Anyplace, USA - A Zombie Story

The past few years have brought us a myriad of survival sandbox style games, many of which are zombie based. A little over a month ago Sony announced their first step into this genre with H1Z1.
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

Building a world...

Everquest was the first MMO I ever played. I sank more hours into that game than I care to admit. Let’s just say my high school years weren’t the most social times. When Everquest II was announced, I had my pre-order in the day they were available, and I played that game for a similarly embarrassing number of hours. I’ve played many other MMO’s since these games, and I am sure to play many more in the coming years. My play style for MMO’s has become quite erratic, playing for a while, losing interest, coming back months later. It suits me fine.

And then Everquest Next was announced and with it Everquest Next Landmark. I watched out of curiosity, knowing my MMO interest had faded, but still wondering what SOE would pull out of their hats next. I was blown away by what Next plans to offer. It still remains to be seen if this will come to fruition, but it’s ambitious to say the least. So EQN was still at least a year or two out, with no hints to narrow that timetable down. EQN Landmark however, was due out soon after watching these videos. I put in for beta, and after sadly not getting in, waited some more. They finally offered the ability to buy special packs to get into closed beta…and I bought in. I spent the full $100 because well, SOE owns a small piece of my soul, I wanted to help the game succeed, and the perks offered were nice.

I downloaded the game, waited on the patch and logged in. My computer made all sorts of pretty colors…but not the ones the game told it to. My graphics card (GeForce 630) was way too outdated. Long story short, I upgraded my computer, something that had been on my to-do list for months anyways, and got it installed and up and running.

It is a beautiful game. I could wander the world for hours just taking in the scenery, and I have. Now, for those of you who don’t know, EQN Landmark is essentially a gorgeous Minecraft. It uses the voxel system and smooths them so they form free flowing terrain, instead of 8-bit terrain. I plucked around in the closed beta for a while, starting to make a house, but understanding little to nothing about the tools. After a time, my interest faded for a while and I put it aside.

Open beta came, and my open beta keys I could distribute came along with it. Having a few friends in game helped reinvigorate my interest, as well as the major changes that had occurred since my last login. I came back, and started into harvesting big time. I built up my harvesting tools to the second to last tier, got the crafting stations and tools I needed, and got ready to build. Then I remembered something. A huge flaw in my plan to create beautiful masterpieces in this world. When it comes to this type of art (drawing, modelling, etc), I am awful. I can see what I want in my mind, but it usually comes out lopsided and sad looking. I still had a blast doing it though, because that was MY lopsided, sad looking tree house. The tools they offer, which constantly are getting refined, give the players a wide array of techniques to use to build and sculpt. And artists being clever, they have warped the intended uses into new, fascinating techniques creating even more gorgeous creations. I’m jealous of them, I really am. But at the same time, I get a sense of pride out of completing anything that ends up looking something like what I originally thought of.

I have taken another break, as of now, I want to be able to continue to have fun with the game, so I don’t want to burn out before they even complete it. They are in the process of adding water to the game, first as just scenery, but then as building blocks and swimmable areas. The dev team gets a patch out every week; whether it’s just a few small prop additions (pre made furniture, etc), or massive reworking of the game.

I can’t wait to see how their vision comes to life when it is all said and done, and I know the dedicated folks over at SOE will continue to add content for players to enjoy for years (decades) to come.

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-Sociopathic Score-

I personally don’t get any sociopathic joy out of the game…but early in beta I was wandering around the map and fell into a hole…down 2 claims deep into an elaborate prison someone had built. I had no way out except to use the stuck command…but I couldn’t even get mad because DAMN was it pretty….so the potential for sociopaths exists here…

-Sophomoric Score-

Open world sandbox, no scripting to judge by, gameplay fairly straight forward

-Strategic Score-

I am going to warp the definition of this one, because I believe the strategy involved with this game is the artistry involved. If you are an artist – it’s a great game in which to explore your creativity!

-Mac