Zombie survival MMO The War Z announced

Hammerpoint Games and Arktos Entertainment have announced a zombie survival MMO in the works called The War Z.

This MMO is not to be confused with Class 4, the zombie MMO from Undead Labs which has been in the works since 2009.

"We started thinking about doing a zombie game last year and began developing a quest-based MMO set in a large, zombie-infested world. Players would be able to explore and unlock new areas on the map as they progress through quests assigned to them in-game," executive producer
Sergey Titov told IGN.

"As we saw the popularity of [ArmA 2 mod] DayZ grow, and how players and the community were reacting, we realized two things – first, there was validation that our idea of making a zombie MMO was actually right and that there is a market/player base for it, and second, we decided to abandon the idea of unlocking parts of the map as you progress – rather, the player will be able to freely roam the world and gather information and quests by exploring notes, diaries, etc left behind by both real players and NPCs."

Set five years after the zombie apocalypse - with the entire world is designed around - the MMO will launch in one world called “Colorado," but more worlds are already designed. Each are based on real-world locales, and new worlds and maps will be released for free to players as the game progresses.

"We want players to see the signs of struggle and destruction from humans fighting with zombies and have that sense of fear and anxiety when they are exploring the world," said Titov.

"Additionally, aside from having different characters to play and some other mechanics that we think will really set WarZ apart, the other key difference is that, being a standalone game, it will be much more accessible in terms of being able to buy, download, install, log into a server and play."

The game has entered alpha testing and will be released before the end of the year.

You can find out more about it through the link.