Naraka: Bladepoint is a Battle Royale for fighting game fans

The battle royale genre is evolving at a rapid pace, with games like Fall Guys, Tetris 99 and Spellbreak proving that you don’t need guns to pull off the ‘Last One Standing’ concept in a giant multiplayer game. . Naraka: Bladepoint, from Chinese studio 24 Entertainment, is the latest large-scale multiplayer game to try and make its mark on the battle royale genre, with the hook being literal grappling hooks and an incredibly deep melee combat system that sets it apart. almost makes it look like a battle royale version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. After playing two full matches and taking a crash course in the combat system, the results so far are extremely promising.

Let’s start with the familiar: Like pretty much any traditional battle royale, in Naraka each match begins with you and your team dropping into a map of up to 60 other players and scavenging for loot of increasing levels in order to gear up. to the inevitable clashes with other players. There are invading bubbles at given intervals which restrict the playing field; you can find more specialized weapons, armor, consumables, and pickups called Souljades that give you passive bonuses (including rare and specific game-changing weapons that grant you powerful special moves), and you fight until until there is only one team left standing to finish it.

While there are ranged weapons such as bows, rifles, cannons, and repeating crossbows, most combat in Naraka has been decided in melee, and that’s where the game really shines. Naraka’s melee combat system is fairly straightforward, but loaded with the kind of mind games you’d expect from a fighting game.

It operates on a rock, paper, scissors philosophy where there are regular attacks, which cannot be blocked or countered; charge attacks, which absorb and power through regular attacks; and counters, which, when timed correctly, can deflect charged attacks and even disarm the attacker. But, as mentioned earlier, they are beaten by regular attacks. Cleverly, the last hit of any regular attack combo is always a counterable charge attack, so an experienced player who recognizes that someone is mashing the attack button can time a counter on that last hit and punish enemies who become too predictable.

It all adds up to a fighting style that encourages creative thinking and outplays your opponent.

On the other side of that, however, if I know they’re looking for a counter, I can hit the crouch button in the middle of my combo chain to start all over again and punish the intended counter with regular attacks. Add to that unique hero abilities and powerful ultimates, the ability to disengage and reengage with a grappling hook, and three types of melee weapons, each with their own combos and special attacks, and it’s easy to see that there’s a ton of depth to Naraka’s melee combat system. It all adds up to a fighting style that encourages creative thinking and overpowering your opponent, even if you’re under-equipped, which are hallmarks of any good battle royale.

Naraka also has a unique approach to death. Until the second bubble begins to shrink the field, you get a resurrection. When you die, if your teammates are unable to revive you, you transform into a spirit and must run to a Soul Altar, where you can revive yourself with common gear to get back into the game. Very elegant solution to a common problem in Battle Royales, where you die early and never get a chance to see the endgame.

The crucial piece of a melee-centric battle royale is traversal, which Naraka seems to have quite a grasp on. One of the items you can find while looting are grappling hook reels, which can be used to glide to any point (or any player). It feels very similar to Just Cause’s grappling hook, except that its tracking is almost non-existent when it comes to grappling onto another player, so you won’t be able to immediately focus on your opponent if they rush off at top speed, which is probably for the best.

Outside of the game, there’s the usual suite of customization items, from skins to gestures, accessories, and more. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of Naraka’s character customization suite is the fact that you can completely change your character’s face. There’s an absurdly in-depth face creation tool that seems unprecedented in the genre and has already allowed some players to create characters like Yoda and Neytiri from James Cameron’s Avatar.

Along with playing two Battle Royale matches and absolutely being lifted to second and third place, I also got to experience a fun Deathmatch mode that cleared all loot and allowed players to tackle it. It was… absolute mayhem, but it seems like a great way to get your feet wet with Naraka’s combat in a less stressful and less risky environment, which I think all battle royales should find a way to do. to incorporate.

Overall, I went into my Naraka: Bladepoint playtest not really knowing what to expect, and came away extremely impressed with what I played. Battle Royales are a bit outside of my typical wheelhouse, but by fusing the “Last Man Standing” concept with elements of fighting and action games, Naraka might be the first traditional battle royale I really sink my teeth into. .

Naraka: Bladepoint opens its Forerunner beta on April 23 for PC and is currently slated for a summer 2021 release.

Mitchell Saltzman is an Editorial Producer at IGN. You can find him on Twitter @JurassicRabbit.