Shooter have followed a somewhat stale trend in being set in the future these days. Black Ops II, its sequel, the Tom Clancy games, Halo, Destiny, etc have all taken place in the near or distant future.
There was a time when shooters were almost exclusively set in the nitty-gritty World War II. Recent years have seen very few efforts to pit players back against the Nazis but have instead given players robots from the future, man-android hybrids and aliens.
Now before you get too excited, it’s worth mentioning that Battalion 1944 is a multiplayer game. No story, just multiplayer. It’s a shame, but we can sort of understand with it coming from a smaller development studio that’s trying to gather funds via Kickstarter.
The shooter is being developed using Unreal Engine 4, and we’re actually quite impressed with what we’ve seen if the game so far. The game promises to drop players into intense matches based upon real life locations from the battles of World War II. Players will play in ‘Seasons’ where different Battalions will fight for supremacy to be crowned the number one battalion. Then, at the end of each season, stats reset and players can move around to different battalions, ensuring that no one battalion is constantly filled with the best players.
The developers promise that the game will be a skill-based affair that won’t involve grinding, exosuits, and all that other malarkey.
The game is aiming to secure £100,000 to get the game out on PS4, Xbox One and PC by May 2017. At the time of writing the Kickstarter campaign has already amassed £80,000 via backers.
There will be a closed alpha and a closed beta for Battalion 1944, though it’s only on PC and you’ll have to back the campaign to get access. There’s no word on alpha/beta test dates, but we’ll keep an eye out for this one.