Having a powerhouse developer like Sony take on a zombie survival project? Yes please.
I am a fan of Sony. Sure, they have made some poor choices some of their games don’t always pan out, but they know MMO’s and how to create huge worlds full of life and detail.
H1Z1 uses Planetside 2’s engine which already has proven mechanics for vehicles, weaponry and faction infrastructure. Unlike most of Sony’s games that are fantasy based, H1Z1 will take place on Earth 15 years in the future. Specifically, H1Z1 will take place in America. Though the map will be significantly smaller upon early release, the goal is to make the playable map BE the US in size, landmarks, and appearances. This mirroring of the real world will allow for some fun mechanics, including familiar places for the players to fight through, maybe even staking out your old neighborhood. It also allows them to get creative with tailoring scavenging. They have mentioned that guns will be found throughout the world, but maybe down south they are found more easily in living rooms and sheds, where in the north you will mainly find them in hunting supply stores or locked and hidden away.
But how does H1Z1 differ DayZ, Rust (read my views here) and WarZ, to name a few? There are a few key points that make the game stand out, but John Smedley, President of SOE, basically came out and said it’s not going to be 100% different than these games. At heart, it is a zombie apocalypse survival sandbox game. He pointed out his love for a variety of zombie movies, which at heart are all just zombie movies, as an example as to why the games don’t need to be black and white to each other.
That said, there definitely are differences between the games that excite me. Vehicles are already in game, though their exact mechanics and variety will vary as development progresses. Though all vehicles are ready to drive now, they hope to add mechanics that will allow for missing or broken components, requiring scavenging to repair them before you can just drive them off the lot.
DayZ’s world consists of already set infrastructure, collapsing and decomposing due to neglect and zombie carnage. Rust contains almost no pre-existing infrastructure, relying on players to scavenge materials and build structures on their own. H1Z1 hopes to fall in the middle of these two. The world will be prebuilt, starting with small villages and eventually getting to the point where large, broken cities will be added to the game. But in addition to these existing structures, the world will rely heavily on player build objects. And where things can be built, they can be destroyed. Players will be able to attack you structures and break in to kill and steal from you, so strategic building will be essential. Though strategic building may be tested with the addition of fire to the arsenal. The ability to burn structures is not in yet, but has been promised. It is unclear at this point of NPC’s will be able to do the same destruction, but I for one vote for this possibility.
The main difference between H1Z1 and other zombie survival games is an important one, in my mind. Where DayZ and Rust have devolved to flavored shooters on most servers, H1Z1 hopes to keep the players focused enough to work together by making zombies a real threat. Smedley points out his desire to focus on this game being about survival against the world. There will still be PVP, of course, and players will be a serious threat, but having zombies not just be easy targets full of loot will be a breath of fresh air in the genre. Oh, and he has mentioned the ability for GMs (or whatever they will call the admins) to spawn hordes of zombies at will. So that will be fun.
The game is very early in development, and John Smedley has made it clear the early access alpha coming soon will be all about finding what is and isn’t fun, bug smushing will come later in beta. The game has a lot of potential and a very dedicated group of developers at its helm. My wish list for a few mechanics to be added? Make zombies killable with headshots only. Sure, maim the crap out of them with body shots, but I want them dangerous until you damage the head. Add some sort of lasting damage from zombie attacks. Maybe special attacks like biting that will slowly kill you, letting you have a few minutes totry to get back and store some of your valuables before dropping on the spot. One thing that has been mentioned by other fans that I am on board with is making player corpses turn into the undead. This will discourage, or make much more chaotic, any large scale battles the players intend on having. Imagine fighting an enemy crew 10 vs. 10, and as the battle winds down, suddenly your 7 lost buddies are trying to eat your brains? The possibilities are endless really, and I think this dev group will be good about listening to the players and tailor fitting their game to its fan base.
I’m excited for H1Z1 to hit early access release on Steam for $20. An exact date hasn’t been mentioned, but about a month ago they said 4 – 6 weeks. They have promised a strong showing at E3 this coming week, so maybe we will see it hit steam right after the conference? I’ll keep you updated as I hear more.
Thanks for following!
-Mac
Check out the H1Z1 Reddit
Or their main site
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