Raiders of the Broken Planet Preview
Sometimes the best ideas come from taking two concepts and mashing them together. Take, for example, Mercurysteam’s upcoming unique shooter, Raiders of the Broken Planet. It’s one part Destiny, one part Borderlands, and just a smidge of Evolve thrown into one impressive package that is slick, easy to use, and absolutely full of potential.
A planet 25 light years from Earth has been discovered, harboring an extremely rare material only known to reside at its core: Aleph. Those who live on the planet discovered the raw power of Aleph and found themselves in a devastating war for control. The people eventually abandoned technology and instead learned to use Aleph for good as a source of healing. Humanity, however, discovered them and so the fighting has returned for domination over the mysterious element.
Not much has been explained about Aleph yet, but what we do know has become a core mechanic of gameplay. When on missions, the pilot who dropped you off in combat is always nearby and should you die, he is able to use some of the Aleph supplies on the ship to make you respawn. After three deaths, the supplies have dwindled and he has to go restock. Thankfully the planet is teeming with Aleph but in that short time he is away should you die again, its game over, and every time he has to resupply he has to go just a little farther away which means you need to survive longer.
There are four factions to play as in Raiders: The Locals, Hades Division, Fifth Counsel, and the Umbra Wardogs. The Locals are of course those who wish to protect their home and stop the invaders from stealing the precious Aleph. Hades Division is a private ex-military force from Earth, the Fifth Counsel is a cybernetic/organic hybrid race from Saturn, and the Wardogs are a coalition of mercs and bounty hunters from Mars led by a ruthless druglord. Each of these factions is set to offer four playable characters of varying styles and skills.
Players will be able to accrue currency for various upgrades to stats and weapons and alter the loadout, but it’s the combat itself that is unique. Playing in third person, the game encourages a blend of ranged and melee combat. Killing an enemy with melee is the only method of resupplying your ammo and provides a temporary invincibility buff. Killing blows with melee are fast and brutal with satisfying impacts, and each character has their own unique move set to set them apart. One of the nicest surprises in the game is an automatic cover mechanic. When pressing against a wall or object the character will automatically take cover and it actually works very well. At no point did it feel either unresponsive or sticky, it functioned perfectly without having to use a command and made the experience that much simpler.
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“…the game encourages a blend of ranged and melee combat. Killing an enemy with melee is the only method of resupplying your ammo and provides a temporary invincibility buff.”
Raiders also offers a new unique multiplayer mechanic of 4v1, where a team of four players will band together as Raiders attempting to steal the Aleph; with standard gameplay rules applying for the Raiders, including respawning. For the remaining player, however, they will have unlimited respawns in defense of the Aleph and be accompanied by an unending army of CPU minions. It makes for quite a challenge on both sides and is sure to be a fan favorite.
Beta content is limiting right now in what stages and game modes can be accessed, but with everything I have seen that Raiders of the Broken Planet could do it has huge potential. The characters are unique and varied, and there is plenty of story here to balance out a healthy single-player, co-op and online multiplayer modes. Raiders of the Broken Planet borrows the best mechanics from some great games and blends it together perfectly; this is a game to definitely keep an eye on as it gets closer to launch sometime this year.
*** PC key provided by the publisher ***
