Alum from studios such as Electronic Arts, YouTube and Twitch, have announced a new game called SOS. It’s an online multiplayer survival game designed to mimic the structures of reality TV.
The game is a 16-player survival game where players can either work together or compete against each other in order to acquire valuable relics on the island and then escaping and making it to the exfiltration zone to get off the island. The catch? The helicopter that comes to rescue you only has room for three people.
Backstabbing, temporary alliances, uneasy cooperation, and all the typical landmarks one would find from a typical elimination-style reality TV program are present in SOS.
Development studio Outpost Games doesn’t end there with the TV-production shenanigans. The game will also rely heavily on voice chat and some element of teamwork in order to avoid traps, kill monsters, navigate the environment, and the hazardous pitfalls lying in wait throughout the perilous journey.
And even more than that, Outpost Games will be utilizing their “Hero philosophy” for the way the game is presented for spectators. This is where the Twitch and YouTube aspects come into play, where viewers will be able to watch each game and spectate as if watching a television show. You’ll also be able to interact with the various performers in real-time using the new Hero.tv platform.
The whole Hero.tv schtick is currently in closed alpha, and will likely go into beta alongside the game.
Conceptually this doesn’t sound bad. However, 16 players is a little on the tiny side and it seems like a step back from the 100-player bouts we get from titles like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Alternatively, Outpost have announced that the matches will only last for a maximum of 30 minutes each, so the dynamics are a little bit different here and kill-on-sight isn’t necessarily the goal during each playthrough.
Color me intrigued, but I’m somewhat interested in seeing exactly how a game like this plays out. It’s not often that we get games that encourage both teamwork and player-killing.
The first set of tests are set to take place between September 30th and October 1st, and the next set of tests will take place between October 14th and October 15th, with a final set of tests running between November 4th and November 5th.
You can sign-up right now for the alpha tests by visiting the official SOS game website.
