Playing as the Zombie
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse puts you on the other side of the usual setup: you are the undead, and the living are the problem to solve. It's 1959 and Punchbowl, PA is a gleaming retro-futuristic city built on progress and order, and your job is to show that law enforcement does not hold up against a dead man with a grudge. The game plays as a third-person action-adventure with a cartoony, darkly comic tone, so the violence lands as slapstick rather than horror. You move through the city, tear into the population, and turn a tidy town into an outbreak.
Your Toolkit
Eating brains is not just for show. Each meal refills your supply of bodily weapons: zombie sputum, gut grenades, and a stunning blast of unholy flatulence. Those tools cover the range of encounters, from picking off individuals to clearing a crowd. Your severed hand is another option entirely — clamp it onto a barbershop quartet singer's head and raygun away from a new vantage point. The bigger picture is building a horde: convert the enemies you beat into undead allies and lead them in an assault on the living. Expect vehicular combat along the way, since Punchbowl's streets are full of machines that can be used against the city.
Playing With a Friend
The game supports local co-op, and a friend can drop in as Grubbs for couch co-op through the campaign. Steam also lists Remote Play Together, which lets a friend join over the network as if you were sharing one screen. The two of you split the zombie work between you and push through the city together. The store text notes that the friend is not included, so you'll need to bring your own.
Before You Start
This is a singleplayer game at its core with co-op layered on top, tagged Retro, Arcade, and Casual alongside Action-Adventure. The tone is funny and cartoony, but it is tagged Violent and Outbreak Sim, so expect plenty of brains and carnage. It's an alternate-history take on 1959, so the world runs on retro-futuristic technology rather than anything historically accurate. If your group wants a villain protagonist and a campaign you can run with a friend, this fits that bill.