Wipeout 2048 for the Vita Had a Special Zombie Mode

Wipeout 2048, the futuristic racing game for the PlayStation Vita coming from Sony Liverpool, was originally scheduled to have a variety of unique modes besides its regular ones, including a very special Zombie one.

The Wipeout series has delivered a lot of great racing experiences in the past, thanks to its special sci-fi setting, and 2048 for the Vita is no exception. We have already seen quite a few screenshots and some videos of the game in action, which have managed to delight the legions of Wipeout fans.

Now, ahead of the game’s release, Sony Liverpool’s lead designer, Karl Jones, shared an interesting piece of information about the game, revealing that he and his team came up with a special Zombie mode for the title.

“The new WipEout game is our biggest and most adventurous ever, with loads of awesome new stuff for you to get your hands on come February 22nd,” Jones said. “But almost every game has at least one cool feature that sadly finds its way to the cutting room floor, and WipEout 2048 is no exception. Earlier this year we prototyped a new (hidden) game mode called Zombie.”

Instead of racing through tracks filled with zombies or anything like that, the new mode saw the player start a race in darkness and then try to outrace waves of infected ships. Zombie rivals would get progressively harder to defeat, culminating with a Zombie mothership.

“They start to show up on your Zombie radar, a handful at first in hot pursuit and full of ominous darkness,” Jones elaborated. “Then they’re on you, ramming you, destroying themselves if need be, but they’re taking you with them. You can pick up Cannons and the occasional (but very rare) Quake to defend yourself, but it’s only going to delay the inevitable – you will die.”

While this mode certainly sounded fun, Jones revealed that he and his team were forced to scrap it in order to focus on different features. Still, he quickly adds that, like any good zombie, the mode is dead but might quickly come back to life in the near future.

Even so, the developer says that the variety of modes included in the standard game, from regular races to speed laps, time trials, combat or head to head, will certainly entertain new Vita owners.