After months of radio silence, the Moving Hazard team has resurfaced. And there’s finally some good news for anyone who’d been holding out hope that the studio’s zombie-focused competitive shooter -- which will be known as Dead Alliance going forward -- wasn’t the latest project to fail before it emerged from Steam Early Access. Here’s what we know.
Last year, PsyOp Games and illfonic introduced the world to Moving Hazard , a Steam Early Access game looking to simultaneously reinvent competitive and zombie-focused shooters. The game pit individuals, or teams of two to four players, against one another in a variety of traditional shooter match types like Team Deathmatch and King of the Hill. The key difference would be the presence of zombies, via integration not unlike what we saw in Capcom’s Resident Evil spin-off, Umbrella Corps. But unlike the RE zombies, which tend to appear in fewer numbers and move very slowly, the undead in Moving Hazard would swarm players quickly (and in large numbers). The idea, according to PsyOp Games Managing Director Rocco Scandizzo, was to combine the multiplayer action from older Call of Duty games with modern zombie shooters.
“The gameplay is very horizontal. There’s not a lot of verticality,” Scandizzo told iDigitalTimes. “We’re really big fans of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 , the old-school World War II Call of Duty s…and we want to have that blend with zombie action.”
Now, the project has returned with a new name, a new publisher (Maximum Games), a new coat of paint and a new release date. Technically, word of the new publisher broke last month. But no one in the Dead Alliance community really knew what to make of the announcement at the time. The good news, for anyone who forked over cash during Early Access, is that free game keys will be distributed to anyone who bought Moving Hazard before the developers pulled it off Steam.
The Dead Alliance team is also trying to make inroads with MOBA players via an Attrition mode that tasks each team with destroying the opposing squad’s base. Dead Alliance will also ship with a Solo Survival mode intended for those who don’t enjoy competitive shooters. Or other people. Barring any other major road bumps, the three companies behind Dead Alliance expect the shooter to hit PC, PS4 and Xbox One on Aug. 29. And anyone who drops $39.99 on a pre-order will also receive three bonus loadouts and perks for use in multiplayer.
For a closer look at Dead Alliance , take a few minutes to check out the new trailer from Maximum Games and illfonic. Then head down to the comments section and let us know if you’re interested in checking out the upcoming shooter when it hits PC and consoles this summer.
Dead Alliance is in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The game debuts Aug. 29.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes and follow Scott on Twitter for more Dead Alliance news in 2017 and however long Maximum Games and illfonic support Dead Alliance after launch.
