The Disturbingly Awesome Zombies of Valve Games

Happy Halloween everyone!  What better day to play some scary games than this?  Maybe you're planning on taking a tour of the mansion in Resident Evil 1, or making your way through the fog in Silent Hill, or turning off all the lights and visiting Tingle Island in Wind Waker.

Seeing as this is the time for the rising dead, how about we take a look at some video game zombies?  Not just any zombies, but the zombies in Valve games.  This is because I find that Valve puts a little more creativity into these creepers, rather than copy-pasting the standard shuffling brain-eating undead monster.  With that said, let's start off with the Half-Life games.

Headcrab Zombies (Half-Life series)

End my suffering...release Episode 3!

Well there is definitely shuffling and brain-eating going on here, but not in the usual sense.  Headcrab zombies are the result of the inter-dimensional alien invasion that occurred in Half-Life 1.  These zombies are created when aliens called Headcrabs latch onto a person's head, bite through the skull, and then take control of said person's brain.  The result is that the host is alive and fully conscious while he is under control of the Headcrab.  The zombies come in a few forms, such as the standard Headcrab zombie pictured above, as well as the "fast" zombie (this is more of a Left 4 Dead type of zombie that can run and climb):

Note that the Headcrab probably forced the host to tear off his own skin.

And even a zombie that gives other Headcrabs a piggy-back ride:

Disturbed enough yet?  No?  Great!  Because it's time to move on to the Valve series dedicated completely to zombies, Left 4 Dead.

The Infected (Left 4 Dead series)

 Keeping with what seems to be a Valve zombie tradition, the zombies in the Left 4 Dead games are not undead.  The Infected are people who have contracted a fast spreading virus which is kind of like rabies, only much more extreme.  The Infected are alive but have lost their humanity.  They can't speak, they can't use tools or weapons, and they kill non-infected survivors by beating them down with their bare hands, all while growling and grunting like the sick beasts they have become.  The Infected can still feel pain but that doesn't stop them from charging at you even after you've shot off an arm or blown a gigantic hole in their stomach.

The most disturbing and cool zombies of the bunch are the special Infected, which are mutated forms of the regular zombies, but with their own special abilities.

For example, there's the Smoker, who has an extremely long tongue which it uses to entangle survivors and pull them to their doom:

There's also a special Infected called the Boomer, who vomits all over the survivors, which attracts huge hordes of the standard Infected:

In my opinion, the most disturbing special Infected is the Spitter, an extremely mutated Infected who coughs up burning acid which has done a number on her face:

There are plenty more special Infected in the Left 4 Dead games,and as you can see, they are all fitting to give you nightmares:

This concludes our quick look at some of the uniquely disturbing zombies in Valve games, hope this was able to contribute to the Halloween spirit!