Verz Design Bi-Annual Team Cohesion with Zombies – Gamasutra

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It has finally come to this. Our bi-annual team cohesion fending off hordes and legions of sinister undead. Why? Because its not a matter of if but when a zombie outbreak befalls us. You cant argue with hardened experience of undead slaying prowess. Only much more fully immersed in this Virtual Reality game. Were not just talking 4D; imagine a literal 360 real-time virus-infested, zombie-run world torn to ruins.

Outbreak Origins is an incredibly bleak first-hand view of how an apocalyptic event might unfurl with dystopian backdrops of dilapidated buildings and the decaying walking dead horrendous lumbering husks of their former selves. The in-game perception of depth is so realistic that the players fear, instincts and desperation becomes very physical, instantly.

One moment youre living in your own world, the next youre lost in ours. You know youre just visiting, but your mind is convinced otherwise. Your heart is pounding, the adrenaline is flowing, you try to remind yourself that these worlds arent real but the feelings definitely are. One moment is all it takes to be completely consumed in a world that will blow your mind forever.

For creating these irresistibly lifelike VR environments, Zero Latencys free-roaming multi-player sensory technology seizes the day!

As we fiddled with our equipment and mounted our headsets complete with VR goggles, headphones and backpacks which unfortunately were not jetpacks that could catapult us out of zombie mobs we were psyched to bust some undead guts.

To start off, we entered an empty room lined with walls and tiles that seemed like they were glazed with black varnish. It couldnt have been bigger than an average office unit. The general vibe of the room was solitary, futuristic and reinforced like one of those large sci-fi containment rooms where scientists run tests on dangerous machinery and creatures.

We were told to put the goggles over our eyes and try out the equipment. It was like in The Matrix when Neo is introduced to the artillery stockroom with Trinity. We immediately found ourselves at a shooting range with targets for firing practice. After a few shooting trials, we were guided to step on individual circles on the ground to break up into 2 teams.

Apparently, these circles are meant to be safe rooms or checkpoint portals, following a very similar concept to L4D. How were we to roam about in an enclosed area? Zero Latency has a sensory system which alerts you if youre moving too close to a player or wall. This really helps if everyone starts panicking and jumping into each others arms in a frenzied scramble!

So off we teleported, guns blazing into uncharted terror, rushing headlong into a small foyer with multiple doorways. It was a decrepit labyrinth that screamed ambush. Then it happened. We spotted a mutilated corpse lurching straight at us, shambling inches from our faces with its decomposing arms outstretched.

Taking the first shots, we lunged forward, but I realized, like any novice horror game player, with staggering dismay that our guns were far, far outmatched. A swarm of undead poured in and completely caught me off guard as I struggled to reload. My first reflex was to try and perform a melee attack by using the butt of my gun, but obviously that didnt work. Im pretty sure I wasnt the only one who tried that!

Each time we finished a level, wed enter our individual circles in a safe room and take a breather. When the next stage came, we moved in a manner that covered all angles and every member kept a lookout in a specific direction. Most of the time though, we were just huddled together in a chaotic mess and hiding in the crossfire. Thank god there was no friendly fire!

Of course, there was that occasional huge invulnerable Tank type of zombie that just wouldnt go down no matter how many times we blasted it. Just for the record, it takes several headshots with the shotgun to fell it. Either that or multiple sprays of bullets spammed from everyones assault rifles.

At the risk of spoiling the gameplay for anyone reading, we dont want to reveal too much. All well say is nearing the end of the game, it was more or less an all-out war with a siege of zombies mowing us down from every corner, and our combined onslaught of barrage pelting against an airborne flamethrower spewing rains of fire. And now, we have bragging rights to saying we outlived a zombie apocalypse.

If pictures paint a thousand words, what is written here covers a tiny abstract of the terrifyingly ensnaring, thrilling experience. If you want to find out how broken an abomination the final boss is, check out Outbreak Origins by Zero Latency.

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Verz Design Bi-Annual Team Cohesion with Zombies - Gamasutra

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero