New updates for Sony Online Entertainment's new zombie video game, H1Z1 have been revealed.
H1Z1 is an upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online Game developed by Sony Online Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 and for the PC. The game is set in the United States during a zombie apocalypse were in players will have to interact with the resources in the world to survive, build shelters, and craft weapons against zombies.
According to reports form Cyberland, H1Z1 will be available sometime in the fall of 2014 and gamers might expect it on October this year. It is still unclear whether the game will be shipped first for the PC, PS4 or possibly both at the same time.
“It's PC first, only because we haven't started on the PS4 version.”
Meanwhile, Sony has revealed some new game details for H1Z1.
According to reports from International Business Times, Sony Art Director Mat Brome talks about creating the in-game characters for H1Z1.
“Creating characters for games is much like playing chess: the more move’s you can count ahead the more likely it is you’ll be successful. This is especially true in MMO’s and probably why I love the challenge of making it work.”
He further adds by saying,
“I draw and paint my own concepts, and then do the high polygon versions in Z Brush and quickly move into Maya before creating the base mesh and assets in the game engine Forge Light.”
H1Z1 game designer Adam Clegg assured fans that more races and both genders would be added to the game during E3 2014, although he mentioned this feature wasn't yet fully developed.
Broome was able to reveal more information on being able to personally customize in-game characters.
“Coming soon we’ll be testing out female characters, multiple character races, and even multiple new zombie types as well massive brawlers that won’t let anyone stand in their way,” he explained. “Even more exciting is the upcoming military wearable system with tactical vest, helmets of all types, and Special Forces gear as well.”
"Calling in an Airdrop does not guarantee you the Airdrop," Clegg explained. "That's the cognizant choice that you're making. You're basically triggering an event. You're triggering some type of entertaining thing to happen to you. It's kind of a different school of thought. Most people are like 'I'm buying this thing! I get it now!' But there's a completely different side of that where I'm paying for entertainment. I'm buying this thing, I'm creating this thing on the server, now all of the people on the server are going to see it, and I've just created this crazy event."
New wildlife features have also been added in the game. Aside from ravens and wolves, Sony has just finished adding bears in the game.
"The bears are going to run faster than you," Clegg said. "They're very territorial, so they'll be in a smaller area. If you get too close to it and piss it off, it'll aggro you and go up on its hind legs and roar. Once you have a bear on you, you have to fight it, because you can't outrun it. They're definitely a big threat, but if you see a bear, as long as you don't mess with it, you'll be fine."
Finally, H1Z1 might get some early access features
Gamezone reports that H1Z1 technical director Tom Schenck stated that possibility of having early access features for the game
"When we've got it to the type of acceptable quality level here the game's ready to go."
"We've tried to put that out there as much as possible. We like to say things like 'soon,' but that can be taken a lot of different ways. Point is, we have a list of stuff on the board. We've got to go through that list and there's got to be a quality product."
Recently in a dev blog, the developers have stated that they are trying to create more character choices, which includes prioritizing making female characters. Still, they are mostly trying to ensure that the core systems they have for for the game is already in place and reliable before they aim to release.
"Once we have all those things in place, we can go into early access. We could've released early access a long time ago, but I think it would've been in a state where a lot of people play it, they play it once and they're like 'okay, it's not there yet, I'll play it later' and that never happens. They just never come back to it."
What do you think of the new updates for H1Z1?