We’ll go first, to keep it honest. DFZ is built from the games we’ve been glued to for years.
- Escape from Tarkov. Carrying something valuable in your backpack while every rustle sounds like a death sentence. That’s where “die, hand out loot” comes from, and the backpack that never has room for one more thing.
- DayZ. Meeting a stranger when neither of you knows which one is the bandit. That’s where voice by distance comes from: you can talk a stranger down. Or lie to him.
- Hotline Miami. Top-down view, death in a second, and doors that hit back. A door flying into the face of whoever stood behind it is a direct shout-out.
- The Last of Us. Infected that hunt by sound. Our infected learned from them: freeze, don’t run, don’t make a sound.
Your turn. Feel free to use the template:
- The game (or a few).
- A moment from it you still remember.
- What hooked you: the atmosphere, the people, the fear of losing your loot?
And if the word “Zone” brings some other game to mind, tell us about that one too.
As for what to bring over from other games, or keep out of ours, take that to Ideas, to the thread on what extraction shooters are missing.