Lots of strong objectification content. Female zombies who bite you go for the crotch area to look like they are giving oral, you get bonus points for taking pictures of cleavage with your camera, the male character looks at women during cut scenes in an pervy manner, sexual jokes are constantly made, and the female characters mostly dress revealing, including the zombies. During cut scenes, the camera likes to linger over the female body when they are introduced.
There's 'squelchy' sounds when Frank eats fruit and
**************SPOILERS***************
Isabela sniffs in the cutscene where she finds out her brother is dead
Heavily fatphobic and ableist depictions throughout the series. Typically showing fat people as villains or gluttonous. The term “obese” is used, which is condsidered outdated and offensive.
CHARACTER SPOILERS There’s a fat gluttonous woman in a mobility scooter who kills people that steals her food. There’s a “dumb” fat character that tries to feed you to a lion who is also a bad example of intellectual disability. There’s a fat chef who tries to eat you. A fat Butcher who tries to butcher you.
There’s a fat mascot character who tries to kill you. There’s a fat woman cop who tries to beat you to death. There’s a guy who wears BDSM stuff and tries to forcibly marry another survivor, which you save by fighting and killing him. END SPOILERS
Villains are called “psychopaths” and “psychos” which are words that carry a lot of ableist connotations and stigma for people with psychotic spectrum disorders and antisocial personality disorder.
There is also a character that is a bit of a south Asian muscular soldier stereotype.
There is also themes of terminal illness and the third game is set in 2021 which might hit too close to home for some so soon after and being set when Covid started.
SPOILERS for subsequent games
There’s a main villain who is a wheelchair user with a facial difference that withholds a cure to a terminal disease and intentionally infects others. END SPOILERS
Throughout the entire series many have disability or something allegorical to one, becoming infected by the zombie virus.
SPOILERS In the first game our player character frank becomes infected. He takes injections. Voiced by AFAIK able bodied people, TJ Rotolo, Ty Olsson and Jas Patrick. There is an old man with a walking cane named Russel who is played by AFAIK able bodied person, Philip proctor.
In the second game our daughter, Katey, becomes infected and we have to give her injections. Voiced by an AFAIK able bodied person, Allyson Armstrong.
Depending on ending our player character, Chuck can also become infected or die. Voiced by an AFAIK able bodied man, Peter Fleming.
In the second game the main villain is revealed to be a woman in a wheelchair with facial difference who figured out how to cure zombification. Voiced by an AFAIK able bodied people Jaqueline Samuda and Kathleen Garrett.
In the third game there a fat woman in a mobility scooter. Voiced by an AFAIK able bodied skinny woman, Misty Lee.
There is a child in the intro cutscene who is implied to have died, and there are several other children stated to have died off-screen, but there are no children actually present during the course of the game.
A (non-zombie) dog is shown being among the zombies in a cutscene towards the beginning. It's not shown being killed but it's not saved either. It doesn't come up anywhere else in the game. There is also a scene at a butcher's with hanging carcasses.
While not hung by the neck, in Crislip's Home Saloon, there are bodies hung by their feet with their heads decapitated. Professor Barnaby is also tied and hung around his waist during a story mission.
When one of the optional bosses dies (the policewoman) she starts spasming on the floor. I don't know if it's supposed to be seizure or a heart attack since it's not brought up
One cutscene before the game heavily implies the death of a child and her mother. Another character you can rescue lost her child to the zombies, and two of the bosses you fight were driven mad due to witnessing children dying to the zombies.
The secret intro on the title screen alludes to a mother and child dying, and survivor Leah who has just lost her baby can die if not escorted properly.
Professor Barnaby and Carlito both get kidnapped during story mode. If Frank gets attacked by a certain enemy, he can be kidnapped and brought back to their base.
I’d like to as that the way the villains are portrayed is as “psychos” that snapped from the outbreak happening. This is not a good or genuine portrayal of actual mental illness
You can take control of a car at various points in the game and run over zombies. There's also a few boss battles where the boss will try to run you over with a vehicle.