NHN's Darkest Days blends shooter with RPG in open-world zombie apocalypse game

NHN's forthcoming game Darkest Days seeks to merge single-player and multiplayer modes, offering an open-world zombie apocalypse experience across multiple platforms.

The second closed beta test (CBT) for NHN's third-person shooter (TPS) role-playing game (RPG) Darkest Days, will start July 25. [NHN]

NHN’s upcoming game Darkest Days aims to be more than a standard open-world adventure. Its creators hoped to craft a jack of all trades, blending third-person shooter with role-playing game (RPG), single-player with multiplayer and mobile with desktop offerings.

Darkest Days, a zombie apocalypse-themed open-world title that supports cross-platform play between iOS, Android and PC, begins its second closed beta test (CBT) July 25 and rolls out globally later this year — when its creators hope it will appeal not only to Korean gamers, but also to those across Asia and North America.

“Many other [mobile games] are either single-player or a pure multiplayer game, but we built both from the ground up,” said Kim Dong-sun, executive producer of Darkest Days, during a media preview at NHN's headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi ahead of the CBT. “Users start playing single-player mode and then move on to multiplayer mode.”

Darkest Days executive producer Kim Dong-sun, right, poses for the camera during Thursday's press event held at the NHN headquarters in Pangyo. [NHN]

The game is free to play with paid “battle passes," a progression-based system where users are rewarded with different in-game items the more they play, and loot boxes available — though Kim assured players that no items will be exclusive to loot boxes and everything can be acquired through gameplay, calling the arrangement a “reasonable business model.”

“Lootboxes are used as a way to reduce time spent on collecting resources, not providing better or exclusive items,” Kim said.

In single-player mode, the user is tasked with farming items, fighting zombies, mingling with non-player characters and building shelters for long-term survival in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. It's best suited for “users who are not used to player versus player [PVP] or want to feel the joy of slaughtering zombies,” the executive producer said.

In multiplayer mode, on the other hand, users will team up to fight off zombies — or other players. Endgame content known as Extraction mode, wherein users will fight each other for rare resources and better weapons but risk losing all of their possessions if they die, is also in development.

The second closed beta test (CBT) for NHN's third-person shooter (TPS) role-playing game (RPG) Darkest Days, will start July 25. [NHN]

The second CBT, open only to mobile platforms from July 25 to 31, will allow players to experience both single-player and multiplayer modes.

“The first CBT aimed to test the technical side of things to see if they can play the game smoothly,” Kim said. “But with the second CBT, we hope to verify that our game is fun.”

In particular, he hopes North American gamers will take notice.

“North America is home to shooter games,” the executive producer said. “They also like zombie games.

“If the North American gamers — who enjoyed classic shooters like Quake and Rainbow Six — get to love our game, I think we can then be confident that we really made a good game.”

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]