I just love the Last of Us game. Everything is great there: the plot, the graphics, and the mechanics. So what about you?I put Resident Evil in second place.

For me, a zombie game is, first of all, a game where the main goal is to survive by means of fighting zombies (it can be either a zombie apocalypse, or just some, for example, battles with zombies). I hope you got what I meant.

In your understanding, it can be anything, the main thing is that there is a chain with zombies in the game.

Nocturne is the best zombie game ever IMO (and also the best vampire and werewolf game too; it a covers a lot of different sub-genres of horror).

Yes, the Nocturne game come to mind first thing, classy. And why we can't have good things like that any more.

If we count mutant I would also name System Shock 2, persistent invitations to join their community were quite convincing.

I never liked Resident Evil, I played so many different games and they all are not for me, the least irritating one would be Resident Evil 2 Remake, a good game overall. But I absolutely can't stand latest game RE Village with bullet sponges enemies' heads even on normal difficulty, that is so stupid.

Thief: The Dark Project has the best zombies ever in my opinion, also a great game for its time, a cult classic, every other Thief is nothing in comparison to this masterpiece.

I find zombies to be the most boring of all monsters, so my opinion would be understandably plebeian - Dishonored, System/BioShock ...Silent Hill, if those monsters can be counted as such.

Fallouts, all of them, have their quality zombie hours wherever ghouls come in force. And if you deliberately made your character not best at combat, why, those can be turned into survival horror as well.

The Last Stand and Decision were also fun, if all too simplistic, and there was some survival management game I can't recall the name of. And I should maybe mention Stubbs, although its not that good a game in its own right, only the most zombie-focused.

With zombies: Dead Rising 1&2, The Walking Dead
With zombie-like monsters: Days Gone, Resident Evil 4

I'm no zombie game aficionado -- for the most part I stay away from the genre -- but I did very much enjoy...

... State of Decay... some good end-of-the-world management...

... Yakuza: Dead Souls... terrible controls but completely bonkers zombie story...

... and...

... Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare....

... It's both corny and creepy with the feeling of an old horror movie you play every year for Halloween just as much for the scares as the laughs.

forum games

Zombies are there to elicit reactions from the humans. If it's focusing on the zombies, it's doing it wrong.

Dead Rising was great at that with its psychos, though the game itself was not great overall (too much "look up in a guide" and the difficulty was a tad high).

Zafehouse Diaries is a fun little management survival game where your cast and how you pair them is important.

While not a great game in general, and also doesn't spotlight the human element much, the husband and I had great fun playing the twin-stick shooter How to Survive couch co-op on the console. But without that adjacency factor, it's not at all a good game.

Dead island, dying light. That’s about it really. I find most of them quite boring, last of us I really don’t get, dead rising 1/2/3 are just daft. Resident evil series is ok up to 4 and including the remake of 2/3, but RE after 4 simply lost the plot. Can’t even think of any others.
Wait, typing of the dead overkill is quite good fun (switch to normal mouse control). Oh actually days gone also, some of those swarms were quite a challenge!

Zombie for Spectrum, of course.

The best zombie game is Metal Dead - a wonderful point & click adventure, where you have to survive a zombie apocalypse. ( :

Plants vs. Zombies! *ducks*

This might actually be true though, as I'm not really a fan of zombie survival games, and zombies are my least favorite type of undead or opponents in general. Just gross and boring.

Honorable mentions:
Walking Dead Season One, Metal Dead, and contrary to mqstout I thought How To Survive was better in single player (co-op wasn't much fun for some reason I forgot), but I never finished it.

Splatter - Zombiecalypse Now (Blood Red Edition)

Even though FPP is more immersive for this genre, my choice is this simple and generic top down shooter. Easy to get into, pretty self-explanatory and it doesn't try to be anything grander than what it is. Atmosphere is good despite the minimal story, mostly thanks to lighting and sound design.

Weapons are fairly standard and enemy types lack variety. But the game isn't too long so it doesn't overstay its welcome.
Having to progress through levels with (often destructable) environments makes this game more interesting than open field shooters like Crimsonland. Gameplay is very similar to the Alien Shooter / Zombie Shooter series but feels a bit smoother.

My recommendation would be to pick up Splatter when it's on sale or in a bundle and you want some brainless (no pun intended) entertainment that still has decent atmosphere and keeps you lightly engaged until the end.

Gameplay footage on Youtube