Bethesda are finally dipping their toes into the free to play market with a surprise announcement of Battlecry, a third-person multiplayer battle arena aimed at a competitive player versus player experience.
The trailer provides a flavor of what to expect on launch, pitting two highly stylized groups; the Royal Marines and the Cossack Empire, against each other in a bloody brawl to the death; fists, swords, bows and what can be best described as mechanical guns are all used to bring the pain. All this is housed in a post-World War setting that aesthetically resembles Dishonored.
Battlecry hosts a 32-player team-based combat, featuring class-based gameplay along with a deep progression system ‘allowing deep strategic builds for your Warrior on every Level.’ Whilst this doesn’t sound like a revelation in formula for a game of this ilk, Battlecry looks to be setting itself apart with unique and visceral combat that focuses on utilizing vertical map progression and emergence of gameplay, where ‘highly-stylized environments change depending on whether you are winning or losing in the arena.’
Official site Battlecrythegame.com also boasts that ‘Responsive, smooth controls unleash violent, high-impact, and stunning combo attacks previously reserved for modern brawlers. Dynamic movement allows you to seamlessly grapple, evade and mantle to quickly cover distances and evade the other team.’ Executive Producer Rich Vogel cites combat from games such as Devil May Cry and God Of War as inspirations in the creation of their combat engine, which would certainly make for an interesting experience when paired with the competitive edge that is being emphasized.
Effort has been made to combat player toxicity and negative behavior that is often prevalent in competitive multiplayer games. Players are able to run around the map post-match and salute each other as a sign of respect, which is then followed by stats for the game allowing players to vote for MVP’s and give medals to one another. Whether it’s enough to keep people friendly is another matter, but to be taking steps this early in development to think about the problem intelligently is a positive sign.
The studio behind the game, Battlecry Studios, have been working since late 2012 and say that a 2015 release could be on the cards. They hope to have the game playable at E3 this year.
Via IGN.