ABSTRACT
Ever since George A. Romero set Dawn of the Dead (1978) in a shopping mall, zombies have been read as an allegory for late capitalism. Zombie video games extend and deepen this symbolism, providing important critiques of restrictive 21st-century economic structures. Resident Evil and the popular “Zombies” mode from the Call of Duty franchise accomplish this through free motion, intensities, and unbound gameplay. This essay, drawing on the theoretical work of Frederic Jameson, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari, argues that these zombie games work to undermine the dominance of contemporary capitalism. Resident Evil and Call of Duty explicitly tie their gameplay to this critique through the defeating the Umbrella corporation or the gathering resources and unlocking of space in Call of Duty. By doing this, they turn capitalism into a winnable game, which in turn forces their audiences to think beyond the structures of contemporary capitalism.
