Zombie games, games like The Walking Dead, the Dead Rising series, the Resident Evil series, Day Z, heck even the Black Ops versions of CoD has a Zombies mode in it, this generation of consoles has seen a boom in anything zombies from movies and television shows to videogames and don't seem to be stopping anytime soon.
But after reading GI's editor Tim Turi's Road to Extinction: Where Zombie Games are Heading story i've been thinking and realizing that games set in the zombie apocalypse have been or are in danger of being stuck in a rut, sure you can say the Dead Island games and their melee focused combat, Dead Rising and it's kill-for-all gonzo zombie killing, or Day Z and it's open world player vs player interaction brought new and exciting gameplay mechanics and they did, but after their inicial releases it seems that every game that came after is trying to be so much like those first games that started it all and forget to forge their own paths to innovate the setting of the zombie apocalypse. Now I'm not saying that it's wrong of the to copy a few mechanics but when your whole identity is so familiar to that other game that came first that people start creating this hype that never seems to live up to everyone's expectations. Most of the time zombie games end up either being run & gun experiences like CoD, a copy of Day Z or Left for Dead.
So what can be done to innovate and the zombie apocalypse even further? Well why not start by looking at other games in different genres and use game mechanics from other games, mechanics that could potentially fit into zombie games.
So what game mechanics could work in such a game well how about:
1. Open World. (Day Z, Fallout)
Now I realize that there are already games out there like Day Z that incorporate the open world mechanic into the zombie apocalypse, but I think the world could be made even more expansive like Fallout or Skyrim's world. How would it feel to be in a clearing and suddenly in the distance see a city, a city which you can explore in it's entirety, want to go to a skyscrapers rooftop why not?, want to explore the sewers?, be sure to bring a flashlight, want to go visit the next city? of course you can. There is no reason to block access to areas that could potentially be great places to explore.
With an open world this big developers could also add...
2. Flexibility. (GTA series)
In open world settings players like to do crazy things like me for example, in every GTA whenever I get tired of doing story missions I like to cause as big of a mayhem in the city as possible and see how far and how long I can last against the law enforcement of the game. Why not let players do crazy stuff like that while not going overboard ridiculous like the Dead Rising games for me personally that's not what i'm looking for in a zombie game, now if I can do something like bait a zombie hoard off of a cliff or seeing who between me and my friends can last against zombies with only a knife equipped maybe with only melee weapons or unarmed in co-op, now that would be awesome.
3. RPG like progression. (Skyrim)
In zombie games from the beginning weapons can either be your best friends or your worst enemies depending on who you're facing, so why not have rpg elements in the game but instead of using the typical skill tree mechanic why no use one that resembles Skyrim. Skyrim's way of leveling up your efficiency with your weapons is a pretty good basis for a possible zombie game progression system. Think about it maybe you're someone who likes to use melee weapons and almost never use guns than why not let you optimize your character (there should be character customization every game needs this) to specialize in your weapon class of choice, like if you use rifles, snipers, explosives, etc...
4. More unique enemy types.
Normally I don't delve into enemy type because there's only so much you can do when the enemies are zombies but, why do we always have the exact same class in almost every zombie game but with slightly different names? Why not make a zombie class that's blind and can't see but it relies on sound which means any sound you make attracts every zombie in a certain distance and with them being attracted to sound it's not just a few feet i'm talking every zombie within earshot of the sound comes to attack you, which would make you and your co-op buddies not rush killing everything like you're playing CoD, wouldn't that be scarier than the normal cannon fodder zombie games seem to throw at us.
5. Shelter mechanic.
A must in zombie games, I know i'm not the only one who wants a zombie game that let;s you choose where you want to build and fortify your own safe-house. I'm not talking about fortifying a place given to you that's going to be useless sooner or later due to the story, I'm talking about you walking or driving around with your team and you find let's say an abandoned school and you decide to clear it out and fortify it and make it your base of operations until you either decide to move or something happens that makes you move like in The Walking Dead t.v. series, that in my mind would be pretty a awesome thing to add.
6. Co-op and Asynchronous multiplayer. (MMO's, EVE online)
Of course we can't forget about the driving force behind the human element in the game, i'm talking about no npc's have everything be run by the players, think about this maybe a player one day decides to be a merchant and makes his safe-house into a store with his friends some who take the role of guards others of scavengers looking for supplies to use as merchandise to trade to players who need it, or someone could make a hospital where players could go to heal serious injuries, for a fee of course, why hasn't this happened yet your guess is as good as mine
I'll leave it at that for now, maybe i'll update this blog with new ideas at a later date, the gaming industry is now about to begin a new console generation and with a new generation comes new possibilities, some of these ideas were brought about by watching the way other games work, and seeing as these mechanics already exist why is it that they haven't been used yet? with the new generation of consoles about to arrive I don't see why this can't happen.
Do you agree with my ideas?
Do you dislike any of them?
What would you add to a zombie game?
Leave your comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment