H1Z1 Preview and Developer Blog
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It's been quite awhile since we've cranked out any interesting news about SOE's zombie-infested MMORPG H1Z1, but after scouring the web, we can change that by pointing you to this PS4-focused preview on HardcoreGamer:
Though H1Z1'˜s original announcement was met without much fanfare, it might just wind up being the most intriguing MMO on the PlayStation 4. Sony Online Entertainment has put an ungodly amount of work into creating a living, breathing world in every sense of the term. Every inch of H1Z1'˜s massive sandbox is able to be explored, and the development team wants to make every item in the environment fully contextualized. What's the point of having a drawer if one isn't able to open it? Why should an axe be stuck in a tree if players aren't able to pick it up? Who cares about the placement of a refrigerator if a player can't search through it for food? It truly feels as though the player is merely a participant in a legitimate world when he or she plays H1Z1. It can be just as fun to simply exist as it can be to kill countless bears and undead foes.
H1Z1'˜s extreme levels of context and depth don't simply end with its numerous drawers; players will experience a number of truly staggering features. Players can take the role of a hero, villain, or apathetic bystander; there are zero rules here. H1Z1 has some truly brilliant design aspects, from seasons of realistic length (with accurate temperature-based precipitation) to an incredible expansion of the persistence features seen in titles like Ubisoft'˜s ZombiU. The latter feature is arguably H1Z1'˜s coolest aspect, as players will be able to find the bodies of their former selves in the wild. Here's the thing, though: because the environment is so massive, it may take days to find one's lost equipment, if at all. There's a chance that one's zombified corpse will simply get lost among the trees, meaning that each time a player stumbles upon his or her corpse will be special.
As well as this developer blog post penned by senior programmer Mitch Evans on the official website:
Another feature I worked on was our crafting system. The goal with crafting is to provide some variety of persistence through death that would not affect the balance of play, and empower the player. The designers have taken the base system, and expanded it greatly . I discover new items in our game every playtest!
Finally, I built our ruleset system, which allows us to enable and disable content on the per-server basis. This allows us to (mod) our engine, and tailor the player experience on each server. Several of the rulesets we are developing have been suggested by the community, and many more are possible given a bit of time. The majority of the implementation of these is encapsulated in data, and controlled by our design team. Giving more power to our designers is key to having a great game!
