ParaDiZe Project: A Top-Down Survival Game with Zombie Minions

By Shaan Khan

Screenshot Courtesy of Nacon on YouTube

On 8^th July 2022, French video-game publisher, Nacon, hosted Nacon Connect, an event showcasing trailers of unreleased video games being worked on by their development teams.

Nacon are renowned for publishing games in a wide selection of genres. These include:

• Simulation Games i.e. Hunting Simulator 2
• Racing Games i.e. RiMS Racing
• Sports Games i.e. Rugby 22
• Action-Adventure Games i.e. Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, Warhammer: Chaos-bane

Now Nacon are looking to dip their toes into the Survival genre with two survival titles in the works. 

While one of the titles is captivating because its set in The Terminator movie universe; the second title, known as ‘ParaDiZe Project’, managed to grasp survival gamers’ attention with its unique style of gameplay reminiscent of V Rising.

V Rising was a one-of-a-kind survival game that took the scene by storm this year for its refreshing gameplay mechanics despite not following the traditional first-person formula as most popular survival games.

So, what makes ParaDiZe Project so appealing? Will it be anything like V Rising or is the trailer misleading? Finally, do the development team have the chops to create a survival game based on all the past titles that Nacon have published?

What to Expect

Gathering from the trailer, ParaDiZe Project is a zombie game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s bombastic and chaotic, with humans riding zombies and a zombie elephant named ‘Miss Daisy’ that sprays the blood of its foes from its trunk.

Screenshot Courtesy of Nacon on YouTube

These scenes from the trailer tell us about two key themes in the game. For one, you’ll be able to control zombies. Using them as minions to help you in fights, to build & maintain your base, gather resources and yes, most likely ride as mounts. 

V Rising also included minions you could control, although more limited compared to what’s showcased in the ParaDiZe Project trailer.

The second key theme is boss battles, with the trailer showing intense boss battle level combat between a player and Miss Daisy. A popular feature to V Rising was the boss battles which included many bosses that offered different rewards and strategies to defeat.

ParaDiZe Project also has all the essential survival elements. This includes an open world setting where you loot buildings, gather resources, harvest crops, craft items and build bases, traps, etc.

What’s unique to ParaDiZe Project over V Rising is the zombie horde element. This makes for some creative strategies to take them down as seen in games such as Days Gone. Fortunately, ParaDiZe Project presents a slew of makeshift weapons and creative zombie killing to give that fun factor of experimentation.

The Development

Details on ParaDiZe Project are scarce. The trailer raises some important questions, like whether the game will feature PvP and will there be quests and a storyline?

Nacon handed the project down to their development team Eko Software, who also work on proprietary technologies such as Game Engines. ParaDiZe Project will likely be developed on a proprietary engine for the team to create specialised features suited specifically for the game to capture their vision.

Eko Software are looking to only target the latest gen consoles and PCs with this survival game, allowing room for generational advancements that will forward the survival genre.

Before Eko Software was under the umbrella of Nacon, they were responsible for developing the ‘How to Survive’ series; a set of top-down, co-op survival games. Therefore, ParaDiZe Project is the evolution of the HTS series.

The HTS series had all the basic survival mechanics, but without controlling zombies as minions or boss battles with zombie elephants. Servers could hold a total capacity of 16 players. However, the series was purely co-op focused.

So Eko Software does have the chops to make a co-op survival game. The maps for their previous games were fitting for 16 players total. However, with their current-gen, open-world format, a higher player count is expected with hopefully PvP combat, storylines and quests to capture that magic V Rising had.

The game is set to release next year in December, with the Steam version confirmed to support Korean subtitles. If you’re looking for a fun co-op game to play with friends, then keep ParaDiZe Project on your radar.