The War Z

[Regolyth]

I saw this and thought it looked interesting. It's similar to the ARMA: DayZ mod that Dortmunder posted about. I'm not sure how much like the novel/movie it is, but it still looks fun.

The War Z

Gameplay Footage




PvP Footage

[Morreion]

There's a whole slew of zombie games on the way- expect more before it's over!

[dortmunder]

I can't wait for the DayZ Standalone version.

WarZ is pretty uninteresting to me. They basically took DayZ and made it terrible

I do really hope the DayZ Standalone keeps the complexity the current Arma 2 mod has. It's what really keeps it fun for me.

[Morreion]

The War Z Releases on Steam, Fans go Berserk

The War Z zombie MMO coming soon (Massively)

"We started thinking about doing a zombie game last year and began developing a quest-based MMO set in a large, zombie-infested world. Players would be able to explore and unlock new areas on the map as they progress through quests assigned to them in-game," explains executive producer Sergey Titov.


The War Z: Ambitious Sandbox (Keen & Graev)

When asked by PC Gamer about whether or not this was more Shooter or MMO, the devs clearly emphasized the survival aspect. I hope that means this will be less about killing the people you see to jack their stuff and be pimped out until someone does it to you, and more about actually trying to live in this sandbox. The devs went on to emphasize the shooter aspect, which I feel is mandatory to the game’s sucess–DayZ wouldn’t be nearly as popular if it was a RPG.


Is The War Z really a MMO? (Keen & Graev)

There are “mmo elements” like talent trees, character persistence, etc., but those same features can be found in Call of Duty, Diablo, and even the very similar DayZ. What makes The War Z any more of an MMO than those games? Or are those games MMOs too?

The War Z violates too many of my criteria to be considered a MMO.

GDC Online 2012: A (severed) hands-on with The War Z (Massively)

The first thing I noticed about The War Z was how familiar it was. Even though this game was brand-new to me, I know what a zombie is. I know what a knife is, I know how important food and water is, I know how concerned I would be about survival and if zombies roamed the Earth. Zombies work on us in a very primitive way. They're frightening because they are us, or at least, they were. Alex began by showing me the basics of character creation. We made a new character, named Beau, of course, and went through some of the options for customization. There were several tops and faces, and while the hairstyles were a bit bugged (it is still in testing), everything was generally functional and polished. Honestly, I didn't notice any other bugs at all while I played. That's good news.

The War Z is officially in beta, world map increased by 50 percent (Massively)

Zombie MMO The War Z has officially shed its alpha tag. The buy-to-play horror shooter has purportedly cultivated a community of more than 500,000 players, according to its latest press release, and those players can now enjoy the full game map, new playable characters, and a host of additional features as the title transitions into beta.

The War Z launches on Steam (Massively)

While it might not be fully cooked, The War Z is now available on Steam for any and all to enjoy the delights of surviving in a zombie age. The title is currently on sale at 10% off for $13.49, with additional packages if you're looking to pick up some in-game currency.

The War Z launches to a flurry of fraud accusations (Massively)

The release of The War Z on Steam earlier this week is causing quite a stir today in the MMO-verse. Some purchasers are accusing the game's developers of outright fraud, noting that the store page and the official site are claiming features that simply do not exist in the released version, such as the promise of large persistent worlds (the only map currently available is 75 square km compared to claims of 100-500 square km) and population viability (while the game's servers can supposedly host 100 people, players claim that they cannot host more than 50).

Some of the complaints are subjective -- whether or not the true challenge in the game comes from zombies or other players -- but even the game's defenders admit that the title is still arguably in beta. It's currently the top seller on Steam, which is good news for Hammerpoint, but it also means that whatever the developers do next will be subject to some rather harsh scrutiny.

Fans Rage Over War Z’s Misleading Steam Description, But Devs Say ‘93% Of Our Customers Like The Game’ (Kotaku)

The pitchforks are out. Gamers are furious with the developers of The War Z, a game that seems to have made it to Steam without many of the features that developers have promised for it.

WarZ releases on Steam: Devs blatantly lie about included features, and neglect to mention game isn't complete. If this isn't false advertising I don't know what is (Reddit)

Basically, WarZ is a reskin of War Inc. made to ride on the coattails of Day Z, but the dev team (Hammerpoint Interactive) has been charging people to even play the game (something DayZ doesn't do [yet: it is releasing as a standalone game at some point in the future, but for now, it is just a free ARMA II mod]), and hasn't updated much in the past few months. There have been some controversies (admins on the forums and subreddit changing/deleting posts and banning users for mentioning hot topics like the ex-moderator Devin), and the game doesn't even look that good.

