H1Z1 (Alpha)

The survival MMO H1Z1, from developer Daybreak Game Company (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) is another game that sends players to the front lines of the Zombie Apocalypse. Civilization as we know it has come to a grisly end, as the walking dead roam the land, victims of the eponymous H1Z1 virus that has overrun the world. Our task? Survival!

The game is currently in alpha, which means it’s still in a pretty early stage of development. Nevertheless, players can still check it out in Early Access on Steam and get a first look at a game world that’s getting bigger and deeper by the day. Eventually, H1Z1 is supposed to be released as a free-to-play title. Release date? No one knows.

Even before they launched the game in Early Access, people were complaining about it. When they first announced the game would be coming to Early Access, it caused a good deal of hype among fans of zombie and survival horror games. Soon, though, a series of postponements saw many fans become disillusioned with the whole project. Some people even claimed that H1Z1 would be a pay-to-win title, and the forums were often filled with speculation that it was just going to be another DayZ clone. Despite all the controversy in the run-up to the launch, fans of the genre should at least give H1Z1 a good look.

Before You Begin

Hunter, Gatherer, Survivor

How to combine items is something you’re going to have to either figure out yourself by sheer trial and error, or you can turn to the player community online. There are guides all over the Internet on how to craft a wide variety of objects and buildings. Dew collectors, stoves, and similar devices can make survival a whole lot easier by providing a consistent source of food and water, and they also allow you to produce additional items. A wood-burning stove allows you to purify the dirty water you’ve managed to get from your dew collector or from a nearby stream. Especially lucky players might find one of the few remaining roadworthy vehicles, and with a little repair work you may even be able to get it working again. But even here, you’re probably going to have to craft the fuel yourself. The plants used to make fuel can be harvested and replanted for as long as you need them – in fact, if you’re willing to put in the effort, you can pretty much build an entire infrastructure to help you survive.

Death Lurks 'Round Every Corner

There’s one threat, however, that you can never escape, and that’s your own body. Hunger and thirst are your constant companions, and time and again you’ll be forced to take risks in order to avoid succumbing to dehydration or starvation. You’ll also have to tend to wounds, get enough sleep, and sometimes cure yourself of various sicknesses – your character can even become infected with the dreaded H1Z1 virus.

Whose Rules You Gonna Live By?

The developers themselves have their own vision of how the finished game is supposed to work. They imagine a game where players are able to build communities and establish bases, and even go to war with other factions. We’re just going to have to wait and see whether this is something we’re actually going to see in the final version.

Land of the Dead

There are already lots of different places to discover in the game, mostly small towns and the like. While there are several different building types, it doesn't take long before you start to get the feeling you’ve seen this or that building before. This is especially noticeable with houses and other residential buildings. There are many different models, all designed to be thoroughly realistic, but many of the rooms and even whole sections of houses will soon leave you with the impression that you’ve already seen and looted all of them. After you rummage through a couple of different locales, searching buildings quickly becomes routine and unremarkable.

But the world is still growing, and every now and then you run across truck stops, dams, and other structures to mix things up a bit. They’re also working on a hospital, a larger town, and new military bases, all of which promise their own share of new challenges. Sometimes fans are even given the opportunity to offer their opinions on a new weapon design or something, which allows players to take an active role in the game’s development. So I think we’d be justified in looking forward to a lot more diversity in the world in H1Z1.

One of the drawbacks of the map’s current limitations is that sometimes the playable area gets packed with player-built structures; the landscape is adorned with tons of small huts interspersed and bases that more or less all look the same. This, along with all the active building sites, can often end up spoiling the post-apocalyptic atmosphere the developers are going for. And this trend is probably only going to get worse due to the fact that the only way for players to hoard their “treasures” in safety is by building lockable structures equipped with storage containers. I know the developers are planning to expand the game world a lot, but they can’t do it quickly enough.

Free2Play = Play2Win?

Actually, the whole crate-buying process is pretty interesting – the crate is air-dropped into the game world, and while they do give you a rough idea of where the drop zone is supposed to be, the items you buy can end up landing a ways away from where you are. On top of that, the drop planes are loud enough for other players nearby to hear them, so it’s entirely possible for dropped crates to never even make it to their original buyers, as any player can open a crate once it hits the ground. This means that if you do choose to buy a crate, there’s no guarantee that you’re even going to get what you paid for, so it’s a good idea to really think about when and where you want to receive a drop.

Graphics and Sound

Typical for an MMO, the graphics in H1Z1 are more practical than anything – nothing to write home about. They do do a great job with the day/night cycle, and the way the moon shines on water is actually quite beautiful. Overall, the world comes off as pretty static, though it does have its fair share of zombie-apocalyptic atmosphere.