Hyper Issue 265

CATEGORY Arena Brawler DEVELOPER Stunlock Studios PUBLISHER Stunlock Studios PLATFORM PC DUE 2016 (Early Access) Battlerite is a team-based arena brawler offering adrenaline-pumping action and a unique approach to character progression. Players compete in best of three style team death matches with two to three players on each team. Matches are quick but fun, with level design encouraging tight combat encounters and fast-paced action. Two versus two matches can be fun but are far less entertainingly chaotic and strategic than three versus three encounters. You can play in standard, private, player vs AI, training and ranked matches, and there’s a short tutorial for newcomers. In ranked mode, you gain a new player rank the more rounds you win, but you aren’t punished for losing matches. In this way, the game’s…

“MOST OF THE CAST IS MADE UP OF DPS AND SUPPORT ROLES, WHICH FURTHER VARY IN ASSASSIN, CASTER, AND RANGERTYPE BUILDS” CATEGORY MOBA DEVELOPER Epic Games PUBLISHER Epic Games PLATFORM PC, PlayStation 4 DUE 2016 Paragon embodies the virtues of MOBA game design but in a third person perspective. Players work in teams of five destroying enemy towers as they progress through three-lane maps. You can play by yourself against AI, with other players, or in competitive PvP matches, with the latter often lasting between 30 minutes to an hour. Like other games in the genre, your character progression is tied to match duration. You begin a match with few items and only your basic ability, chipping away at enemy minions and towers to level up and progress. You unlock…

“YOU CAN CHOOSE FROM TWELVE DIFFERENT SHIP CLASSES, EACH WITH UNIQUE WEAPONS, STATS, AND AESTHETIC QUALITIES” CATEGORY Action MMO DEVELOPER Allods Team PUBLISHER My.com PLATFORM PC DUE 2016 Cloud Pirates is a tactical PvP multiplayer game involving sky pirate combat. Working together with your ten person fleet, you compete in basic capture the objective and team death match-style battles in the sky. Combat is very strategic. The health, speed, altitude, and angle of your ship each have a tactical purpose. When manoeuvring around the map, speed and altitude not only determine how fast and high you are, but also the chance of incoming projectiles hitting their mark. Your angle marker signals nearby enemies and debris within five metres, but the overall radius display points out enemies from a further…

“PLAYERS NOT ONLY CONTROL THEIR CHARACTERS AND COOLDOWNS BUT ALSO A TECH TREE AND ECONOMY FOR BUILDING MINIONS” CATEGORY MOBA DEVELOPER Primal Game Studio PUBLISHER Bandai Namco Games PLATFORM PC DUE Open Beta In the past, developer Primal Game Studio has referred to Supernova as a MOBA/RTS hybrid, a statement that could be construed as being more than a bit muddled given how MOBA gameplay arose from RTS. With a little digging, however, it makes complete sense: Supernova is bringing elements of RTS gameplay back to a genre that had previously excised them. On the surface, it looks like a sci-fi take on a traditional three lane MOBA, with teams of five taking each other on to destroy the enemy’s base. Dig a little deeper, though, and Supernova reveals itself…

 Blood Bowl is one of the most well-known fantasy sports games in the world, but unfortunately, due to arcane mechanics and rushed development, the videogames have failed to truly live up to the potential of their tabletop counterparts. Now along comes a game that, while not quite as bloody as Blood Bowl, is brutal is it own unique way. “A VARIETY OF BUILDABLES AND FAST-PACED PLAY MAKE FOR A SPECTACULAR AND IMMENSELY WATCHABLE GAME¨ Breakaway, an upcoming 4v4 MOBA, sits somewhere between a more traditional MOBA, a capture the flag game, and football, with a touch of basketball as well for good measure. The general fist of the game is that two teams battle to bring a relic located at the centre of the arena to the goal at the…

CATEGORY FPS DEVELOPER id Software PUBLISHER Bethesda Softworks PLATFORM PC DUE TBA When Quake Champions, the first game in the venerable shooter franchise since 2005’s decidedly average Quake 4, was first announced fans were a little sceptical. Not only was the game coming a decade after the franchise essentially died, it was also announced that for the first time in the series, each character would have unique abilities. This may not sound like a big deal, but given the fact that Quake multiplayer has always been about speed and player skill with all the characters being nothing other than reskins of a base model, it’s quite a large thing to fans of the franchise to accept. Luckily there is a workaround for purists. Tim Willits, Creative Director for id Software…