Dead Years – PAX East 2016 Hands-On Preview

<p><em>Dead Years<&sol;em> is the first title from two-person&comma; Montreal based Studio ZeroByte&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a narrative heavy&comma; quest-based title set in a cell-shaded&comma; open world zombie apocalypse&period; You play as both a girl and her dog&comma; which you can switch between at the press of a button&period; To survive&comma; you must scavenge the wasteland for supplies&comma; craft useful items and level up both yourself&comma; and your K9 companion&period; &&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s an RPG with survival game elements&period;&&num;8221&semi; says Nataliya&comma; Co-Founder of ZeroByte&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105436" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105436" style&equals;"width&colon; 904px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-105436 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03183900&sol;deadyears05&period;jpg" alt&equals;"deadyears05" width&equals;"904" height&equals;"486" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105436" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Dead Years&comma; ZeroByte&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>During my demo&comma; I played with a mouse and keyboard&comma; which felt suited to the game&&num;8217&semi;s current UI and &&num;8220&semi;<em>Diablo<&sol;em> style&&num;8221&semi; inventory screen&period; However&comma; using a controller does not seem to be out of the question&period; Combat&comma; which took place both indoors and outdoors in a small&comma; town square area sliced off specifically for the PAX demo&comma; felt very rudimentary&period; Unless I was attacking zombies from a distance with the pistol I acquired from completing my first quest&comma; I was forced to engaged in cumbersome melee combat&period; Despite my best efforts&comma; I was never actually able to melee zombies without taking any damage myself&comma; both as the dog&comma; or human wielding the axe or machete I&&num;8217&semi;d scavenged&period; While novel&comma; I found little use for the dog during my demo other than using his faster speed to kite away large groups of zombies from areas I wanted to explore&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105438" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105438" style&equals;"width&colon; 863px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-105438 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03183827&sol;022&period;jpg" alt&equals;"022" width&equals;"863" height&equals;"485" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105438" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Dead Years&comma; ZeroByte&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>After my demo&comma; I was informed that the small slice of the game I played was not even remotely representative of the current build as it was created using a much earlier build of the game&period; The current build&comma; which is approaching Beta&comma; is not only far better rendered&comma; but includes improvements to combat and allows the dog to do more&period; After leveling up the dog&&num;8217&semi;s survival skills&comma; players should be able to equip it with a pack and teach it to scavenge and even hunt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105439" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105439" style&equals;"width&colon; 983px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-105439 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03183811&sol;08&period;jpg" alt&equals;"08" width&equals;"983" height&equals;"553" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105439" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Dead Years&comma; ZeroByte&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>According to the map I was shown&comma; <em>Dead Years<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi; open world is huge&comma; comprised of urban areas&comma; industrial zones&comma; and vast wilderness areas&comma; which makes sense considering the game&&num;8217&semi;s 25 hour length&period; The world also includes a full day&sol;night cycle which influences the appearances of NPCs and enemies&period; Depending on the game&&num;8217&semi;s success&comma; ZeroByte hopes to be able to roll out additional episodic content in terms of new locations and quests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><iframe src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;embed&sol;vvWGnzZ9zqo" width&equals;"560" height&equals;"315" frameborder&equals;"0" allowfullscreen&equals;"allowfullscreen"><&sol;iframe><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Dead Years<&sol;em> is slated to launch &&num;8220&semi;sometime this year&&num;8221&semi; on PC&comma; with a console version coming approximately 6 months later&period; After it arrives on consoles&comma; ZeroByte indicated that they hope to implement a form of multiplayer&comma; allowing one person to control the dog while the other controls the girl&period; They are also open to the idea of other multiplayer options&comma; but given the game&&num;8217&semi;s narrative focus&comma; the team&&num;8217&semi;s not exactly sure what that will entail&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;