Daybreak Game Company has announced that H1Z1 is finally leaving Steam Early Access today on February 28th, 2018. After three years of being in Early Access, the 1.0 version of the game has now been officially launched. The official release of the game comes with a brand new Auto Royale mode, which is a new team-based vehicular battle royale game mode. Auto Royale will be pitting 30 teams of four players each fighting to be the last team standing. The developer has also seen fit to add a new ARV military-style vehicle and new weapons, including a light machine gun, landmines, and corrosive gas. New elements like double jumps, ramps, and oil slicks have also been added to rev up the chaos. The Auto Royale mode is currently in beta.
H1Z1 Update: What’s New After Leaving Early Access?
Season 1 of H1Z1 begins today, featuring an all-new scoring system that rewards consistent performance but comes with the potential for de-rank. To make the game more friendly and intuitive for all playstyles, a few modifiers have been added for average placement and average kills, thereby allowing players who rarely get more than a few kills a game to still rank up and improve.
Additional features include the introduction of Tactical Deployment, which grants players the ability to select which sector you will parachute into at the start of the map. H1Z1‘s UI has also been given an overhaul, which includes additions like a mini-map in the lower right/left corner, a more organized settings menu, and an easier to use inventory menu. Players will now earn new Victory Crates for winning and Skull rewards for placing well in different match types.
That’s not all as Daybreak Game Company promises more to come in 2018, including the upcoming release of Z1 Remastered, maintaining fair play by banning cheaters and updating their anti-cheat tools, as well as further FPS optimization in future updates.
To celebrate its official release, the developer will be giving away exclusive “H1Z1 Evolution” shirts, in real life and in-game, on its Twitter page. H1Z1 is currently priced at $19.99 on Steam.