Dead Sea wants to combine the best of Monster Hunter, Shadow of the Colossus, and Day Z

What do you get when draw inspiration from Monster Hunter, Shadow of the Colossus, and Day Z for just one game? According to Thailand’s Phoenix Studio, you get Dead Sea, an open-world first-person survival game for the PC. Dead Sea has been Greenlit on Steam by an enthusiastic community and already has a crowdfunding campaign for US$35,000 up and running. But here’s why I’m hesitant to throw my money at it.

While Dead Sea sounds exciting, it also seems very ambitious. It’s set in a desert, with you, the protagonist, having no clue why you’re there. As is typical of survival games, you’ve got to scavenge for supplies and weapons to stay alive, while fighting against the inhospitable climate and nasties big and small hiding in the sands. Dead Sea takes things a step further by making players worry not just about hunger and temperature, but also thirst, sickness, exhaustion, and even answering nature’s call. This is where the Day Z bit comes in.

Monster Hunter comes into play with the monsters you can expect to meet in the game – all with different characteristics – along with the crafting system that allows you to utilize various monster parts in new items. Monsters can also be trapped. There’s still not much information on Dead Sea’s combat, so the Shadow of the Colossus aspect is still missing.

Gameplay demos currently show environments and the player’s inventory. From what I can see, Dead Sea’s user interface will need huge improvements in order to keep up with the stunning environment. Phoenix Studio (formerly JUB Studio) expects Dead Sea to be playable on Early Access by fall 2015, with the full game set for launch at the end of the year. It also promises clues and puzzles for players to solve, and teases that many new features have yet to be implemented.

Dead Sea looks absolutely gorgeous and that multi-eyed giant spider monster thing is no doubt going to give me nightmares, but it feels like the game may have been marketed too early. The visualized final product sounds like something you’d expect from a triple-A development company with hundreds of staff in its employ, and Phoenix Studio has just eleven people. Considering that we’ve yet to see player models, combat, or even the crafting system, there’s still a lot of work that’s yet to be done – or, at least, revealed.

Still, it’s nice to see Asia’s indies attempting something on as wide a scale as this. I just hope Dead Sea can live up to the expectations it has created for itself. There’s nothing more disappointing than seeing a promising game crash and burn.

See: Dynamic world pixel-art RPG from Indonesia will hit you right in the feels