Amazon's New Free-to-Play Multiplayer Launches On 20th May: Are You Excited?

Amazon Game Studio’s free-to-play original, Crucible is all set to launch on the 20th May 2020 for PC. This game is Amazon’s answer to Valorant and Overwatch, while also incorporating elements of MOBAs like Dota 2 and battle royales like Apex Legends and Fortnite. 

Land on A Rogue Planet and Face Wild Creatures

The game is a sci-fi third-person shooter set on a rogue planet, with a mix of popular game design components from team shooters, battle royales and MOBAs. Crucible will feature a current roster of 10 different alien, robot, and human hunters to choose from. Each hunter has distinct loadouts of weapons and abilities, to suit your playstyle. 

So far we know about Earl, an alien interstellar trucker, Bugg, a robot botanist, Summer, a fighter and former welder who carries flamethrowers and the evil genius Tosca with her acid scattergun. 

The Hunter is Hunted

The gameplay involves working with teammates to hunt opponents, take down hostile creatures, and capture objectives. The first mode is called Heart of the Hives and features a 4v4 matchup with two teams against computer-controlled enemies. The second mode, Alpha Hunters, puts 8 duo teams in a battle royale contest. The last mode, Harvester Command, is inspired by MOBAs like Dota 2 and League of Legends. It’s an 8v8 contest to collect “essence” as you level up hunters in-game and amplify their powers. 

Crucible sounds like it’s trying to cater to different kinds of audiences all at once, offering a bit of everything to everyone, much like the tactical shooter Valorant, which mixes Overwatch and CS: GO elements, but on a larger scale. 

Crucible's Journey Through the Years

This is one of two big-budget games Amazon Game Studios had planned, the other being an MMO titled New World, due for release this August. The studio has focused mainly on tablet games releases through its Android app store since their launch back in 2012. Crucible first went into development in 2014 and was announced at TwitchCon in 2016. 

The game has gone through several redesigns since and was set to launch in March 2020. However, due to delays caused by the pandemic and lockdown, the release was pushed to May. “We just don’t know where the world is going to be in a couple of weeks,” said Frank Castle, head of Relentless Studio, a subsidiary team based in Seattle which worked on the redesign. During the initial reveal in 2016, Amazon planned some sort of Twitch integration for the game. However, it’s not clear what that integration means or whether it was left in as there is no mention of the feature so far.

With the creators targetting casual and competitive players through its game modes, Crucible looks all set to take on some of the biggest competitive titles in battle royales, MOBAs, as well as games like Valorant and Overwatch. Amazon being the owners of Twitch means they will have some sort of advantage when it comes to marketing the game on the streaming platform. Also, Crucible launching later this month, puts pressure on Riot Games, Valorant’s developers. Since Valorant won’t be out until later in the summer, both games will now fight for player attention. If Crucible is successful, it could put a significant dent in the playerbases of some of the industry’s most dominant games. The question remains, will it have esports?