Finnish game developers Housemarque, best known for Resogun and Dead Nation, announced that a new third-person Battle Royale game is in the works called Stormdivers. The upcoming sci-fi title is scheduled to release on PC in 2019.
The new intellectual property is set in a futuristic dystopia (because, let’s face it, with the open borders it’s the only kind of future awaiting former civilized societies). The Battle Royale game centers around conflicts happening across tropical island locations where nano-storms take place.
Ilari Kuittinen, CEO of Housemarque. Explained that the separation between Stormdivers and other Battle Royale games is the high-quality visual effects and layered meta-game, mentioning in the press release…
“We began its development when battle royale was still a niche gameplay mode, yet despite the number of BR games on the market now, Stormdivers will excite players with its fast-paced gameplay, metagame, classes and various events, all packaged with Housemarque’s trademark high-quality visual effects.”
There’s actually a new gameplay trailer to accompany the announcement, and you can check the trailer out for yourself below.
I’m getting some serious Isles of Nyne and Crysis with a big dose of Fortnite slapped on top.
The reaction from the YouTube crowd was not good… at all. This was evident in the like/dislike ratio, which took a hit from many of Housemarque’s fans.
The issue is that Housemarque mentioned in the press release that “arcade is dead”, indicating that they’re moving away from the twin-shooters, and isometric games that helped put them on the map.
The company obviously sees the popularity of Battle Royale games and is hoping to get in on all that money, hence the upcoming release of Stormdivers, which is powered by the Unreal Engine 4 and Amazon’s GameLift.
Stormdivers will feature more than just a Battle Royale last man standing mode. According to the press release there will also be PvE co-op missions as well, along with class customization, and player skills.
The trailer looks a little too generic for my tastes, but if you somehow haven’t gotten enough of the Battle Royale genre, you can look for Stormdivers to launch in 2019.