Gunzilla Games, the studio full of AAA talent founded by director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium), has announced its first release. Off The Grid is a battle royale third-person shooter running on Unreal Engine 5 that is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC sometime next year.
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Unlike most games in the genre that focus on multiplayer action, Gunzilla claims that Off The Grid will be a story-first project. Players will log onto maps and complete story missions against 150 players, both real and A.I.-controlled. Players will be able to set the tone of missions, with certain actions rippling throughout the match and affecting everyone on the map. This mix of story and multiplayer is seemingly why the studio is referring to it as a “battle royale 2.0.”
The teaser trailer doesn’t show much, but it does reveal Off The Grid‘s sci-fi and cyberpunk style, which makes sense. Blomkamp was once attached to a Halo feature film and is most famously known for directing District 9, both of which are in the sci-fi genre. The cyberpunk angle, however, is new for the director.
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Of course, merely the idea of battle royale isn’t enough to push a game in today’s market. With Fortnite and Call of Duty Warzone ruling the roost and plenty of others nipping at their heels, Off The Grid will have an uphill battle before it.
Players will have to see for themselves if Gunzilla Games has what it takes to play with the big boys and deliver a generational leap in the shooter style of choice, which it seems to be aiming for with its self-proclaimed status as a “2.0” version of a battle royale. 2023 is filling up with games that will finally push past the days of Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but it remains to be seen if Off The Grid will be one of those titles to lead the charge into a technologically advanced future.
