To the gamers who say, âEnough with the zombie games already,â consider Dead State, an upcoming zombie role-playing game.
The new game from development studio Doublebear got profiled over at Rock Paper Shotgun. In a detailed interview, lead developer Brian Mitsoda describes a game that seems to have many wonderful touchstones, from Fallout to X-Com to⊠Gradius?
Two excerpts:
Most games deal with a Night of the Living Dead scenario where you have to survive one night, one wave, one map. Weâre dealing with a long-term zombie threat, where you have to worry about keeping people fed, friends getting bit and infected while scavenging, and the desperation of other human beings. Honestly, the game is not about the zombies, but about how people react to a crisis and what they are willing to do to other human beings and even members of their group to stay alive or protect their own. The zombies are just a cause, like economic collapse or a massive earthquake, and itâs really the human self-preservation instinct and the survivor mentality that weâre interested in portraying.
and
The big difference in our group and something like Jagged Alliance is these are normal people with little to no combat experience, not a veteran squad of commandos, so they handle like youâd expect them to. Itâs best to think of them as intelligent Gradius options â theyâre there to assist and absorb damage. They make combat much easier than going it alone, but they can die and youâre really going to have to work at it to bring everyone home all the time. Sometimes you may have to let someone go to get the rest of your group out safely. If everyone else is at the rally point and one ally is still in that house surrounded by ten zombies, let âem go, âcause theyâre gone.
If that doesnât sound like interesting gaming to you, then perhaps you have the pulse of a zombie.
Read the full interview about this not-in-2010 game for more.
A Blood Red State: Dead State Revealed [Rock Paper Shotgun, via Joystiq]
