I’m adding The War Z to my list of highly anticipated games. This comes in the wake of my previous post about DayZ, and my growing continued interest in sandbox survival games. There’s just something about the ambitious idea of a zombie survival MMO set in a completely open sandbox setting with the feel of Battlefield’s shooting mechanics meets DayZ’s realism.

It’s way, way too early to really start making any assumptions about gameplay. The screenshots, if truly screenshots of gameplay (like the one above), released recently are impressive visually. Statements about the game’s gun-play and mechanics like those I alluded to above are appealing, but can’t be trusted just yet.

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.

Character progression will exist. This is where I feel The War Z and DayZ divurge. DayZ is all about seeing how far you can go before you die and start all over again. The War Z will have skills to improve. I’m not sure whether or not death is a permanent start over mechanic or if you respawn. Perhaps someone can clarify that for me.

The War Z won’t have quests or structured gameplay at all. In fact, that’s probably why this game has come out of nowhere with a release date of this fall. The developers are creating the world, or the “toolset” as the devs call it, and it’s up to the players to make the game happen. Is it even possible then to say that this idea is ambitious if they admit to just making a framework? I’m still mulling over that one.

Keeping this one on my radar. I have a good feeling about it, and this resurgence of the sandbox.