H1Z1
Platform: PS4, PC
Developer: Day Break Game Company
Publisher: Day Break Game Company
Release date: January 2015 PC early access
Author: Z.M.
It’s time to put your survivability to the test. With zombies remaining at the head of the pack in the main stream monster race, Day Break is polishing their survival horror massive multiplayer online roleplaying game(MMORPG) to a lustrous shin. To great success I’d have to say. Even in an early access state it’s reported as selling as of march 2015 over one million units. That said, even with the high player base their will always be those that have a low opinion, so lets hear the good and the bad then decide from there.
Welcome to Pleasant Valley, a small town in rural America. A quiet town full of quiet people, all vying for survival since the H1Z1 outbreak. This is where you make your stand. In this post-apocalyptic world there is no safe place anymore. You must use everything at your disposal to survive, from your wit and skill, to tools and scraps to ensure that you see tomorrow. Zombies aren’t the only things to look out for though. Your environment will provide plenty of dangers, coming to us in the form of wild life that seems just as determined to kill us as the zombies, the elements themselves, and let us not forget the other survivors themselves. Remember, in the zombie apocalypse? Humans aren’t really human anymore.
I could handle this….probably.
Hunting and crafting will help immensely in your life as a survivor of the outbreak. After all these traits, like it would in life, should help with the not starving aspect. Crafting helps us devise all the little tricks of the trade that we will need to ensure that our characters are fed right, or survive an encounter with the undead. For those of you who might not like crafting, that’s alright. An easy to use interface with intuitive ingredients will ease you through the process and quickly get you back into the action. For those of you who love crafting though, and all the little delicate functions it provides us, really delve deep here. For instance, if you want to ease your characters pain of living in this world with a jug of moonshine? It can be done. Dig deep enough into the crafting tree and you might just become the best shine distiller in your server.
This is our opponent guys, make something sharp….very very sharp.
There have been plenty of growing pains happening along the way for H1Z1, as features are being added, modded, dropped or enhanced. A clear advantage with Day Break’s approach with the early access and transparency is that they’re able to receive real player input along every step of the way. With the development team’s consistent update posts, and their ability to keep a close eye on the pulse of their community? It’s obvious that they want to deliver the best product for their fans.
Day Break has employed some clever methods to keep its users engaged, while ensuring their game is still being tested by the community. Most interesting would be The H1Z1 Invitational at TwitchCon. Wherein which players who finished matches in the top ranks leading up to the main event, along with celebrity streamers, competed for bragging rights and a sweet cash prize. First place in both events walked away with $19,932 each, earned from the prize pool of $173,320, all of which was raised by the games community purchasing a special in-game item. A more entertaining twist was when 30,000 players were banned for cheating with hacked items and modded properties in-game. Those banned were offered a chance to get unbanned by posting a public apology video to Youtube. Only 5 players were unbanned by the deadline. I personally enjoy the line in the sand that Day Break is drawing.
All in all, Day Break is still working towards their free to play release. With their addition of future release for the PS4, I think we could be looking at a pretty solid game to add to our list of things to play.
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