The World of Tanks studio is making a free-to-play mech shooter, and the playtest starts today
If you asked me to bet on what the folks behind World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes were cooking up next, my first, second, and third guesses would not have been Steel Hunters, a third-person PvPvE mech shooter. Wargaming just unveiled Steel Hunters at The Game Awards and announced that the first playtest starts today, December 12, and runs through December 22.
At a briefing last week, Wargaming told us more about Steel Hunters. First of all, the suits of mechanized armor players control aren't "mechs in the traditional sense," as Wargaming put it—they're basically robots uploaded with a human consciousness. Wargaming just calls them hunters. While the distinction seems arbitrary, getting away from the word "mech" might be an effort to set expectations accordingly. Hunters aren't walking tanks with swivel points and guns for arms—they're humanoid or animal-like combatants, several of which hold weapons with hands and can punch stuff. More Gundam than Mechwarrior, basically.
Other key details:
- Free-to-play
- Two-player squads only
- Battle royale format with a late-game extraction point
- Quick matches, 8-15 mins
- Hunters are heroes: They have names, identities, and set roles
- 7 hunters available in the closed playtest
- Playtest runs from 12/12 to 12/22
That bit about heroes is important to understand if you're coming at this as a World of Tanks or Mechwarrior fan: Hunters have set roles, names, and limited variation in weapons. Of the handful of hunters that Wargaming showed off, one was a dedicated sniper with a cloaking ability, another was a beginner-friendly soldier with an assault rifle, and my personal favorite was an eight-legged spider mech with a shoulder-mounted minigun.
We didn't get to play Steel Hunters, but we watched a complete match play out. I haven't touched World of Tanks in a decade, but Steel Hunters is a faster game to my eye. Duos are encouraged to stay on the move, wiping out camps of NPC robots that drop shield upgrades or capturing towers that trigger significant advantages, like a tower that spots all enemies in a huge radius. That seems to be the flow of Steel Hunters' economical 8-15 minute matches—patrol the map and choose whether you want to passively collect upgrades or pick off other duos.
The time-to-kill is longer than traditional shooters and fights were largely out in the open, with hills, trees, and settlements partially obscuring hunters that stand up to eight meters tall. Hunters are more agile than WW2 tanks, but Wargaming is still bringing its signature "measured gameplay" to Steel Hunters. Weapons are accurate from a long distance and reloading can take ages, so knowing when to pick a fight or avoid one is major.
I asked Wargaming how Steel Hunter's monetization plan would compare to World of Tanks, which pushes players to pay for premium versions of tanks and advantageous consumables. Steel Hunters will be a more traditional live service game with cosmetics and a battle pass, but Wargaming isn't ruling anything out.
"To be honest with you, we're just revealing the game right now, so we're very focused on the core gameplay loop," Wargaming marketing director Laurent Lartisien said. "None of these things are set in stone. We're still fine-tuning a lot of that and collecting feedback from players, but these are our high-level plans.
"There is no scenario where there would be a premium advantage for now."
Hm, that "for now" is doing a lot of work. Well, they got me curious enough to give Steel Hunters a try. The playtest starts now, and you can sign up on the Steel Hunters Steam page.