Developer Daybreak has announced that H1Z1, the game that created the Battle Royale phenomenon,and inspired both PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Fortnite and countless imitators, has finally left Early Access after two years and hit version 1.0.
Furthermore, to celebrate Daybreak have introduced a new completely free car-based battle royale mode called Auto Royale. Details are below.
Auto Royale features up to 30 teams of four players playing Battle Royale entirely in cars. There's further information in Daybreak's new video here. H1Z1 General Manager Anthony Castoro says about it, "Auto Royale doesn’t rinse and repeat what is currently available on the market, it turns the genre on its head with a fresh approach - arcadey, vehicle-only battle royale unlike anything anyone has experienced before."
Here are the notes on the new mode:
- Two New Vehicles: Players can choose from two vehicles in Auto Royale – Sedan or ARV – both new to the game and only available in Auto Royale.
- Sedan: Nimble car with faster acceleration and higher jump clearance, allowing skilled drivers to quickly evade enemies.
- Armored Recon Vehicle (ARV): Offers more stability, making it easier to drive for new players, but has less turbo fuel efficiency.
- New Weapons: The Light Machine Gun (LMG), available only in Auto Royale, deals the most sustained damage of any gun in the game.
- New Power Ups: Players pick up evasive, defensive and combat drops to throw opponents off their trail, heal themselves, or deal damage to enemy vehicles.
- Defensive drops include vehicle repair kits, environmental buffs, fire extinguishers, and vehicle armor.
- Evasive power ups include smoke screens, high-octane fuel, turbo boosts, and oil slicks.
- Combative pick-ups include land mines and corrosive smoke.
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The game also has received a huge patch with a load of other new features including a revamped Airdrop system, a minimap, and a new scoring system "designed to reward consistency and aggression". You can read the full update notes here
H1Z1 was first to the market with the Battle Royale design of parachuting into a map, scavenging for weapons, and surviving against other players in a continually shrinking map. It actually had design input from PlayerUnknown himself Brendan Greene. H1Z1 is considered faster and more arcade-like, and has the ability to craft items - sounds a lot like Fortnite now doesn't it?
H1Z1 version 1.0 is on Steam now priced reasonably at £14.99/$19.99.
