When I was asked to attend a digital preview from Wargaming, the studio behind 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:World of Tanks and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:World of Warships, I expected another title along those lines. World of Unmanned Drones, or something like that. Instead, I met Steel Hunters, and just now at 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Game Awards, so have all of you.

Steel Hunters is part 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Apex Legends, part 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Horizon Zero Dawn. I'm not sure how Wargaming would feel about that comparison. Sometimes games of this ilk like to consider themselves searingly original instead of much of a muchness. But it's kinder than comparing it to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Exoprimal, which is also tempting. Then again, Steel Hunters is a game that I want to be kind to. From what I've seen, these influences are simply a result of there being nothing new under the sun rather than a deliberately cheap imitation like Exoprimal felt to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dino Crisis.

How Does Steel Hunters Play?

In Steel Hunters, you play as one of seven distinct characters (Hunters), competing in six teams of two - that's the Apex Legends (basically). These Hunters are big, sometimes anima൩listic robots running around a lush green world - that's Horizon Zero Dawn. The goal of the game is either to extract first, or to wipe out the other five teams so you don't need to. As for the individual mechanics, a lot of that comes down to your chosen Hunter, but the basics are it's a third-person shooter.

All The Hunters In Steel Hunters

There's Fenris, a wolf-like creature with heavy artillery on its back for huge damage, stealthy sniper Heartbreaker, your classic machine gunner Razorside, bear robot and massive brawler Ursus, spidery Weaver with its low damage, high speed Gatling gun, and healer Trenchwalker. Prophet is described as an 'enigmatic summoner', but I didn't get to see him in action. These characters harmonise with 'diosymbiosis', a unique ability that different pairs offer when mixed together, in a similar fashion to what we're seeing in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Marvel Rivals.

It's also free to play, as World of Tanks is, with microtransactions based on skipping tiers of a battle pass and cosmetics. That's the sort of monetisation most people are generally okay with, especially in a game that's free, b🤪ut the developers also said in our preview they couldn't commit to confirming exactly what the plan🌟s for future monetisation are.

Over in World of Tanks, the feeling amongst fans is that monetisation has changed over🅺 the years since it launched in 2011. Having started out as a 'pay to skip grinding' mechanic, some premium tanks have moved the game closer to pay to win territory. Avoiding premium Hunters should help Steel Hunters from falling into this trap again.

What Type Of Game Is Steel Hunters?

There's also a mix of ideas in exactly what type of game Steel Hunters is. It's part hero shooter, part battle royale, part extraction shooter. That's how the devs billed it to us, and that feels ꦏlike a far more risky crossover. Gamers don't actually like new things all that much. People like hero shooters, people like battle royales, people like extr🃏action shooters. A lot of people like all three. But there are lots of games that provide best in class experience of each individual genre. A game doing all three will never be the best at any.

That's a risk Steel Hunters is taking. It needs people who like at least two of the genres to both abandon the games that already provide🦋 that experience and put up with additional features. From what I saw, it was a battle royale first, then an extraction shooter, then a hero shooter. The game will have just seven Hunter🔴s at launch after all, with one added each season. It's mechanics first, but then that is an area too many games overlook in shooters.

I saw some longer footage of live gameplay than what was revealed at The Game Awards, but this was still a hands-off preview of a game in beta. I didn't actually get to play it, which means there's little to cut through these concerns. Maybe if I had done a few rounds, I'd be able to report back that ♊Steel Hunters is actually great 🌸fun.

Certainly, it won't arrive with the weight of expectations of high profile flops like Concord or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Suiciꦑde Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Steel Hunters can afford for its niche genre blend to attract a niche audience. But you're pro𒆙bably dividing your audience, not multiplying, when you merge very distinct shooter ideas together.

You can try out Steel Hunteꦏrs for yourself on PC as part of a ten day beta test that goes l🍎ive at the end of The Game Awards.