H1Z1 New Game Mode: Auto Royale Is Cars-only Mayhem
H1Z1 has officially left early access and launched on PC. To celebrate the milestone, developer Daybreak has revealed a new game mode for the battle royale shooter: Auto Royale. Inspired by the players who love to drive around in traditional H1Z1, Auto Royale is all vehicles, all the time.
The game mode, already in beta, features games that allow 30 teams of up to four players each competing at once. One player for each team will act as the driver of the vehicle, while the other players hang out the side windows and shoot at other cars. Once a car blows up, it’s out of the game.
“In 2016, we did something unheard of -- we split a successful game into two products and introduced the world to the first standalone battle royale game. The next year, we created the first battle royale esports league and became the second esport to ever air on broadcast television. This year, we continue to push this young genre forward with the introduction of Auto Royale,” Anthony Castoro, H1Z1 general manager, said in a press release. “Auto Royale doesn’t rinse and repeat what is currently available on the market, it turns the genre on its head with a fresh approach -- arcadey, vehicle-only battle royale unlike anything anyone has experienced before.”
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Auto Royale includes two different vehicles for teams to pick from, and both are new and exclusive to the game mode. The sedan is a generic, basic car with no armor or protection, but is speedy. The Armored Recon Vehicle, or ARV, is heavily armored, but a slow-moving beast. There is also a new weapon exclusive to the game mode, the light machine gun. This gun provides the most sustained damage of any in the game.
Arcade racing-inspired pickups are another new feature of Auto Royale. These are split into three categories, defensive abilities, combat abilities and evasive abilities. Defensive pickups include vehicle repair kits, fire extinguishers and vehicle armor. Combat weapons can be landmines and corrosive smoke. Evasive abilities consist of items like smoke screens, oil slicks and turbo boosts.
Those turbo boosts are going to be especially crucial thanks to the number of ramps cartoonishly placed throughout the maps. These ramps are helpful to run away from an enemy quickly, and some can be combined to reach powerful upgrades early on. The sedan may be more difficult to control compared to the ARV, but has a higher jump clearance once you get a hang of the controls.
Basically, Auto Royale is like if you made a Twisted Metal Battle Royale game. It’s fast, hectic and tons of fun. More content, like vehicles and other upgrades are said to be in the works, but like H1Z1, Auto Royale will be developing over time along with feedback from the community.
Additionally, as part of the official H1Z1 launch, Daybreak has released a new batch of patch notes. Highlights include the official start of the first in-game season of competitive play, a new mini-map, a new ability to choose where you parachute into the map at the start of the game and more.
So what do you think? Are you interested in playing a vehicles-only Battle Royale game? Will you pick up H1Z1 now that it has left Early Access? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.