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Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse (Xbox)
Developer: Aspyr
Publisher: Wideload
Release Date: Q3 2005
E3 2005 will go down in history as the year of the zombie; and it's about time. Finally, our underrepresented brothers and sisters from the undead set will have their unintelligible voices heard. The soulless rebels will raise their rotted fists in defiance of the still-breathing overlords that have kept them six feet under for too long, and say "Uunnnhhh!" (Which, loosely translated, means "Un-death to the living!")
OK, all kidding aside, E3 2005 featured an explosion of zombie-related fare, and to be perfectly honest, we're not really sure why. It's not like the whole zombies-in-video games thing is a new concept. Hell, how many Resident Evil games have there been up to this point? And still, we got a slew of new zombie games, including the George Romero project City of the Dead; Capcom's non-RE zombie game for the Xbox 360, Dead Rising; Majesco's handheld zombie caper, Infected; and a brief look at Sega's upcoming House of the Dead project for next-gen consoles. However, above all other games featuring reanimated corpses as a source of inspirado, one specific game set itself apart from the rest of the pack and had us screaming, "Viva la zombie revolucion!" That game is Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse.
As if the title weren't bizarre enough, Stubbs takes the usual perspective one would find in a zombie action game, and flips it on its head. You don't play as the usual fair-haired hero or heroine, doing whatever you can to stave off zombie attacks and infections. Nay, you take on the role of the zombie himself--in this case, Stubbs, a previously very dead individual who awakens when his resting place is paved over by a major metropolis. What's an angry corpse to do in such a situation? Why, wreak havoc on the masses by way of lots of brain eating, limb removal, and forcible zombification, of course!
You'll be able to do all of the above in Stubbs, zombifying helpless victims, plucking their brains from their skulls, and just generally bloodying up the whole joint. The basic game looks to be pretty simplistically designed, but the whole thing of playing as a zombie is just a total riot, and it helps that the game doesn't take itself particularly seriously. Though, again, with a name like Rebel Without a Pulse, that's hardly shocking.
Interestingly enough, Stubbs the Zombie is the first game from developer Wideload Games, the studio helmed by Bungie cofounder Alex Seropian, and the game itself is actually running on an updated version of the Halo engine. No doubt, Stubbs is a completely bizarre project, but in the wake of an E3 filled to the brim with zombie games, it definitely stood at least one severed head above the rest.
Finalists
George Romero's City of the Dead (PS2, Xbox, PC)Dead Rising (Xbox 360)
Sega's House of the Dead Next-Gen Demo (TBA)
Infected (PSP)
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