Moving Hazard; a new four-on-four tactical shooter coming to PC later this year, is a new take on the zombie shooter formula from the folks at PsyOp Games and IllFonic. And, based on my time with the game at PAX South, the teams just might be onto something good.
In Moving Hazard teams of one to four players defend themselves from opposing players...and the zombie hordes they’ll send scrambling after one another. It’s not entirely unlike Umbrella Corps, the zombie-focused multiplayer shooter being developed by Capcom, but with more emphasis on zombie interaction. Where Umbrella Corps treats the undead like obstacles, protecting the player by default with a zombie jammer, Moving Hazard gives players the tools to send hordes of undead chasing after each other. Players represent a variety of city-states, formed in the 50 years after a zombie apocalypse, each of which figured out how to weaponize the living dead. It’s pretty fucked up, if we’re being honest.
It’s one thing to see the last vestiges of humanity battling over food and land in the weeks/months following such an event, in shows like The Walking Dead. But to see humans, decades removed from the fall of man, unleash zombies upon fellow their humans is a horrifying prospect; particularly when humanity has recovered well enough to create tools to protect the living like electronic zombie lures and pheromones to trigger aggression.. That said, it’s a future that’s not exactly hard to imagine.
Four different multiplayer match types are being planned for the launch build, Capture and Hold, King of the Hill, Scavenger and Team Deathmatch, along with a single-player Horde mode for those who aren’t big fans of competitive multiplayer shooters. PsyOp Games' managing director Rocco Scandizzo told iDigitalTimes the team plans to have six scenarios available in Horde when Moving Hazard heads to Steam later this year, each of which will get progressively more difficult as the round goes on. Players will be forced to fend off waves of zombies, along with special forces from nearby city-states, while simultaneously trying to complete a variety of objectives.
Three maps have already been created for the game. First, there’s Derelict, an abandoned shanty town built out of shipping containers from a cargo ship run aground (and emptied out) by a series of tsunamis. Based on the remains, it seems the resulting settlement prospered for some period after the conversion process began. But there isn’t much left of the town, which was used for the game’s PAX South demo, by the time players visit the site in Moving Hazard.
There’s also a map called Presidio, modeled loosely after the converted military base in San Francisco, Scandizzo said is recognizable for its gaping chasms and massive fires more than any former signs of human life. The studio also has a map called Freight, which pays homage to the warehouse seen at the end of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Finally, there’s a sewer level in the works the Moving Hazard team will complete using input from the game’s community. Each environment looks drastically different from the next; however, all of the battlefields will share one thing in common. They’re all much flatter than we’ve seen in recent shooters.
“The gameplay is very horizontal. There’s not a lot of verticality,” Scandizzo said. “We’re really big fans of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the old-school World War II Call of Dutys…and we want to have that blend with zombie action.”
The lack of verticality is intentional forcing players to engage with zombies. Sure, there are a handful of areas where someone might be able to set up camp and snipe for a few seconds. But a variety of factors, from zombie aggro to incoming gunfire, will typically prevent from remaining stationary for too long.
Players have will three different classes to choose from in Moving Hazard, Assault, Heavy and Scout; however, only the Assault class – the typical jack-of-all-trades character – will be available the first time players sit down with the game. As you gain experience, the other two classes, new gear and additional loadouts become available to the player. The upper tiers of the level system will give players access to tech trees for each class, letting you further tweak each to fit your play-style.
Interestingly, progression will rely on two currencies: experience and cash. Both will be rewarded after each match, with XP determining player level and equipment access, while players will need to spend cash on whatever they’ve unlocked to actually use it. It’s a pretty standard system, one we’ve seen in countless shooters over the years, and particularly competitive gamers will be pleased to know the studio doesn’t have any plans to sell XP or Cash boosters. If you want more of either, you’re going to have to earn it the old-fashioned way.
As you’d probably expect, those who choose the Assault class will typically be reliant on assault rifles and similar mid-sized weaponry. The Scout class is the closest thing to a sniper you’ll find in the game, complete with a scope-equipped crossbow that will you feeling like Norman Reedus in no time. Last, but certainly not least, the Heavy class will be your best friend when the on-screen action gets too hectic. The heavily-armored warriors wander the battlefield with large machine guns, ready to mow down any players (or zombies) who stand between them and their objective.
“The great thing about the class system is we’ll be able to have DLC that adds more classes,” Scandizzo said. “We’ll be able to have more maps and more modes. [Map count] is always a big thing in a game like this. But…we don’t think we’re really going to have microtransactions. Maybe some cosmetic stuff will be part of small DLC packs. But, right now, that’s something we haven’t planned.”
Moving Hazard also has its own version of the Prestige system, called Double Down, that lets players reset their progression and begin anew. Each time you Double Down, your characters will gain access to an “exclusive unlock” of some kind; however, PsyOp Games and IllFonic aren’t talking about that aspect of Moving Hazard yet. But we have to assume that, whatever the reward is, it’ll be cool enough to justify giving up all the classes, perks and abilities you’ve earned along the way.
Right now, the Moving Hazard team is hoping to release the game in Early Access in March, with all four of the maps described and each of the multiplayer modes already confirmed by the team. Two more maps, along with the single-player Horde mode, should be ready by the time Moving Hazard exits Early Access. The studio is planning to sell the early version of the game for $20, possibly jumping up to $30 when Moving Hazard is feature-complete, but a final price point hasn’t been decided yet. There’s currently no exact timeline for the game’s launch, either; however, the PsyOps and IllFonic are hoping to release the full version of Moving Hazard before the end of 2016.
For a closer look at Moving Hazard, take a few minutes to check out the game’s latest trailer, then head down to the comments section and let us know whether or not you’d be interested in playing Moving Hazard when the game heads to Steam sometime early next month:
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Moving Hazard coverage throughout 2016 and for however long PsyOp Games and IllFonic continue to support Moving Hazard in the months following launch.
