H1Z1… Because… Zombies?

SOE has announced their previously hinted at zombie apocalypse (I get a twofer on that word today, because lasers) horror survival “dedicated to Star Wars Galaxies players” game yesterday.

I think it is just that sort of dedication that brought about the NGE, no?  I guess if SOE can figure out that Landmark isn’t an EverQuest game, maybe they can eventually sort out who H1Z1 is really for as well.

So far all we have for official word is a web site with a moonrise, some spooky music, and a link to the H1Z1 subreddit, Smed’s current favorite venue.  I guess Reddit is the demographic he wants to reach.

The night is dark, I think I’ll go to bed

The H1Z1 subreddit has a “what we have learned so far” thread that attempts to summarize what is known.  The state of affairs as it currently stands:

Gameplay Details

• First Person or Third Person shooter
• Zombie Survival
• Night is dark and full of terrors
• Player versus Player at it’s core.
• More than just zombies in the world
• Base Building, Town building, Fortress creation
• Can burn down things others build.
• Lots of crafting. Probably the biggest thing about the game.
• Vehicles are already in. Possibility of aircraft in the future.
• Based off the United States.
• If you die, you lose your gear. It stays on your corpse.
• “No skills or levels”.
• “Thousands of players”. I’m willing to bet this will be larger, playercount wise, than planetside 2.
• There will be Hunting.

Tech Details

• PC first, PS4 later. “Well, we are Sony” when asked about the PS4 version.
  • In terms of cross-platform play, Planetside 2 will not be doing cross platform due to the logistics of updating the game on the PS4 vs the PC. I expect that this has not changed so I don’t see cross-platform play happening. SOE has made no comment on this point however, so I could be talking out of my ass.
• “If you can run Planetside 2, you can run H1Z1 better”.
• “Orders of magnitude larger than Planetside 2”.
• Based of Planetside 2. Shares no tech with Everquest Next (so no Voxels).
• Built in voice chat options.

Monetization Details

• Free to play
• Part of the All-Access subscription that SOE is launching this month. $15/mo for premium sub in all SOE games.
• “you seriously don’t need to spend a dime. We’re still figuring out the monetization but we will telegraph our plans early and let people comment and we’ll listen if they don’t like something and come to a place where people feel good about it.” -Smed, in this thread
• Early Access ($20ish, on steam) in 4-6 weeks.

I’ll just leave that there as a baseline to compare against as things move forward.

For those hoping that this will be a Landmark or EverQuest Next based zombie game, disappointment is already in the cards.  The cynic in me sees this as PlanetSide 2 tech re-purposed as a zombie game with some PvE and building elements.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  There could be a market for this, so long as it doesn’t degenerate into the aimbot hack hell that PlanetSide 2 became.  It doesn’t thrill me at the moment, but a shooter with more to it could have a draw.

Of course, the cynic in me also wants to know how it will work in a world where you already have a lot of choices on the zombie front?

How will SOE differentiate H1Z1 from the pack?

I suppose we shall see.

Others talking about H1Z1:

• Bio Break
• Contains Moderate Peril
• Hardcore Casual
• Herding Cats
• Keen & Graev
• Murf vs. Internet
• Out of Beta
• The Cynic Dialogs