Please, Don’t Buy The War Z (Game By Night)

I don’t usually do this but I’m going to plead with you, please do not buy The War Z. All of the terrible things you’ve heard are true.

...Well… now that the game has launched, let me make no bones about it: The War Z is the most shameless, amateurish cash grab I’ve ever played. There is simply no defending this game. I tried in my preview. I pointed out highlights, like owning a gun or the tension in approaching a town. My job in that article wasn’t to review so much as shed light on an in-development vision. I had no idea that what I was shedding light on was what they would eventually try to shill from the street corners as a competitor to Day Z — a game I’ve never played. I have no stakes in this fight other than I think it’s trash when a game company so blatantly rips off people who might be fans. It could be good, could be, but it won’t in any reasonable time frame. This game is no more than “hot fix” different from the preview build I played in October.

Let me give you some specific examples of Hammerpoint trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Or just embarrassing itself...

[dortmunder]

Yeah. Usually the idea of copying or at least making something similar to another game out there is to improve upon it.

Not blatantly make it worse

[Regolyth]

Wow, that's... worse than horrible. Just, wow. That last article from Game by Night was crazy. I would say that this game looks like it's going to crash and burn after the lies, insults and fraud, but I think it's already done that. It makes me ashamed for making this post in the first place (and saying that it looked fun).

[dortmunder]

I actually watched The Cynical Brits "The Bore Z" last night all the way through. He wasn't too impressed with the game.

[Morreion]

The War Z yanked from Steam, Valve apologizes (Massively)

The brief and baffling run of The War Z on Steam is over... for now. Valve called the release of the title on its digital distribution platform a "mistake" and "premature" and has since removed it. "We apologize for this," the company said, "and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build."

The furor over The War Z's launch on Steam centered around its status as an early beta build and a list of misleading features on the Steam page that were either partially implemented or absent from the game altogether.

The War Z's creator disputes trademark suspension (Massively)

A couple of days ago, Massively reported that The War Z looked as though the trademark for its name would be suspended by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, forcing the game to choose another title. The game's creator, Sergey Titov, is disputing the suspension, however.

The War Z executive producer blames problems on the game's success (Massively)

Sergey Titov, executive producer for The War Z, sent out an email to the controversial MMO's playerbase today addressing the recent problems with the game and the public's opinion of the game.

Titov states that there are "hundreds of thousands of players" on the game's servers each day and blames the overwhelming early success of the game for its eventual negative impressions. "I was too focused on how great we are and how a small independent team got their first game to over 700,000 users in a two-month period," Titov says in the email.

Admitting that the team made many mistakes in communication and rushing the game out before the holidays, Sergey says that they'll soon be hiring additional community managers and moderators to properly respond to any problems that might arise in the future.

The War Z (Metacritic)


wildweasel
Dec 17, 2012
1
Poorly made rip off of Dayz. Most stated features are broken on non-existent. the single map is maybe 100 km, there are no private servers. even setting up a clan costs real money. The screen shots on steam are staged, there are no zombie hordes only a few here and there with no AI, This game was just a quick mod to the War inc engine to cash in on the popularity of Dayz, the game was rushed and it shows. There is really no point to playing this game, as a result all players have nothing left to do but sit around and camp waiting for someone to walk by so they can shoot them. I don't think this development company could make the game they say they wanted to make (which was just a laundry list of Dayz features). They seem very unprofessional and maybe a little shady. You are better off waiting for Dayz standalone or if you can't wait buy the Arma 2 pack off steam and get the Dayz mod for it. There will be a lot of fanboiz posting on here giving it 10/10, but this game is garbage and will not likely improve.

[dortmunder]

That exec is delusional.

Just because buttloads of people bought your overhyped, false advertised product, doesn't mean they are going to continue playing it and spending money on it.

Before long that game won't even resemble a 'survival' game any longer. Which I would hardly call it that at the moment to be honest. The amount of blatant theft of other work in that game is disgusting.

I can't wait to see their knee-jerk reaction when they see no-one is playing the game any more and they need to find ways to fix it. Should be comical.

[Regolyth]

Words cannot express how delusional the creator is.