by Geoffrey Card
Xbox Live has a new feature this generation that not everybody knows about — Xbox Live Challenges. These are special Achievements that require players to accomplish specific objectives within a certain time period, like “Clear 15 Infestations during the month of May”.
There is no Gamerscore associated with Xbox Live Challenges, but to make up for that, game developers can actually use them to trigger in-game rewards on completion.
The funny thing is, when we started the process of coming up with our own set of Xbox Live Challenges, we couldn’t actually find any games that were doing this yet.
So each month for the next year, we’ll be offering a different Xbox Live Challenge with a unique in-game reward. Complete the Challenge within the month, and the reward will appear on your Radio menu (opened by pressing Down on the D-pad).
This month (May), the Challenge is to clear 15 Infestations. Get it done, and you’ll unlock a flashy red sportscar, bearing decals from one of our in-game brands.
Next month (June), the Challenge is to kill 200 zombies with firearms. Do that, and you’ll unlock a unique revolver that fires Incendiary Shotgun rounds. (You can thank Brant for that one.)
The following month (July), the Challenge is to kill 100 zombies with explosives. If you succeed, you’ll unlock a “mad bomber” character that you can recruit through the Radio Menu in Breakdown.
… and it just goes on from there. Eventually, you could find yourself driving around in a Little Piggy Tow Truck. And if you’re good, around the holiday season, we may even let you earn some Pie.
The point of this, for us, is to keep people playing the game. Buying it is great — we’re super grateful to everybody who does that! — but continuing to play the game, staying involved in our community, and giving us feedback, is how you help us make this franchise better and better as time goes on.
So keep an eye on your Challenges each month! You’ll see them on Xbox Live, and we’ll also be announcing them here, at undeadlabs.com.