A few days ago, 2K (the distributor behind Borderlands or Mafia) announced Project Ethos: a multiplayer free-to-play “roguelike extraction” developed by 31st Union, the new studio of the co-founder of Sledgehammer Games (Call of Duty). A lot of technicalities in between, but the idea is that you won’t see a triple-A publisher not wanting to grab their share of the market discussed by Fortnite, Apex Legends, and the many imitators of these. I had the opportunity to try the limited beta that was held simultaneously with the announcement, and frankly, it felt a bit insipid to me.
I think Ethos can be better understood when contextualized around a demographic: a young audience, perhaps even more so than usual in the genre—something I have never liked because many do not handle PvP frustration well—and adolescent. By now, we have all become accustomed to the art targeting the 12-16 year old sector, but somehow I feel that this game is aimed at the lower end of that range.
The design of its characters seems quite unimaginative to me, both visually and mechanically; and the skins that appeared in the beta did not do much to solve the problem for me either. The maps are a bit the same: they do the homework in the mechanics, but they are not too interesting to explore. I won’t deceive you by saying that during a few matches, I was wondering “who is this for? Isn’t it too late?“
The curious Trials mode of Ethos
But with the same sincerity with which I criticize, I will also tell you that the idea of mixing roguelike with extraction is better than it seems on paper. The spotlight of Ethos is on a mode called Trials that is permanently active: you can enter or exit whenever you want, either because your squad has fallen or because you have decided to extract, but the game continues running in the background whether you are in it or not. Once inside, your goal is to obtain and extract cores that are used to buy upgrades for your hero.
You have 20 minutes to assault other squads or complete generic objectives in the world, amassing your own rewards and getting out on time. The “magic” happens as you level up and the game allows you to choose between new upgrades, creating a cycle of increasing tension: your hero progressively becomes stronger to help you obtain cores, but at the same time, the risk of losing them also increases. The competitive factor comes naturally, the action is missing.
Is it good in that sense? Yes, but it is still another (you know what I mean) one of those third-person shooters with abilities and squads that do not offer much beyond its genuinely good idea for game modes. Maybe it will find an audience of enthusiasts of strategic placement of shields, buffs, and consumables to keep it alive; but for now, what I see is something that arrives six years late and has chosen a very competitive and difficult market.
Project Ethos does not have a set release date yet, but you can track it on PC through Steam. It will also bring its builds to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles when finished.
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