During the weekend, developer Chainsawesome Games allowed gamers to get in a taste of Aftercharge, for free. The open alpha featured a small sampling of the competitive 3-vs-3 asymmetrical PvP game ahead of its early 2018 launch.

Between October 13th and October 15th gamers were able to play the first-person shooter for free, sampling the unique flavor of PvP combat. The hook for Aftercharge is that three invisible robots must destroy six energy canisters scattered throughout the map. Three indestructible security forces must prevent the robots from destroying the canisters.

The fact that the robots are invisible means that the security forces have to scout and stay on their guard, watching for any kind of movement or actions that might betray the position of the robots.

It seems like a weird concept, but that’s what Chainsawesome is going for. There’s a trailer that you can check out below to help acquaint you with the gameplay mechanics.

I feel like the concept is more original than the gameplay itself.

While the defenders of the canisters have projectile weapons at their disposal, the attackers must use brawling melee attacks to get the job done.

The thing is, this feels like a Quake mod with Unreal Engine graphics.

While I’m sure Chainsawesome have high hopes for the game, unless there’s some other really over-the-top or original aspect to the gameplay, I don’t really see this title doing anything on the market other than fading away, much like a bunch of other copycat hero-shooters and standard-fare PvP shooter games.

Most gamers these days are interested in games that really break the mold and go for something big and bold, like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or DayZ before that. Too many games these days like to play it safe with homogenized content and tried-and-true mechanics.

Anyway, if you’re interested in Aftercharge you still have all of Sunday to play it for free to get a small taste of what they have in store for when the game launches in early 2018 for PC and Xbox One. For more info feel free to visit the Steam store page.