So it indeed is a Zombie Survival MMO as the interwebz predicted. It'll very much be in line with a Walking Dead kinda feel and, according to SOE, very Sandboxy.
The game will start off in a sort of Middle America area for the testing phases, and eventually ramp up to being SOE's own version of the U.S. It will include harvesting, scavenging, building, and all sorts of survival needs (a survivor of the H1Z1 Epidemic needs to eat after all!). In Smedley's opening letter posted to Reddit last night he states that "we want our players to make Woodbury from The Walking Dead if they want to. Or take over a prison. Or fix an old car so you and your friends (yeah we have multiplayer vehicles) can run zombies and players over mercilessly".
The game will have a very deep crafting system in place allowing players to make houses, fortresses, weapons (both mobile, ie' machine guns, and stationary ie' a 50 Caliber MG on your tower guarding your fortress for any defender to use), food, etc.
When asked what would differentiate this from the other Survival Horror games on the market (*cough* Day Z *cough*), Smedley said "It's a persistent MMO that can hold thousands of players on servers we host (yes there will be multiple servers with very different rule sets). Why is that a good thing? It means a thriving economy (oh yes... there's trading). It also means you have potential allies in the all-out war on the Infected... and many an enemy as well."
All in all it looks pretty ok from what Smed's has said, and with it being F2P it'll sure get a test drive from many a gamer. The best part? We'll be seeing a livestream of the game as SOE hosts a play test, and the game should be available to play testers (though how you become one and who can be one hasn't been discussed) within four to six weeks.
Massively's Coverage can be found here.
PC Gamers Coverage can be found here.