H1Z1 Zombies Look Incredibly Scary Close-up

Here’s an up close and personal look at the zombie from the 1^st H1Z1 trailer.

To be clear, yes, we have gotten a look at the guy before, but this is him up close and personal. From what we know about the game, the opportunity for this won’t come as often as you think, but if things get so bad that you end up seeing this, you might be good as dead. You can see it full resolution here.

On the side, we think we found out where the game’s name came from. Some of you may remember this.

In 2009, a bogus news site pretending to be the BBC claimed that the swine flu H1N1 virus had mutated into a zombie virus. The site did a convincing job, by connecting details in the fabricated story with real occurrences in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

So, why is this relevant to us? If SOE used this hoax to come up with the name of the game, they may have used other details from the hoax in the game as well.

Based on the hoax site, people who contracted H1Z1 would show symptoms similar to H1N1, such as fever, cough, and colds, but would die far more rapidly. Within two hours of their death, they would come back to life, and react very violently. This condition was explained away as a result of brain damage and the release of several chemicals, including death hormones.

H1Z1 is slated for release to the Playstation 4 and Windows this year.