H1Z1 started as an online multiplayer zombie-survival shooter, but it will end its life as a Battle Royale-like. Publisher Daybreak Game Company is officially dropping the “H1Z1” name from Just Survive, and the company is introducing a new story to separate its fiction from the more popular H1Z1: King of the Kill. This all comes along with the biggest update yet for Just Survive, which King of the Kill has overshadowed with huge sales on Steam and massive audiences on Twitch since last year.
In Just Survive, players must explore and survive in a dangerous world brimming with the undead as well as dangerous competing factions of real players. Beyond the new branding and narrative, Daybreak — which was formerly Sony Online Entertainment — is rolling out a new map today. Players can also expect to find the Stronghold system for building and fortifying structures against organized attacks.
Fan reaction to these changes is pretty negative on forums like Reddit. Some Just Survive players are upset about the rebranding while others are complaining about the update leaving out one feature or emphasizing another. Some people are mad at the perceived lack of content for players who prefer to engage with Just Survive as a single-player story. Others think it’s wasteful that today’s update is completely replacing the original map.
But with King of the Kill regularly seeing tens of thousands of players and holding esports tournaments on TBS, Just Survive seems lucky to get any attention at all from Daybreak.
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“Our new logo and key art highlight all the aspects of the game that players know and love — from base building and defending, to looting and exploring, and also reflects how Just Survive is developing into a more mature and polished game,” Just Survive creative director Ben Jones explained in a statement. “Just Survive is about more than just killing zombies, it’s about the player’s survival journey. Re-establishing society isn’t an easy task, and this update introduces a variety of features, like Strongholds, that encourage players to band together through the dangers and tension of post-apocalyptic life while striving to reclaim their world from the zombie hordes.”
The new map, meanwhile, is Badwater Canyon. It is a wooded area with a heavy focus on vertical spaces. Daybreak is promising to roll it out in pieces to give players a chance to get familiar with the layout. But it has already completely replaced the original map.
