Since its global launch nearly two years ago, NetEase’s zombie apocalypse survival game LifeAfter has seen a steady flow of new content and events, as well as a steady flow of new players, topping the 150 million downloads mark. It succeeded at offering an incredibly vibrant world with a realistic feeling of survival as you could partner up with other players to create safe camps and build these tiny little societies that all chipped in to fend off the constant zombie attacks. In a world filled with all sorts of free to play open world action games, LifeAfter offered something really unique in the space.
Well with nearly two years of updates under its belt, NetEase is really going all out for the next phase of LifeAfter. They’re kicking off a massive Season 3 update which fundamentally changes the game in a number of ways, making for the largest, most feature-filled zombie apocalypse survival experience yet. Season 3 is by far the largest update LifeAfter has ever seen.
First on the list of huge improvements is a new, massive, totally seamless open world to explore. All of the game’s maps are now combined into one huge map, and those original areas have been expanded in size too. You can now travel freely between the various biomes in the game, from the snow-capped peaks to to the dry deserts and everything in between. This new open world also comes with a new Structure System which means that other LifeAfter players can actually make an impact on the terrain or work with others to create helpful structures in the world.
The current crop of shareable structures includes Highways for players to auto-navigate and quick-move on; Gas Stations where you can power up vehicles and increase speed; Ladders which can be placed in various spots to make climbing easier; Bridges which can cover rivers and open expanses making for more efficient travel routes; Zip Lines for crossing huge precipices; Signs for posting information to others; and Manors which are literally houses. All of these sound like really neat ways for players to contribute to the world of LifeAfter and “leave their mark" for other players.
The new map will also feature a variety of new vehicles scattered around for players to use freely. These will include things like motorcycles, off-road cars, and even helicopters, and rather than just being there for transportation, you’ll be able to hop into a vehicle and use it in combat when fighting off zombies with a teammate as one of you leans out of the window and fires off some rounds.
While we’re on the subject of the new open world map and the environment, Season 3 will also feature changing seasons. In addition to the flow of time with the day/night cycle and the typical four seasons cycling, there will also be a variety of random extreme weather events that can add “an additional sense of excitement and unpredictability to doomsday." These can be things like typhoons, rainstorms, sandstorms, blizzards, and even volcanic eruptions. As the seasons and the weather changes, so does the air temperature, and that can directly affect your in-game character’s body temperature. This means you’ll need to prepare for these changing circumstances with proper equipment, clothing, food supplies, and shelters. Also the various resources in the world will change with the seasons, such as the types of food and fish that you’ll find.
There’s a whole lot more in store for LifeAfter players with Season 3 too. Gathering Teams will appear randomly on the map that you can exchange and purchase resources from, or you can choose to join a Gathering Team yourself and complete missions for various bonuses and benefits. Since the maps have all been combined into one giant open world map, there’s a new Profession called a Treasure Hunter who have advantages in access to information and an increased mining limit, and they have a higher probability of identifying high-quality treasure. The Camp System has also been revamped with Camps now built directly into the open world, with Camps in different areas featuring different topography.
And believe it or not, there’s even more to Season 3, like new weapons, new gear, tons of optimizations, an enhanced graphics engine, and more. I said it before but it’s worth saying again: This is by far the largest update ever for LifeAfter, so if you have not gone out and experienced its unique brand of zombie apocalypse survival yet then you should definitely go download the game for free for iOS, Android, or PC and rectify that immediately.
This article is sponsored content written by TouchArcade and published on behalf of NetEase to promote the Season 3 update to their zombie survival game LifeAfter. For questions or comments, please email [email protected]
