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Rockstar once planned a zombie island survival game using GTA: Vice City code, but it was too "depressing"

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

GTA 6 developer Rockstar Games were once working on a zombie survival game set on a Scottish island, which sounds like a mixture of GTA: Vice City and legendary Arma mod DayZ. That's according to former technical director Obbe Vermeij, who joined Rockstar North in 1995 back when it was called DMA Design, and left in 2009 following the release of GTA 4. In the run-up to the GTA 6 trailer reveal next month, he's started blogging about the development of several Rockstar games, from GTA through grotty snuff film simulator Manhunt to cancelled projects such as the zombie title and Cold War stealth fest Agent.

Discussing these latter "distractions", Vermeij noted that "[a]fter Vice City [in 2002] there was a sense within North that it would be nice to do something else. Something that wasn't GTA. Some of the artists wanted to do a zombie survival game. Programmers like fantasy. Artists like zombies. Not sure why that is."

Rockstar decided to pursue the zombie game concept for a bit, with the working title "Z". Unless there's another one I'm forgetting, it would have been Rockstar North's first and only game set in the developer's native Scotland. "The idea was to use the Vice code as is," Vermeij explained. "The game was to take place on a windswept foggy Scottish island. The player would be under constant attack from zombies. The player would need to use vehicles to get around but vehicles would need fuel. Acquiring the fuel would be a big part of the game."

Z was only in development for "maybe a month or so", however. According to Vermeij, the concept proved to be a bit of a downer. "The idea seemed depressing and quickly ran out of steam. Even the people who originally coined the idea lost faith. We dropped the idea and got on with San Andreas."
 

Soodanim

Member
Even the people who originally coined the idea lost faith. We dropped the idea and got on with San Andreas.
"We accepted our fate and got to making the last great GTA before giving up on fun in favour of being flashy"

I like the concept and on paper I'd want the idea revived, but I'm just thinking about how Dead Rising used to be fun. Modern Rockstar would make it too simmy and bland, making it far more depressing than golden age Rockstar could ever have dreamed.
 
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Hugare

Member
I came here to say this too. That turned out to be a really solid title. That was considered DLC back then too, what the fuck happened to gaming?
GTA Online happened

If it wasnt so successful, we would have by now some story expansions for GTA V and RDR II.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
This would be been great, they built an incredible open world, remove the cars so it makes traversal long and go full DayZ mode and you would've had a great fucking game imo, the map is a perfect size, random spawn and lots of explorable areas, open up loads of buildings and go full survival mode
 
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