Daybreak: Listing My Wishes For H2Z2


What I want out of a theoretical sequel.

Here at MMO Fallout, I consider myself to be something of a problem solver.

This may come as a surprise to my readers, and probably definitely to Daybreak Game Company themselves, but I liked H1Z1. I have faith that Daybreak can put out a functioning, reasonable sequel on the Playstation 5 and maybe Xbox Series X. I want to see Daybreak succeed, and I’ve been thinking about H1Z1 now that the PS4’s lifespan is coming to an end and you naturally expect that Daybreak is looking to the next generation for a battle royale game.

So here are my thoughts on a theoretical H2Z2. Please for the love of god do not title it that.

1. Ditch The Engine

I don’t know if anyone has told this to Daybreak Game Company, but the engine used for H1Z1 on PS4 is absolute garbage-tier vegan bacon trash. The Forgelight engine is nearly worthless when it comes to game engines, and I don’t think you need me to tell you that virtually every game that has ever been made with it is currently buried six feet underground in Daybreak’s backyard. If H2Z2 is going to have any chance of not performing a Thelma & Louise over the same cliff as H1Z1, you need to use an engine that isn’t an embarrassment to modern hardware.

I of course say this with all of my love and respect.

Best engine in my opinion for H2Z2? Unreal. Realm Royale uses it, Fortnite uses it, PUBG, Darwin Project. Know what those games have in common? Healthy user bases, streamlined production, an engine that can handle more than six people on a square block without dumping in its pants and making my PS4 sound like a jet engine.

2. Replicate Fortnite’s Battle Pass

Trigger warning: This section contains praise for Fortnite.

I like Fortnite’s battle pass system and Daybreak should look at it as an example of everything done right versus their battle pass which is everything done wrong. So let me extol the virtues of the Fortnite battle pass so I can lose all of my readers in a single paragraph. The Fortnite battle pass costs roughly $10, has 100 levels of progression, and lasts a few months.

Some thoughts:

  1. I can log on to Fortnite for an hour or so a day, even taking upwards of a full week off in between play sessions, and still have a chance at getting all 100 levels. On a decent day, I’ll get 5+ levels of the battle pass.
  2. There are so many varied activities on the battle pass that have nothing to do with killing players that if I’m having an “off” day and aren’t playing so well I can still log in and make some progress and log off feeling like I have accomplished something in the game.
  3. The activities on the battle pass are designed to get players accustomed to the map, do things that they might not otherwise do, and engage with the game in new and interesting ways.
  4. The battle pass pays for itself, and generates more than its value in coin so I can save some of the money to buy the next pass or splurge and buy a bunch of cosmetics.
  5. Progression is constantly ongoing no matter what you are doing; opening chests, surviving, picking up weapons, etc.
  6. The challenges on the battle pass never feel ridiculously convoluted.

Let’s compare it to H1Z1:

  1. Progression is terrible and slow, and only rewards very specific behavior. I have never played a game that I left feeling like my time had been robbed from me more than H1Z1.
  2. Rewards suck. Weapon skins, sprays, vehicle skins, and short horn sounds should be easy enough to pump out that you shouldn’t be shipping battle passes with five new skins in them. If they aren’t, it’s a problem with your engine or your development pipeline.
  3. Despite having a lot of bad ideas, weekly challenges were the only thing keeping H1Z1 afloat for me. But like many of its half-functioning ideas, rather than learning and improving DBC took this out back and set it on fire in a giant wicker man.
  4. Only recently did the battle pass start including cash shop coins. Otherwise the silver coins are completely useless and drop in miniscule amounts.

3. Let Players Choose Their Drop Zone

H1Z1 bucks the trend of battle royale games by not letting players choose where they drop. I thought at first that this was Daybreak being terrified of a lawsuit from Brendan Greene and then I remembered that Greene was a paid consultant on H1Z1. Maybe this was his suggestion to differentiate the game from PUBG.

Either way, it’s a terrible design that needs to be tossed out in the trash. Effectively what this does is make your early-mid game experience entirely RNG. Do you drop with a bunch of other people, do you drop in a place that has good weapons, do you drop on the outskirts of the map with no vehicles/weapons in sight and spend the match fighting the danger zone? All of this is out of your control.

Other BR games have built entire play styles out of where the player chooses to drop, and H1Z1 ignores all of it to be special. Special like a toothless fork; unique, but functionally useless.

4. Fix The Bugs, and I Mean Fix The Bugs

H1Z1 is full of bugs that have been in the game for long enough that it should qualify the title as something you would avoid putting on your resume. It’s pretty bad when I can dig through MMO Fallout articles going back over a year and find complaints about major bugs that are still in the game.

Free for all randomly stops allowing you to spawn? Yep, that’s a problem. Game takes a disgusting amount of time to render in player cosmetics? Yep, that’s a problem. Landing only to have items not render on the map? Yep, that’s a problem. Vehicles defying gravity? Yep, that’s a problem. People getting inside of buildings and becoming invincible? Oh yea, that’s a problem.

I’ll let 2018 Connor explain it in one sentence:

Competence goes a long way toward enjoyment.

2018 H1Z1 was like a two tier tall Jenga tower. Basic, but functional. As the game progressed and Daybreak slapped more stuff on to it, they didn’t bother checking the basic integrity of the structure and two years later we have a mess that is barely being held together with chewing gum and sticky tape.

H1Z1, both versions, were insanely popular. Then they started having problems that Daybreak completely ignored and refused or were unable to fix, and they died out. If H2Z2 is going to succeed, your QA department needs to put in more work than filing reports that say “I assure you the quality is bad.”

5. In Conclusion

H1Z1 is a lost cause, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has said that including Daybreak staff. The new console generation provides a new opportunity to get your console userbase back. Hell, you can even get H2Z2 working on a Switch if you were really savvy (Fortnite/Realm Royale did it).

You’ve got the concept down, and the mistakes made with H1Z1, now do something with it.

Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter.