Pirates of the Burning Sea got spooky during a demo last week in San Francisco. They introduce "the supernatural". Thankfully, this isn't a flimsy excuse for Flying Lab Software to add magic to their semi-historical MMORPG, but rather a unique kind of gameplay capturing horror elements.
FLS understands some players come to their game partly because of its grounded setting and they were careful to ensure that those supernatural elements included were both within the legend of their setting, and completely and totally optional as part of what a player must do to advance. This means that while there are a slew of missions for players to enjoy that deviate a bit from what is strictly possible, characters can in essence choose not to believe in that kind of thing and avoid them altogether.
The supernatural elements of the game are confined both through story and geography. Players must undertake missions to experience that content and it is confined to specific areas. While there are "ghost ships" (players cannot capture them) in the seas around these areas, the majority of the content is land-based.
Most games would simply replace the pirate or brigand avatars with zombies or ghosts and call it a day, but FLS went a step further. For example, with ghosts, players quickly find they cannot just poke them with their swords and, what's more, the ghostly hands pass right through the players. In order to slice them up, players need to acquire ghost dust, which is material taken from the ghost's grave (and something players should usually stumble upon before they meet a ghost) in order to "solidify" their enemy. As more ghost dust is used, both the player and the ghost can do more damage, eventually allowing for victory ... or defeat.
Zombies are another unique puzzle. Individually, they're slow, can be outrun and don't do much damage. However, if a player gets caught by a pack of zombies, things can get pretty nasty. Content Director/novelist Jess Lebow demonstrated this. At first, he toyed with one zombie. He could easily kill it, outrun or ignore it as he chose.
Then, he made things even easier for himself. Apparently, in PotBS, players can acquire an item which disguise their pirates as zombies. When equipped, players look dead and - if they walk - shamble along. The zombies, not renowned for their intelligence, ignore the player. It seemed too good to be true, Lebow simply shambled along the beach, found the item his quest had sent him after and began to walk home. Not a zombie was the wiser.
But, shambling is slow business, and as many players would be tempted to do, Lebow decided he was out of danger and made a break for it. As soon as he did, the zombie horde saw him for what he was and began running after him. No problem, they're slow zombies right?
