Games Workshop announces a
Chainsaw Warrior video game based on a zombie
board game they released in the 1980s. Bucking a trend, this is a single-player
only game, coming this summer to mobile devices and to Windows and OS X shortly
after that.
This page
has an image and some details, and there's more
on Facebook. Here's the
announcement:
22nd July, 2013, Bristol, UK: The seminal hit board game
Chainsaw Warrior, made by Games Workshop back in 1987 is set to return this year
in a digital form. The original 80s game was a notable rarity in that it was a
solo board game that pitted the player not against others but against the clock.
The game saw New York balancing on the precipice of darkness as twisted forces
from another reality attempted to rip the city from this world into theirs.
Standing between them and the destruction of the city was a lone figure, the
brutal and mysterious Chainsaw Warrior. As the eponymous hero, the player had to
delve into a zombie infested New York tenement to locate the source of the evil
spewing through the spatial rift and destroy it before he was destroyed. The
game is being created by Bristol based indie developer Auroch Digital for mobile
and desktop platforms.
Auroch Digital's Design & Production Director, Tomas Rawlings explained why they
are resurrecting this mutant and zombie infested classic; "It's a game I played
as a kid and loved. I see it as the pre-cursor of First Person Shooters when
video games technology could not really do the first person or the shooting. For
me this is not only a great game, but a classic of board game design - a solo
shooter that really challenges the player. When we spoke to Games Workshop about
developing a game this was the top of my list. I loved the 80s style of the game
and we've kept much of that in our design as well as faithfully translating the
gameplay. Don't expect to win the game easily. This was the Dark Souls or Super
Meat Boy of its day. Players didn't want to buy the game and run out of
challenge at first play. The game has many ways to kill you and is unafraid to
use them - which makes it all the sweeter when you finally win."
As well as its challenge, it also flies in the face of current trends in social
aspects in games. Chainsaw Warrior is firmly an individual experience, Rawlings
explains, "This is about you against the tide of darkness. Chainsaw Warrior is
the last hope for the city and time is running out. Ultimately I wanted to make
this game because it is one that needs to be brought to digital with all guns
blazing and chainsaw-blades revving, and that is what we're going to
do!”