Today, 2K announced Project ETHOS, a new third-person hero shooter in development at 31st Union, Michael Condrey's studio founded four years ago in the Silicon Valley area.
Project ETHOS will be a free-to-play game, and it will integrate roguelike elements. Players will be able to shape their play style each match through Evolutions, powerful, semi-randomized upgrades that are unique to each Hero. With Evolutions, it is possible to transform a sniper into a melee skirmisher or a support role into a powerful lone wolf. The roguelike elements mean that in each run, players take on the competition with new abilities, stakes and challenges that change each match. There's a risk-versus-reward element where they can play it safe with their hard-earned cores, or go for broke, risk it all and see if they can take the top spot. The game will include an Extraction mode called Trials, which was described as an ongoing, persistent battle to collect cores, extract, and unlock powerful augments to fuel future Trials runs.
If that description tickled your fancy, there's great news, as 2K and 31st Union are bringing players into a Community Playtest that starts today for select North American and European countries (United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain and Italy). Servers will be live at the following times:
North America
October 17: 9 AM – 11 PM PT
October 18-20: 11 AM – 11 PM PT
Europe
October 17: 5 PM – 1 AM GMT+1
October 18-21st: 1 PM – 1 AM GMT+1
This Community Playtest for Project ETHOS is only available through PC (Steam). You can get a key by tuning in to any partner creator on Twitch, watching 30 minutes of their stream, and completing the necessary registration steps to earn a Steam Key. These are the required PC specs:
- Windows 10 x64
- CPU: Intel i5-8600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3500
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
- 8 GB Dedicated VRAM
- DirectX: DX12 Feature Level 12.0
- 16 GB Memory
- Storage: 50 GB Available Space
- Network: Broadband Internet Connection
Beyond the aforementioned Extraction mode Trials, the Community Playtest will also give fans a taste of Gauntlet, the competitive head-to-head tournament mode for Project ETHOS. Here, you can play against other teams in your bracket, upgrade your hero after each match and fight to be the last one standing.
While this Community Playtest is only on PC, the full game will also be released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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