What if - as Michael Jackson prophesied in the music video for Thriller - the undead rose this Halloween? Would you be prepared, or would you end up being feasted upon by something that smells more pungent than a KFC bathroom?

If the Daily Mail would have you believe it, video games are where your children undergo a metamorphosis into being a sociopath and learn the skills required to embark upon a life of crime. Given that the US army is using video games to train soldiers and people are using them to teach programming, I can’t help but think there might be some truth in it. If Grand Theft Auto 5 is teaching little Timmy the best way to boost a police car, why can’t video games teach you how to survive a zombie apocalypse?

Here are three games that will teach you the skills you need to ensure that this Halloween is a bite-free one.

Know Your Environment

Exmortis 2 is the brainchild of Aussie horror wunderkind Ben Leffler, bringing together horror, role playing and point-n-click elements into one terrifying package. It’s rare for a browser based Flash game to be terrifying. The constraints of that particular platform are well known, and it’s hard for the browser to be just as thrilling as the likes of a game like Alan Wake on a big screen TV.

Leffler has pulled it off though, and Exmortis 2 is a massively replayable, incredibly terrifying masterpiece. The game is set in a nightmarish American Midwest where the onslaught of the undead brought about by the occult has resulted in the near extinction of humanity. You play one of the remnants of the human race fighting to ensure the survival of the species. To do that, you complete puzzles and explore the ruins of rural Americana.

Exmortis 2 is a game best played with the lights off, the headphones on, and with enough mental stamina to solve the multitude of challenging puzzles in this exciting, free to play video game.

Build A Fortress

So, you’ve learned to explore and your puzzle solving skills are tip-top. Now you need to build a habitat to protect yourself. After all, being turned into dinner by a horde of necrotizing corpses can ruin anyone’s day.

Enter MineCraft's (PC/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS) Survival Mode. Quite unlike than the sedate Creative Mode, with Survival Mode you are dumped empty handed into a hostile environment. When night falls, all manners of evil crawls out of the woodwork, including zombies with their distinctive groan, venomous spiders and… Um… Exploding cacti.

If you don’t fancy making short work of them in combat, you’re going to have to build somewhere to shelter at night. Whether you fancy making a shack or a castle, with Minecraft you can build whatever you need. Regardless of whether you prefer building a castle or a life-sized replica of the Enterprise-D, you can build it with MineCraft.

Get Some Exercise

Did you watch Season 2 of The Walking Dead? Remember Otis? He was the slightly rotund employee of Hershel Greene. He didn’t last long. Come to think of it, do you know of any Zombie flicks where any of the protagonists are a little bit portly? I didn't think so.

Indeed, should the zombie apocalypse come, you’ll immediately find out that you will need to be at peak physical fitness. So, put down the doughnuts. Put on some sweatpants, and get ready to get some exercise with Zombies, Run! 

Available on iOS, Windows Phone 8 and Android, Zombies, Run! is a quirky game that makes use of your phones GPS and your innate fear of being eaten alive by the living dead. The aim of the game is simple; you run as fast as you can. The fate of your comrades in this story-driven game depends upon your speed and stamina, as you carry crucial supplies back to your base.

This game counts the calories burned, as well as how long you spent running and the distance traveled, giving you some useful metrics In addition, you can play your own music whilst being chased by the undead, giving you that extra boost of motivation you might need.

Conclusion

Have you thought about how you’ll survive the Zombie Apocalypse? Any games you’ve played that might help you survive? Let me know in the comments below.

Photo Credit: Michael R Perry