14 DAY TRIAL // The team at Sony Online Entertainment is ready to deliver more information on the upcoming H1Z1 title, which was finally confirmed as being in development after the fan community uncovered a trademark linked to it.
John Smedley, the leader of the company, says that the entire experience will take place in a version of the United States that has been devastated by a zombie-like plague carried by an aggressive virus, 15 years after the apocalyptic events.
On Reddit, he adds that gamers will be able to start anywhere on the game map and then explore both urban environments and wilderness, while choosing what career they are planning to invest into in the long term.
H1Z1 has a few official screenshots now and they show a fairly typical landscape and some vehicles, without offering any hints about the actual gameplay and the kind of experience that players will have.
Players will be able to gather resources, build shelters and then work with other survivors in order to create bigger forts that can protect them from animals, while also creating a solid base from which to attack zombies and even other players, if they are so inclined.
As previously stated, the new survival MMO will focus on fire and its destructive properties, with gamers able to use Molotov cocktails and other weapons in order to create barriers between them and the zombies and affect the landscape in permanent ways.
H1Z1 will have different rules based on the server that gamers are using and SOE wants to make sure that there’s an interesting experience for any player who wants to join.
John Smedley adds, “We’re going to make sure your zombie apocalypse fantasy is complete. If you’re like me and you want nothing more than to kill everything that moves, by all means see how that goes.”
The new MMO is being created using the ForgeLight engine, which means that gamers will be able to contribute their own creations to the game via the Player Studio that SOE has made.
H1Z1 will be offered first on the PC for a low price and will include microtransactions and the developers might also create ports for home consoles if it is successful.