Indie studio Invrse releases a trailer for their hand-to-hand combat zombie survival game.
“The Wake” is the latest VR melee survival game being developed for the HTC Vive that lets you wield everything from your bare fists, a fire axe, and even a 2-handed chainsaw to mow your way through hordes of zombies coming at you in waves. It’s kind of my worst nightmare, but at least they are not skimping on the variety of weapons choices, which could make this a fun one to play.
Seattle-based Invrse Studios is responsible for developing The Wake, with the game focusing primarily on the hand-to-hand melee combat aspect. There are however other weapons like throwing knives, dynamite and a magnum revolver with limited ammo to give yourself some distance between you and the zombies.
Invrse Studios was founded by Ryan Smith and Victor Brodin along with Hunter Zinkil who only recently began development on The Wake the day Valve dropped a second Vive development kit into their lap.
When speaking with Smith about The Wake, he explained that the game will have a narrative that will play out in real-time, “with professionally motion captured actors and actresses interacting with the player between escalating waves of mutating zombies.” Without spoiling too much, The Wake places you in an alley where you have just crashed your car attempting to flee the city and now must fight your way to safety.
Made in Unreal Engine, The Wake utilizes many of the art assets from the Unreal Marketplace that may be familiar to developers who have purchased the same content like the main Zombie you see in the trailer, which in fact was modeled and animated by Smith with motion capture partner and Academy Award winning animator CJ Markham. Smith says that Markham and his new business Mocap Now have been instrumental in helping them “achieve a AAA look on an indie budget.”
Currently The Wake does not have a launch date yet but will be available for the HTC Vive sometime in Spring along with an Oculus Rift version corresponding to the launch of the Oculus Touch controllers, according to the creators. We are looking forward to seeing more of what a couple guys, some Vives and hordes of zombies can dream up of in the coming months.
