Sounds like something I would play endlessly through the night.


Sign me up!

I think I'll stick to the "Die-a-hundred-times-and-we'll-still-randomly-generate-a-new-character-for-you-because-you're-so-bad-at-games-Kairon" mode.

Challenge accepted.

I think what's innovative is that you can use an in-game device to interact with other players. Whether that means they can leave messages at spots that range from "Danger Ahead" to "Lulz Good Luck newbs" or anonymous database statistics remains to be seen. Either way, this seems to be a Nintendo idea. Look at New Super Mario Bros. U for proof. If that's the case, then despite who thought about it's implementation , a Ubisoft employee or a Nintendo suggestion, the amount of collaboration is very clear now.

"Kairon died here."
"And here."
"And here."
"And here."
"I'm going to die here next, just fyi."

My concern reading from this is that the game is potentially really short if you can make your way through it in one life. Maybe not NES Contra short but even RE4 is 15-20 hours a run and that can involve a lot of dying by even the best players.

But that's just one possible take in this new information.

"Hey, look I died by Kairon!"

How is this innovative? Demon's Souls did this back in 2009. And it seems like they did it better.

Glad somebody mentioned this. Its what I was thinking too.

Not sure on what you are basing this conclusion.

Simply because they are copying what Demon's Souls did to the T and everytime there's a copycat in the video game world it's never as good. Hell, they're even doing the whole "if you die you can go back to where you died and get your stuff back" shebang.


But yeah, don't kid yourselves and say that this is innovative. Typical video game copying.

I think we can agree the logic is faulty here.

But I don't want to pick apart your words. I agree that people should recognize that the concept has been done. I think folks should keep an open mind about whether it is done here in a way that serves this game well. I choose to be hopeful that it is.

Give me an example where the copycat was better than the original in the video game world.

@Oblivion you're not doing it right. I want to have a respectful conversation thread, not a pissing match, son.

Bait not taken. Also note, I refrained from throwing it back at you with a "name me a copycat game mechanic that was worse"

At the end of the day, neither of us has played ZombiiU. So this conversation is at best premature; at worst pointless. Like I said, I am hoping the two mechanics in question (finding your old self and leaving messages for others) are implemented in a way that serves this particular game well.

Full disclosure: I have not played Demon Souls. I don't care to.

I've never played Demon Souls either, hence my ignorance. While my point about innovation may not hold up, I still think the level of collaboration between the two parties is evident.

You know, upon reflection, that was kind of a shitty post.
Using the term "pissing match" was badly thought out as well as the pajoritive use of the term "son". Sorry about that.
Never too old to learn from mistakes.

Well in the end, I don't care if another game did it first or better.  I care if the game in question does something well enough that a game is enjoyable and fun to play.  If so then I am happy.  I love the idea of a "hint" system that is gamers/friend based and not just programmed into by the designers.  The potential is awesome.  And I love how you have to use the scanner to find them...it is a unique way to make the scanner more relevent to the game, without making it gimmicky...it also means you can easily skip the hints...

But the hints can do more than help gamers through the game...it can scare gamers more...build anticipation for an encounter, build anxiety and more...it just all depends if your friends were cool and great hint builders...which also means each experience a gamer has is unique because their friends are different. 

I like the idea of trap hints as well.  You pull up a hint that reads some cool detailed information and then says PS...its right behind you...and you should have been watching the tv not reading. 

As for people questioning about the length.  One person survival does not tell us anything about the length of the game...because they could easily just allow you to save in special areas of the game...with one life. 

Or the game could be a game about escaping and there are several different routes to escape...each route is a different set of levels and experiences...and the game could even block some routes randomly...or as you as the player can choose to explore differently.  Assuming this is a short a game is silly, because we know so little about the game.

I would think that Diablo's "Hardcore Mode" predates Demon Souls... and I'm sure there's something else that predates Diablo's implementation.

I think the importance of a mode like this in Zombi U is that this is a Zombie game where part of the feature set is that you dying is part of the design. And because of that setup, it sort of makes you want to ask... but CAN someone survive a zombie attack all the way through without dying? Even though Kairon has the option to die 20 times a level?

With a one-life hardcore mode, you're invited to find out.

So it's the same game but when you die instead of hunting your own corpse you just reload and try again? So not permadeath? If it is permadeath then length is an issue whether it's too long to have a reasonable chance of finishing or it's short enough that it can be done in a couple hours. Another take on it is that they are throwing gameplay balance out the window and make no alterations to the game to accommodate one life mode which is meant to be Nintendo hard.

While we are thin on information, these are some very real issues the devs will have to tackle