Zombies are all the rage these days with games, movies, and TV shows vying to depict different aspects of the living dead.
One of the most popular TV shows, The Walking Dead, has a slew of accompanying video games, and now there is a new zombie MMO in the works dubbed The War Z – developed by Hammerpoint Interactive and published by Arktos Entertainment Group.
The gaming geeks over at IGN recently sat down with Arktos Executive Producer Sergey Titov and Hammerpoint Interactive Senior Game Designer Eric Nordin to discussing the upcoming MMO.
Titov says that the game was in development before a similar game mod called DayZ hit the market, prompting the studio to alter certain in-game features. Specifically, rather than having to unlock new quest areas the team decided that the zombie-infested world would be completely open and players could find new quests by picking up items such as diaries and notes, which are left behind by NPCs and actual players.
“While we began developing our game before DayZ, we’ve been encouraged by fact that DayZ has become so popular,” Titov explained. “And yes, of course some of our latest design decisions were influenced by the DayZ community forums.”
When asked about the major differences between The War Z and the Day Z mod, Nordin said: “The major difference is that DayZ is a fantastic mod for a hardcore military simulation game, so it is all set in that type of environment. We are creating a standalone game, with the entire world designed around a zombie apocalypse, so that players feel completely immersed in that environment.
“We want players to see the signs of struggle and destruction from humans fighting with zombies and have that sense of fear and anxiety when they are exploring the world. Additionally, aside from having different characters to play and some other mechanics that we think will really set WarZ apart, the other key difference is that, being a standalone game, it will be much more accessible in terms of being able to buy, download, install, log into a server and play.”
According to Titov, the game will launch with one world – Colorado – with other cities soon to follow, including New York, Los Angeles and Paris. Nordin says that the game is set five years after a massive zombie apocalypse, with most of the human population either dead or infected. The world is left with crumbling cities and resources are scarce.
“There are dozens of towns, villages, even large cities scattered across the world that players will explore looking for rare artifacts. You will be able to team up with other players to raid cities at night in order to find special zombie breeds or higher-value gear. Players will also be able to form alliances against other clans,” he added.
