The next Walking Dead game is bringing walkers into the real world. Called The Walking Dead: Our World, the upcoming mobile release will be a location-based augmented reality experience, similar to Pokémon Go — only a lot more gruesome. AMC says that the game “will enable players to fully immerse themselves into the action of the hit TV show by blending digital objects, such as characters and other game elements, with the players’ own environment.”
Much like Pokémon Go’s debut trailer, the first video of Our World looks to be largely aspirational, and doesn’t feature any direct gameplay. Instead, it shows players fighting off the undead in places like a convenience store and a hospital, fending them off using everything from guns and grenades to what looks like Michonne’s sword. There are also virtual versions of some of the more popular characters from the show, including Rick, Daryl, and Michonne, who will provide aid in battle.
The Walking Dead: Our World is being developed by Finnish studio Next Games, the same team behind mobile strategy game The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land, which the developer says has been downloaded more than 16 million times. Apple also showed the game off today as part of its new slate of AR apps and games.
“The fans love how the show encourages you to ask, ‘What would I do in a zombie apocalypse?’, and in this game we aim to let players explore this hypothetical in a way they’ve never experienced before,” Next CEO Teemu Huuhtanen said in a statement. “AR enables players to live through the fight for survival in a whole new way in their familiar surroundings.”
Pokémon Go has been a huge success over its first year of availability, though it never spawned a large number of copycat AR games, as many predicted. Our World looks to be the first major property to follow in Pokémon Go’s footsteps. Though whether players will gravitate to the much more serious nature of fighting zombies the way they did with catching pokémon remains to be seen.
No release date has been set, but Our World will be coming to both iOS and Android when it does launch.