Publisher 2K Games and developer 31st Union announced a new roguelike third-person shooter, Project Ethos, with a playtest now available on PC.
The developer describes the new game as a "third-person roguelike hero-shooter." The studios also held a preview event for Project Ethos that gave some players a chance to learn more about the title and how it plays.
Project Ethos
The studio is also the first one to admit that Project Ethos' concept is relatively difficult to describe in a brief format. The developer also declared in a press release, "The best way to learn about Project Ethos is to play it."
The game has a signature mode known as Trials where teams that are made up of three players can choose different characters from a line-up of six heroes. They will then drop into a match that has a time limit of 20 minutes.
When players try to join an ongoing match, they will find themselves spawning in the middle of the chaos. This means that enemy teams who were there from the start can easily defeat newcomers as they may have better equipment already, according to Game Spot.
The guns in the game are exclusive to every character, which means that looting in a match is primarily for health items and ammo. There will also be a variety of gadgets that provide useful abilities and body shields.
Inside a match in Project Ethos, there are different timed PvE events similar to those found in Bungie's Destiny 2. If you complete these, you can acquire various rewards, including Trial Cores, the game's main form of currency.
A Roguelike Third-Person Shooter
Players in Project Ethos can shape their playstyle in every single match through Evolutions, which are powerful and semi-randomized upgrades that are unique to each hero.
One example of this is a sniper evolving into a close-range skirmisher or a support character becoming a powerful soloist, Gematsu said.
Leveling up when in a match in Project Ethos lets you pick one of three different power-ups to make your character stronger. There are a total of 27 different power-ups that you can use to diversify your build from other players.
This is the part that feels like a roguelike for the game as you can earn up to nine different power-ups in a single match. The currency you earn can be used to buy augments in the main hub.
These allow you to get health drops from NPC enemies and provide other useful bonuses to your character. There are no augments that increase the damage you deal to other players, which makes it fairly balanced, according to IGN.
