There was a two-hour live stream from H1Z1 on the night from Thursday to Friday. It will be the last opportunity to stay updated on H1Z1 in 2014.
On January 15, H1Z1 will enter Early Access. The last live stream about H1Z1 was at the end of October. So there’s about a month until fans can experience the unusual zombie mix of shooter, Minecraft, and MMO themselves, and it’s been two months since they last had a taste of H1Z1.
For the stream, SOE once again brought out the A-Team: the former Counter-Strike pro gamer and now combat system expert Jimmy Whisenhunt, who always brings a unique energy to the streams, and Adam Clegg. While SOE president John Smedley also made an appearance in the stream (he’s increasingly starting to resemble a Bond villain lately, just without petting a white cat, instead he has a puppy…), in any case, Smedley is not acting like an Elder Statesman in gameplay.
The new built shows a whole lot of stuff and improvements that have been announced but never presented before: in current gameplay, it’s naturally clearer.
The fauna has been revised, there are significantly more animations, the “map signs” are now in the game, which players can orient themselves with according to genre. The game overall appears significantly more mature and stronger than last time. A bit of the “missing soul,” the individual character, has flowed into the game, reflecting the maturity in the graphics and gameplay that naturally occurs when makeshift placeholders are replaced.
For example, the now huge, bushy trees look completely different compared to before. And the gameplay now features the announced combos in close combat with an uppercut as the third strike.
The inventory system has been changed from a “tile system” to an RPG-like “weight” system, which means in future, chewing gums will no longer take up the same space as an automatic rifle.
For those who want to find out where SOE wants to take the game, we recommend this article, which summarizes the events from the last big Q&A session.
However, one must say: Even though the game is slowly approaching a “finished” version, it is still far from the quality and polish of a “finished” game. But one can see why SOE is now daring to enter Early Access on January 15, although, as SOE emphasizes, it won’t be for everyone.
