The weekend just gone was massive for zombie apocalypse survival games. The best mod of the year, Arma II's DayZ, is getting a standalone release, and it competitor was announced: The War Z.
Developed by Hammerpoint Interactive and published by Arktos Entertainment Group, The War Z is a zombie survival MMO that is looking to do what DayZ has done on a full release scale.
You play in a massive online world with other people, trying to avoid death by zombie bite and scavenging for supplies.
Executive producer Sergey Titov told IGN that while DayZ had been an influence, The War Z existed long before the mod's release.
"When DayZ was released to the public, we were really excited to see another game that was akin to what we were working on," Titov said. "We were like, 'Wow, that's cool, we're not the only ones making something like this.'"
DayZ helped them to progress the idea and validated that it was something gamers are interested in.
"As we saw the popularity of DayZ grow, and how players and the community were reacting, we realised two things: first, there was validation that our idea of making a zombie MMO was actually right, and that there is a market/player base for it; and second, we decided to abandon the idea of unlocking parts of the map as you progress - rather, the player will be able to freely roam the world and gather information and quests by exploring notes, diaries, etc left behind by both real players and NPCs."
"So, short answer: while we began developing our game before DayZ, we've been encouraged by fact that DayZ has become so popular. And, yes, of course some of our latest design decisions were influenced by the DayZ community forums."
The WarZ is out later this year to compete with the standalone version of DayZ, which is currently a mod running on 2009 Arma II technology. However, it is being upgraded to run on the 2013 Arma 3 engine.
By Ben Salter - Bio