 

[insane44]

it doesnt matter to me zombies make great pets fast or slow

 

[PirateKing]

As soon as I saw this I had to respond.

Okay, I've thought about this a lot. I'll pause while you think about what kind of person I am. What I came up with is that the speed of the zombie is scary based on where you are. If you're in an open field with lots of space to run then slow zombies aren't really scary. You can get away from them quite easily. But if you're in that situation with fast zombies it's a lot scarier. Like the opeining scene of 28 Weeks Later.
Slow zombies are a lot scarier in confined spaces where you can't easily get away. They slowly approach as you futiley empty round after round into their decayed bodies only to discover that there are more of them than you have bullets.
That's what I think.

 

[frozenshad]

slow zombies

fast ones suck ass

hl2, one of the last parts in ravenholme while waiting for the cart...

how to make you want to kill the enemy: make the enemies ANNOYING AS HELL

 

[MONTGOMERYWOODRUFF69]

How about the slow moving ones in Land Of The Dead, those suckers used guns!

 

[Johnny Ringo]

Slow Zombies. If your flesh has rotted away to the point of exposed bone, I sincerely doubt you'd be able to move at a quick rate.

Yes, running zombies are more frightening initially but lack that certain feel of dread to them the teeming hordes of shambling undead have.

And to reply to the above posters comment, the problem with enpowering the zombies with weaponry is that you remove any hope for survivors. Plus, getting shot is prefferable to being torn apart and eaten alive.

Lastly, did we ever get an answer as to why they eat human flesh in the first place?

 

[dMighty]

Slow = Dread, Fast = Shock. Depends on what you're in the mood for.

 

[Greever]

New sprinting zombies that spew forth infectous blood.

This should have been a poll, for it is relevant!

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

The fast ones are by far the scarier of the two, Something about a mindless, vicious, relentless, super fast killing machine, or mob thereof, is terrifying.

 

[HomeAliveIn45]

Quick! Name the quote!

"Zombies are stoopid and slow"

(say it with an accent)

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

I take a little from the ZSG and a little of my own opinion to say that they would well-and-truly be a mix of the two. Newer zombies are still intact, and with their altered brains they no longer feel hurt or tired. This allows them to run for extended periods of time at a greater-than-average speed. However, this also wears down the zombie's body much more quickly than usual (Pain and fatigue being natural warnings and all), and so as time goes on and the zombies keep moving, they start to degrade. The slower zombies would come from those that are either "low on batteries" so-to-speak, or have been deteriorating/damaged in some way (mainly the kind that have been dead and gone for a while). So in the end, a healthy mix of two would be realistic.

As for personal preference, I'm on the fence. The fast zombies are cool in an adrenaline-rush, "OH SHI-" way, where as the shambling ones have more of a psychological effect.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

You know to tell you the truth, threads like these are why I love the Escapist.

 

[UbAdm]

I like the ones that run better.

 

[DMShade]

The slow ones inspire more lasting fear...the fact that they shamble along slowly and yet with all that time to plug them full of lead they still get uncomfortably close keeps you in a sort of mix of claustrophobia and extreme enochlophobia (fear of crowds) to the point 3 or more coming your way makes your palms sweat. And while you can outrun them, the more you run, the more noise you make, and hence the more of them you draw, like undead aggro, until there are so many from enough angles to effectively choke you off and make you really consider fellating your pistol so you won't have to FEEL them ripping you up...

Uhm...so yeah...sorry, long-winded. Slow zombies = slower-building, but much more damaging sense of desperation and panic, hence, better horror.

 

[hellthins]

The classic slow moving zombies are okay, but they dont really give us any feeling of dread and fear. As for the faster guys, thats a different story, put in the right context its shit scary. And for the last time, 28 DAYS LATER HAD NO ZOMBIES IN IT! THEY WERE CRAZIES!

I think it pretty much comes down to whether our noble protaganist has some kind of melee weapon or a firearm.

Firearm = fast zombies for satisfying knockback.

Melee Weapon = slow for long drawn out last stand on growing mountain of corpses.

You're right. They're mindless hordes that run around biting the hell out of people. It's a hard science zombie. Since in all reality having them die and come back as undead rather than alive again makes no scientific sense, you'd need to substitute in a mutated rabies virus to have it fit in the realms of reality.

The zombie fan's bible, The Zombie Survival Guide, explains that it is actually immpossible for the dead to come back to life, instead the zombie virus (or Z Virus as I call it) warps and mutates the brain to such a degree that it creates an entirely different life form. To quote the book it's self; "the virus doesnt give life, it ulters it"

The zombie survival guide is a great book.

It is also not the only zombie universe ever made zomg. It's the World War Z bible, and while it gives some fun general advice for zombie tropes, it's not the end all to be all zombie source ever for all things zombie.

Case in point, classic Romero movies. They really are dying and coming back, but it never explains (intentionally) what causes them. There's hints that it might be radiation, hints that it might be a virus, or even hints it might be religious.

Also, the virus in the Zombie Survival Guide/World War Z is called Solanum.