Raiders of the Broken Planet Preview - E3 2017

In an era when self-publishing games has become commonplace, many developers turn to the likes of Kickstarter or other crowd-funding platforms to get support for their upcoming projects. Developers MercurySteam from Madrid didn't quite go that route; their upcoming sci-fi adventure game Raiders of the Broken Planet will be developed and published by the studio, but they managed to do so without resorting to asking fans for cash. First teased last year, the shooter has been in development and through a few closed beta weekends over the last while. With the full launch gearing up for later this year, we had a chance to play through a couple of levels at E3 2017.

Raiders of the Broken Planet has some interesting ideas behind it - primarily, as an asymmetric online game. But first things first - the title takes place in a universe where a rare source of energy known as Aleph has been discovered by the human race, on one of Saturn's moons. This Aleph is no joking matter, providing humans with some supernatural abilities, so it doesn't take long until the humans who are sent to recover the resource become hostile to one another and split into factions. Each side wants to control Aleph for their own benefit. One of the factions, who appears to be peaceful, just wants the fighting to end, and among them a man named Harec takes up the mantle of stopping the armed conflict. Harec sets out to recruit a band of mercenaries called Raiders, so they can help him fight the other factions.

The plan is for the game to be released as a series of campaigns, each with their own story. The game is also aimed at being a multiplayer experience, and one where you could even join the enemy forces and try to stop the Raiders alongside the AI enemies and bosses. However, the campaign will also be playable in a solo mode, and that's what we got to check out at E3 2017. Before starting, we got a choice of characters from a roster of about 5 - with more locked away, to be revealed later. We decided to stick with Harec, who is a sniper class, and is thus adept at stealth and long range shooting, but doesn't have much health. Thankfully the first level was extremely short and acted more like a tutorial. We learned that Lycus Dion has been captured by the enemy force and is about to be taken away on a transport ship. Taking control of Harec, we scurried along a linear path on a desert-like planet. We entered the prison facility, where the game guided us through a brief tutorial on taking cover, and using a melee attack from behind to eliminate the guard. The cover system is automatic and sticky, though easy to use. In the next area, there were two guards, and the game instructed us on how to use a Stalking mode, which basically lets you project yourself to any surface and look around. Returning to Harec's body, we carefully circled the guards and eliminated them with melee. Taking the elevator up, we found that the transport ship has departed and we were too late.

It was onwards to the next chapter. While the game was loading, we watched a cutscene of numerous Raiders debating the situation, and there were hints that some characters may leave your crew depending on how often you use them. The plan was to infiltrate the transport ship and rescue Lycus in a brazen assault. We decided to stick with Harec for this mission, although other characters were available like Alicia and Hans, each with their own weapons, abilities, and pros/cons. After boarding the ship, we made our way to a two-level area with Lycus suspended in the middle on a crane. We activated the crane so that it would bring Lycus to the edge of the ship where our friendly ship could extract him. This action caused an alarm, and enemies began to enter the area. Sniping them was satisfying, and because of everyone using Aleph, enemies glow in an x-ray like vision that you can see through objects. Enemies would try to take cover and flank, but it was not enough. There were also engineers that appeared and tried to stop the crane's controls, and we had to resume the process whenever that happened. With all enemies eliminated and Lycus safely aboard a friendly ship, the Raiders decided this was a great opportunity to just take out the entire transport ship.

At the same time, it just so happens that another faction entered the fight. Now, two large ships were flying side by side and enemies from both sides were fighting amongst themselves. We proceeded to the next area where enemies were quite close and Harec's sniper rifle was not as effective at this range. We managed to clear the deck, and then had to fire a mounted machine gun at some smaller enemy ships to clear the way for rockets, which were hacked by our friends and targeted at the other large ship. In the next area, we had to do pretty much the same thing, but now it felt like Harec was really in trouble. Enemies swarmed in number, and it wasn't long before we were killed. Raiders has an interesting mechanic where you get 3 lives (respawns), but after that you must wait for a few minutes without dying otherwise the mission is failed. The game explains this as your friendly airship having to make runs for more Aleph to revive you. It's a neat mechanic that certainly comes in handy - Harec struggled mightily to take on the foes in this final area. His lack of health and the somewhat clunky/Gears of War-like movement proved to be a big downside. Further, the only way to replenish ammo is to melee takedown enemies, which proved very difficult as well, with awkward controls and a failed grab spelling certain doom. After struggling through this section, we finally set some charges to blow the entire ship up, but again more enemy waves spawned in and after a few attempts, we ran out of lives, and died again (before the lives were replenished), ending our demo.

Most recently, MercuryStream have been sticking with third person action games - namely the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series. Raiders of the Broken Planet is their first shooter since 2007's Clive Barker's Jericho, and from our hands-on time with the game it did feel a bit stiff as far as controls and mechanics go. Still, the game is set in an interesting universe with plenty of diverse characters. And it also sounds like the most interesting aspect - asymmetrical multiplayer - was not available for us to check out. Those wanting to check it out can sign up for the closed beta, or wait for the full release that's planned for later in 2017. Raiders of the Broken Planet will be out for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.