The month of May is going to see an incredible number of shooters. Just before E3 2016 hits this June, let’s go through this catalogue of specific titles that will be out sooner than you think, one shot at a time.
Battleborn
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Gearbox Software
System: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date: May 3
What’s It About? Imagine a shooter with 25 heroes with different play-styles at your disposal. Now imagine a bunch of missions that requires team effort to conquer and come complete with a relentless AI impending your path.
That’s Battleborne for you; a team-based shooter from the same guys who did Borderlands. Expect the zany humor and even zanier character designs and environments to overload your senses. Take the sophisticated engineer Phoebe Elizabeth Audelia Hemsworth IV for example, who commands five telekinetic swords to skewer enemies up-close and mid-range as well as teleportation, while ice golem Kelvin (made out of a huge colony of microorganisms) can summon ice walls for defense or turn into frigid air to smoke enemies out of hiding spots.
Yes, it’s almost like Team Fortress 2, but with a huge player versus enemy and story element to it. You might say that Gearbox is taking huge cues from online battle arena games like DOTA 2 and putting a huge first-person spin onto it. You and your squad gain up to 10 levels during each bout, you have defenses to pull through, and you have minions to sacrifice as cannon fodders and give you the experience needed to get better abilities.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Naughty Dog
System: PS4
Release Date: May 10
What’s It About? The fifth game in the Sony action adventure blockbuster, this shooter is marketed as the end of the Nathan Drake saga and also possibly voice actor Nolan North’s stint with Naughty Dog.
Our retired hero, after the events of the third game, is now back again after he is asked for help by his supposedly long-lost brother; back from the dead for reasons explained in the final game. Together, they head out to uncover the pirate conspiracy called Libertalia that hides hidden treasures.
We can’t fully outline the plot, but what we can anticipate are the action setpieces, platforming, and shooter carnage that follows in the wake from our treasure hunter. The most recent showcase where Nathan Drake goes hunting and a-killing in Madagascar proves that the PS4 is more than adept at delivering stunning visuals and smooth actions to go along with it, with a bit of driving and open world-teasing to go along with this hors d’oeuvres of a preview.
Anyone who played Uncharted 2 and 3 would remember the spiffy multiplayer mode. Uncharted 4 will introduce supernatural power-ups to go along with the online shoot-fest, like giant Inca statues that will deal area-of-effect instant death and the djinn teleportation power straight out of the third game.
Doom 4
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
System: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date: May 17
What’s It About? This new iteration of the Doom franchise pits a space marine in a space station on the Moon that happens to be a gateway to hell. Sure, we’ll get more machinima cutscenes elaborating bits of the story, but hopefully it won’t get in the way of the actual meat and bones: the single-player experience of blasting the heck out of any demonic-looking monsters. And maybe a puzzle or two to break the monotony.
Based on how it plays so far, it seems to play less like its 1994 counterpart and more of a hybrid between Quake 3 and the Unreal series. That’s not inherently a bad thing: a quicker and reactive pace means more opportunities to throw in hellspawn and twitch-based situations, or even more secret locales and unlockables only accessible by fast-paced movement and techniques.
Besides, it’s been so long since we had a new official Doom game to set the record straight on what a classic id shooter should be like in this age. If you feel that single-player isn’t your thing, there’s also a bunch of multiplayer modes where one of the biggest powerups turns you into a near-invincible demon.
Level designers can also have a hand in this Doom’s level editor called Doom SnapMap: think Super Mario Maker but with gore and rooms full of Hell’s minions to shoot up instead of goombas and koopas.
Homefront: The Revolution
Publisher: Deep Silver
Developer: Dambusters Studio
System: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date: May 17
What’s It About? The first Homefront had promise and a surprisingly fun multiplayer mode, but was bogged down by its not-so-good single-player mode.
The story is that of a Korean version of The Man In The High Castle: you play as an American resistance fighter who is trying to survive in an alternative future where a high-tech global superpower Korea has taken over the United States. Expect to see a lot of dystopian-like high-rise structures and soldiers in dystopian army uniforms with appropriately-menacing facemasks.
Homefront: The Revolution aims to wash away the sins of its father by just upping the quality. How? By letting its developers Dambusters turn it into an open world shooter (think Far Cry 3 and 4). There’s no harm in cribbing off a winning formula as long as you make it good, and so far Homefront: The Revolution is hitting all the right notes.
You have gritty wave defence missions where the onslaught of soldiers keeps pouring out. You have to win the hearts and minds of oppressed people within an area to get them to spark a “revolution” mission to take over certain enemy headquarters. You have transformable guns that you can switch around on the fly in certain situations.
Oh, and you get to fight robot tanks and Korean artillery straight out of the Metal Gear school of unmanned vehicles, or force them to switch allegiances if your character has enough hacking skills or possess sorcerous “hacker” grenades. Sounds like we’ve got a potential hit here from Deep Silver already.
Overwatch
Publisher: Blizzard
Developer: Blizzard
System: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date: May 24
What’s It About? Huzzah! It’s Blizzard Entertainment doing a shooter for the first time. Sure, the company almost had something with StarCraft: Ghost, but Overwatch is the first shooter coming straight out of the studio
The gist of the game is this: a team of six players go up against a team of another six in an objective-based shootout. So there is that Team Fortress 2 vibe to it, but each of the selectable 21 characters in the game have uniquely different talents, skills, and play-styles. Tracer’s an offense-heavy teleporting dual gun-wielder, while D.Va is a 19-year old Korean gamer in a mech suited for taking hits for the team and going in deep into the frontlines when needed.
The powers, the control, and the overall simple-yet-deep nuances of the map objectives and gameplay are what make Overwatch ticked. There is of course the eSports angle that Blizzard is taking with the game. After the company’s stint with strategy games, MOBA and a digital card games, moving onto the eSports space with a shooter seems only natural; even if it shook everyone in the community that it came from Blizzard – a studio known more for fantasy and space opera games.
Honorable Mention – Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst
Publisher: EA
Developer: DICE
System: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date: May 24
What’s It About? Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst is not exactly a shooter, but it is a first-person game. Albeit without the shooting. You play as Faith, a runner who gets in a crossfire between evil greedy corporations and the government in the city of Glass. Just like the 2009 game, you still parkour your way through obstacles and missions in a first-person view.
You keep up the momentum of your running as you hop, jump, and even blaze through well-armed enemies with your acrobatics. No using of guns here; you’ll have to take down foes with only your limbs and guile.
This Mirror’s Edge won’t be just a set single-player with story levels, though there’s nothing wrong with that. Developer DICE decided to put in a level editor for anyone who wants to create parkour courses for online friends to beat and go through. This, along with DICE’s own challenge modes means potentially unlimited replay.
So which shooter are you looking forward to this May? Do tell us why on the comments box below, as well as share this with every gamer and shooter fan you know!
