We had the chance to talk to the developers of Tibia and the upcoming Persist Online, presented at gamescom latam. We spoke briefly with Stephan Voglerone of the creators of Tibia and co-founder of the studio and Benjamin ZuckererChief Product Manager of CipSoft, about its new MMO, the first of its kind to depict a zombie apocalypse. But make no mistake, this game is not a shooter!
Persist Online is a MMO RPG with zombiesThen you'd better get a gun. Survive in an unforgiving open world. Form a deadly team with friends and claim what isn't yours. Take your loot back to your bunker and create better equipment.
What was the inspiration for the game?
First of all, we asked him where he got the inspiration for such a big change of scenery from a medieval-themed game to a zombie game. Stephan explained that the idea for the game came during the pandemic, a time when he had been playing one of the genre's best-known games for a long time: DayZ.
"We love many things about DayZ and some things frustrate us. You can go out into the world, there are dangers in it. You don't know if the next person you meet is a friend or if they're going to kill you. And the most frustrating thing is that if you die, you lose all your progress."
Continuing, Vogler says that Persist Online "it's not a shooter, it's not a survival, it (Persist Online) is a Fully apartment MMO RPG. There will be hundreds of players in the game at the same time. You'll have to sleep in the bunker for your progress to be saved and, once out in the world, you'll be faced with various challenges, including zombies"
So in this sense, there's not much to be confused about when it comes to the game's focus. It's not an open-world survival game, as we see all the time in the industry. This is an MMO RPG rootThis is very similar to what we see in Tibia, and a big bet by CipSoft, which is investing in a new franchise after 30 years.
And this fact was even one of the determining factors in the creation of this project. It was explained to us that they preferred to create a franchise rather than invest in a 'Tibia 2' as this would not cause players who have been playing the game for so long to disperse.
Persist Online is the first game fully 3D of the studio, and this is crucial for Vogler because "now we can create a world with more verticality, buildings, mountains, which was not possible in Tibia before (which is a 2D game)". And just like in Tibia, Persist Online promises to bring several stories that will hook you into the game.
Freedom as a focus
But one point that was touched on a lot in the interview was freedom. Zuckerer told us that, just like Tibia, in Persist Online "In both games you have a lot of freedom. You can create your own own goalsThese include exploring the world or improving your skills. Or you can commit yourself more to PvP and become very powerful in the game. You really decide for yourself, the game doesn't tell you what to do. You choose what to do, and that brings consequences, but the game gives you the freedom to do what you want."
According to them, freedom is what makes Tibia so unique in the market it is in and they wanted to bring this differential to Persist Online. The game's DNA is there, but with a few differentiators that aim to bring in a new audience, be it the aesthetics, the setting, and of course, the zombies.
PC only?
But as a good console player, I couldn't help wondering if in the future we might see the game on platforms other than the PC. In Tibia, for example, we have a mobile version, but what I really had in mind was a future version for consoles. Unfortunately, I didn't get the answer I wanted, but the explanation was totally understandable.
Answering our question, Vogler says that "the game will only be available for PC, it will be on the Windows, Mac and Linux. We really think that the reason for this is that for an MMO, the communication is very important. And communication works better on PCs. The keyboard, the possibility of using voice chat. This is an important part of making our world work."Sad, but understandable.
While the interview was going on, in the background I saw a recorded gameplay of Persist Online, which was quite extensive. The game is graphically simple, which makes it very light for the most varied machines, but that doesn't make it ugly in itself. And I have to be honest, the gameplay itself left me much more excited than the trailer.
What about you? Are you an old Tibia fan with your eye on this new game? Or are you the new audience that CipSoft is looking for? I fall into the second option and it's safe to say that they've succeeded in their aim with this announcement. But let us know in the comments if they've managed to hook you too.
See also:
- V Rising bets on insurance and brings an honest port to PS5 - Review
- Zombie Army Trilogy is the definitive version of a classic - Review
- Slime Rancher 2 brings a clear and charismatic evolution from the original game - Preview
- System Shock on consoles isn't perfect for one reason - Review
- Call of Duty x Fallout shows Task Force 141 joining the inhabitants of the refuge
By the way, don't forget to follow our official X profile e on Instagram.
