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World of Tanks Creators Wargaming are getting into the mech-heavy business with Iron Hunters – a new free-to-play Unreal Engine multiplayer shooter, in which Transformers-style juggernauts battle for control of a power source called “Starfall”, on post-apocalyptic maps. . It’s known as Wrasslin’s Geoff’s Winter Hootenanny at the Game Awards, and a 10-day PC playtest is currently underway. Here’s a trailer.
I attended a presentation for Metal Hunters prior to the event, and so I’m in a position to serve up some amazing average insights. To get the obvious question out of the way: Why not call it World of Mechs? Wargaming didn’t put this on the call, but I suspect part of the answer is there. It’s already a game called World of Mechs.For VR though. But Wargaming seems to want to put some distance between the games, and in practice Steel Hunters isn’t just World of Tanks with some Michael Bay DLC.
Core Starfall’s Harvest mode is a mix of hero shooter, battle royale and arcade shooter, with six teams of two fighting each other on rotating city-and-country maps full of destructible items, leveling up as they fight. In addition to enemy hunters, each map also contains upgrade materials and consumable flying drones.
There are two types of improvement materials. Energy is your total XP, allowing you to level up: There are five levels, with a new skill unlocked at level three. Upgrade courses, meanwhile maxing out your shield, damage and health pools. There’s a familiar, MOBA-ish question of whether to target other players early or zoom around the map and focus on farming and upgrades.
Aside from the race to improve, you have several paths to victory. Claim Towers activate powerups like Radar Cover or Stats Buff with loot opportunities, so it’s worth bagging one or two of these while you’re chasing the drones. But instead you decide to focus on killing other hunters and collecting their tags – unlocking the most powerful Colossus kit of all. This turns you into a steel-shouldered Olympian, raining down hellfire on the other mech.
Either way, the teams have to grab and hold an exit point, or you have to worry about the endgame where you eliminate all the other teams. It looks like it will be Colossus MoreIt’s important at this point, so even if you’re not aiming to mess yourself up, you’ll want to spoil the teams ahead with player kills.
As for the characters, they contain different elements or playstyles that are familiar from other shooters. Razorside is some kind of non-metallic, flesh-based robot, a boring bipedal “GI Joe” multipurpose designed to attract players fresh from games where they play “human” if you will. Ursus is a bear bot with missile launchers and Fenris is just like in 2012. It’s a blinking wolf that teleports. He was humiliated. He’s arguably bad news for Prophet, a summoner of gestural drones and a platform for cannons that can’t hit much.
Trenchwalker is a combat medic with a leech gun that heals allies, while Weaver is—surprise, surprise—like a nimble arachnid that works a little. OvertimeS BastionFiring machine gun fusillades forcing him to move slowly. Last but not least, there’s Heartbreaker – a token girl, at least as far as December’s playtesting is concerned. She’s a sniper, because she is. More hunters will be added every season: I bet Ninja, Robo Dragon and a woman on rollerskates will add SMGs.
As you level up each round, you can also customize your hunter’s starting loadout to suit your tactics. For example, you can flash Fenris to heal you or reload your gun. In terms of monetization, it’s a season pass format similar to World of Tanks. Every season everything is free – paint jobs, emotes, new hunters, skins – if you’re willing to grind for it. Alternatively, you can ride a horse to jump up the stairs.
I can’t say I was blown away by what I saw of Iron Hunters. It’s a combination of genres and sci-fi archetypes that seem to pre-ride on its association with World of Tanks. But it looks solidly made, and I’m glad that Wargaming Comics have their own term for cooperative teamwork – “Duo Symbiosis”.
It took about four minutes for the presenter to explain this term, and I’m still not entirely sure if it’s an in-game system or just advertising words to “choose a loadout that matches your partner”. If you decide to join the December playtest, please let me know if there’s anything else? Speaking of which: the playtest contains three maps – two in the USA, one in the UK – seven hunters, and the original Starfall Harvest mode.
You can read more about Iron Hunters at Steam or through The official site. They are launching it in beta next year.
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