Originally Posted by
rapier17
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No, zombies are not plausible. What Amherst did in the Division was take an extent virus, a sample of which he was probably able to acquire as a virologist/immunologist, and then soup it up to create his super virus. There is no extent virus in human history that brings people back to life. There have been plenty of odd sicknesses such as the Dancing Plague of 1518, but they rather have a tendency to lead to death or wreck their hosts if they survive the infection. When the human body is dead, dead, dead, that is it. You cannot bring someone back to life once they are absolutely and definitively deceased. Which is why zombies are a fantastical invention that would require some form of magic to create. Even the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus (yeah, don't worry, I had to look it up by - ironically - typing in 'zombie ants') keeps the host alive, piloting it towards their nest before the ant dies from the infection.
Going down the route of 28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later with a virus that turns people into insane berserk psycopaths whilst they're still alive is one theme, but that is something that belongs to the 28 Days/Weeks films.
I don't see why people want zombies in The Division games when the development teams behind the games could do something so much more original whilstkeeping with the Division's universe.* Zombies are so passé, we've been bombarded by them in popular media for decades and there have been swathes of films/TV & games about them. They are now unoriginal and frankly boring. Yes there was the Re-Animators Event, but that caused me concern because of its similarity to the zombie-concept and I'm glad I've not played that event since; if it has turned up again I've not turned it on (like other events I'd already completed). It is perhaps the event I disliked the most, and I hope it was only meant to be a sop to those who want zombies.
When Rainbow Six was released in 1998 it was all about a hardcore, realistic game in a real-world setting and environment. The same with the original Ghost Recon. Yet now their successors are very different beasts compared to the games that won me over to Tom Clancy. Realism has wandered off drunkenly, with only the real world setting and environment remaining. With a zombie mode or event that would chip further away at the last thing Tom Clancy games have, staining The Division games with something they do not need in them. It doesn't matter whether it would be a limited event or not, it would have happened and set a precedent that would drive me, and other players I am sure, away from the games because we want the real world setting, not fantasy tropes that do not belong in Tom Clancy games.
It may happen one day but when it does I will certainly be keeping away.
As for what they could have done with Kenly? How about something dripping with tension and fear, using lighting and sounds to creep us out whilst Hunters appear randomly to attack us as we try to complete objectives? They could have had packs of wild dogs leap into rooms through doors or windows, giving us a new mass threat to deal with quickly. There are all sorts of things they could do as a nod to the tension and horror of the old Resident Evil games, and maybe that is what they had in mind. At least I hope it is, because zombies? Blegh.
*This is not to say a game like the Division could do a zombie game well, with its core mechanics and gameplay it would probably be rather good. Just not in The Division.