World War Z Undead Sea Update: Check Out Everything New Right Here

Saber Interactive’s World War Z has received its first ever update with free DLC, which should spice things up for both new, old, and returning players.

The game is still on my playlist ever since its release back in April, because despite what I consider to be a shaky launch due to multiplayer connection issues, it’s still quite a fun and amazing game to play, especially with friends. I’ve been playing it on and off again for the past few days, mostly due to anticipation of this huge update, which has now been released for players to enjoy: The Undead Sea update.

The announcement comes from Twitter, where the developers for World War Z regularly interact with their playerbase. I have to say, the effort that Saber Interactive has taken to make the game better past its launch date is commendable, and I expect more good things to come out of World War Z in the future. Check out the tweet below.

The Undead Sea update itself covers several things found in the World War Z content roadmap released a month ago. One of the biggest additions is a new mission for the Tokyo episode, which is set aboard an undead-infested ferry. There’s also a new zombie type that spits deadly toxins at Survivors, and also comes back to life if not killed properly. I’m thinking this is a Spitter-type enemy from Left 4 Dead, which is kind of disappointing, as I was looking forward to something original. That said, I can’t complain that much as what I was truly waiting for finally arrived: private lobbies, which allow you to set up rooms with your friends that are not open to anybody else. There are also some new graphics quality sliders for PC, like FOV and animation quality, which is nice to have as well.

Check out the patch notes below for more details on what’s new with the Undead Sea update.

Undead Sea Update - Patch Notes

New Content:

• Added Tokyo 3 level.
• Added new special zombie that will spawn on all levels.

New Features

• Added private lobbies.
• Added ability to host the game locally in private lobbies. (Only on Xbox and PS4 at the moment, same functionality will be available on PC later)
• Added ability to disable bots in private lobbies.
• Added UI that shows maximum difficulty each level was completed on.
• Added FoV scale slider.
• Added option to change PvP loadout during the game.

AI

• Added feature that will prevent Lurker from spawning near players that are joining the game in progress.
• Tripled delay, which governs how often Lurker can spawn in the exact same position.
• Constant sprinting will now aggro zombies from a bigger distance.
• Reworked “zombie stagger” mechanics. When hit, zombies used to play a long hit animation based on gun caliber and an element of randomness. Now they will play hit animations based on gun caliber and if they are hit repeatedly in a short period. This will make shotguns and fast firing weapons more consistent at staggering zombies.
• AI Director will spawn less primary weapons if players are already carrying tier 3 weapons.
• When AI Director decides to spawn a small wave of zombies, it will contain more zombies, but the wave duration will be shorter.
• Made stealth more consistent across all levels; executing perfect stealth will delay the first wave of non-swarm zombies.
• Increased chance of spawning special zombies in idle state.

Weapons

• Compact SMG. Non-silenced version deals 8% more damage.
• Machine Pistol. Bottom branch version 5 deals 6% more damage.
• Machine Pistol. Increased rate of fire by 9% for all versions.
• Sporting Carbine. Top branch versions deal 5% more damage.
• Sporting Carbine. Bottom branch versions’ mag size is increased by 3.
• Advanced SMG. Non-silenced version 5 deals 5% more damage.
• Advanced SMG. Increased accuracy of both version 4’s.
• Sniper Rifle. Top branch now has a bigger magazine and better handling.
• Sniper Rifle. Bottom branch deals bigger damage with more penetration and accuracy.
• Heavy Sniper Rifle. Reduced projectile size to prevent accidental detonations.
• Revolver. Significantly increased damage. It will be able to kill a zombie on the highest difficulty with 1 shot.
• Double-Barreled Shotgun. Doubled the distance at which damage begins to reduce.
• Double-Barreled Shotgun. Reduced damage in PvP by 8%.
• Secondary Grenade Launcher. Increased max ammo from 3 to 5.
• Improved hit detection in PvP.
• C4 will no longer detonate in midair if hit by a friendly fire (it still can be detonated after it lands on something).
• Fixed some of the visual upgrades not showing up properly in weapon customization screen.
• Fixed some of the weapon variant icons not reflecting actual visual weapon upgrades on that weapon.
• Fixed Pump-Action shotgun displaying LOD model as well as the actual model.
• Fixed gun recoil reset when swapping weapons.

Perks

• Stim Pistol will now prioritize players in downed state when multiple targets are available.
• If multiple players are using “Please Stand Up” perk, only one will trigger if the entire team is down.
• All “Spawn with a Heavy Weapon” type perks will now properly adjust heavy weapons that are picked up during gameplay.

Stability

• Improved performance.
• Fixed several gameplay crashes.
• Fixed several issues causing disconnects when joining friend’s game in progress.
• Fixed issue that was causing 2 players appearing as the same character in game.

Levels

• Fixed a large number of gameplay bugs that were causing inability to progress in levels.
• Made some adjustments to AI Director that will make Moscow 3, Tokyo 2, Jerusalem 1, Jerusalem 3, and NY 3 slightly harder and Jerusalem 2 and Tokyo 1 slightly easier.
• Improved navigation on Moscow 2 level.
• Fixed issue that was causing zombie health scaling to trigger incorrectly for some zombies. In general, this makes Very Hard and Insane difficulties a little bit harder.

General fixes

• Fixed issue that was causing Aim Assist to work even if it was disabled in options.
• Improved pickup selection system when multiple objects could be picked up by player.
• Fixed issue that was causing player to respawn with 0 ammo.
• Fixed issue that was preventing dead players turning into zombies in some cases.
• Added backpacks for character models in “Collection” screen.
• Fixed crash on party leader change during session start countdown.
• Fixed issue that was causing pickup progress bar not to appear in some cases.
• Fixed player and specialization level display sync in scoreboard and in lobby.
• Fixed Barricade defense kit icon display on HUD.
• Backstory unlocked UI indicator will no longer display if you have already unlocked the backstory video.
• Fixed issue that was causing some weapons to deal less damage with explosive ammo active in PvP.
• Fixed friendly/enemy player overhead marker not appearing in some cases.
• Fixed “Floor is Lava” trophy not triggering correctly.
• Player will no longer drop defense kits when picking up C4 charges in Japan 2 level.

PC Difficulty

• Zombies are harder to stagger on Very Hard and Insane difficulty (PC only).
• Zombies take 25% less damage from body shots on Insane difficulty (PC only).
• Reduced player revive timer from 40 to 20 on Insane difficulty (PC only).

PC Specific Fixes

• Fixed friend list displayed as empty for some of the players.
• Fixed issue with rebinding Sprint button on right shift button.
• Added Animation Quality slider that adjusts animation LODs, number of ragdolls and number of dead bodies in general.
• Slightly reduced time to kill other players in PvP for all weapons.

Vulkan

• Improved Vulkan performance.
• Improved Vulkan stability.
• Fixed GPU idle calculations in benchmark mode.
• Fixed blood decals rendering when using Vulkan.
• Fixed flickering on some objects when using Vulkan.

Saber Interactive also noted that up next for the post-launch content roadmap is the new six-skull difficulty, a weekly challenge mode, a wave-based survival mode and the ability to swap between classes during PvPvZ matches. These are all in addition to the regular fixes and new cosmetics, of course.

World War Z is now available to play on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and the Epic Games Store on PC.