In IfSunSets, I found myself placed in the unenviable role of a shipwrecked survivor. Blown off course and stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere, I soon realized that this locale hid many secrets and dangers, including hordes of undead.
If the name of the game isn’t a giveaway, then, yes, IfSunSets, an upcoming survival game developed by Polymorph and published by Lost Ark developer Smilegate. essentially means that the challenge would ramp up as nighttime approaches. I even had a chance to chat with Munseok Chae, game director of developer studio Smilegate, to learn about what inspired the team to create their latest offering.
The IfSunSets demo that I played during the Tokyo Game Show had multiple preset saves that served to show certain core mechanics and gameplay loops. However, I’ve been told that the game does start when my character, a pirate, is attacked by a kraken out in the open sea. They then find themselves on a mysterious island which harbors ancient treasures and even more ancient curses.
MMORPG: Can you tell me more about IfSunSets’ story? Does it have a structured campaign or is it more of an open-world sandbox?
Chae: The island itself might appear unpopulated when you first arrive, but there are actually a few NPCs and some of them give you quests. For the most part, though, we focus on the sandbox experience.
The sandbox experience for the demo was broken down into the aforementioned preset saves. These included one scenario where I delved deeper into a dungeon that’s guarded by several knights, and another where I mostly focused on gathering resources to build a base. General survival sim activities were also present, such as crafting new tools, fishing for food, upgrading gear pieces, and harvesting crops.
The key factor to remember, though, is in the name of the game: once nighttime approaches in IfSunSets, you need to be ready to face wave after wave of zombies. In one scenario where I already had a prebuilt base, I watched as hundreds of undead swarmed the location, breaking apart the defenses that were erected beforehand.
I was surprised upon realizing that my character had special skills, too. These included abilities that activated depending on the equipped weapon, such as a spinning sword slash and a powerful spear thrust. I even had a dash move that allowed me to run away from approaching hostiles that would have torn my character to shreds. After five minutes passed in real-time (i.e. a night cycle in-game), I watched as the remaining enemies dissipated into ash once the sun rose.
Again, this is primarily based on segmented presets for the demo. For the full game, you can expect the aforementioned survival activities, side content, open-world exploration, and, of course, battling the zombie horde at night. This also prompted me to ask Chae about IfSunSets’ difficulty curve, especially when considering how many players probably won’t like the idea of having to face hundreds of monsters from dusk till dawn.
MMORPG: A horde mode occuring every other hour or so, along with needing to stay alive for five minutes each time, might seem a bit much. How would you address this type of difficulty curve and potential player deaths?
Chae: If your character dies, then you’re given two choices by default. The first is to start from scratch, and the second is to reload from the previous day’s autosave. We’ve also added special items that you can find, which will temporarily prevent the undead from spawning at night.
MMORPG: Are there other modes or difficulty options?
Chae: Yes, we are definitely considering this idea based on beta tester feedback because we know that players might want to focus on exploring the world or building their own base instead of combat. That’s why we are planning to have three modes. The first is Normal Mode, which is the default setup. The second is Film Mode, where players can focus on building and crafting, with enemy nighttime spawns disabled. The third and final option is Custom Mode. We would like players to make changes to several options, like how long the nights will last, how tough the enemies are, and so on.
Naturally, attempting to survive in a harsh and inhospitable wilderness would be a more fulfilling endeavor when you have friends who help you on your journey. That brings us to IfSunSets’ multiplayer component.
MMORPG: Can you tell me more about IfSunSets’ multiplayer features? How many players will be able to join a host’s session?
Chae: Each session can have up to four players: one host and three guests. Currently, we’re unable to provide support for dedicated servers, so multiplayer is mostly relegated to a player becoming the host and having a shared realm or session that their friends can join.
It certainly looks like IfSunSets has an intriguing premise, along with a challenge that’s best tackled with co-op buddies. With multiple activities to try and a plethora of abilities to unlock, it might just be the swashbuckling survival game to keep you engaged. Be on the lookout for IfSunSets, which comes out on Steam early access sometime in October.
