MMOs can feel like a full-time job sometimes – despite the market mostly being dominated by a few titans, it's still hard to commit to any of them. Upcoming freshman effort Warborne: Above Ashes from Pumpkin Studio, however, promises a fresh take on the genre that was at least enough to make me do a double take. While most MMOs are strictly instanced into zones to allow for an overarching plot, Warborne (a very apt name) is strictly PVP-focused, aiming to capture a real-time simulation of a six-sided war in a sci-fi setting.
As opposed to the typical rigidity inherent to the genre, it's the fluidity of this Warborne's approach that looks interesting – factions grow and shrink, territory lines shift, and you are for all intents and purposes just a single player in the grand game unfolding around you. (Not to say you can't still feel like a badass, though.) Given that the project is still in active development, exactly how robust this system is remains to be seen, but if it's anything close to the large-scale simulation of, say, EVE Online, it'll be a winner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpiF6–EM5c
If nothing else, the unorthodox structure should make for a good amount of community-driven lore. That story will begin to be written when Warborne becomes available as part of the Steam Wargames Fest exhibition later this month.
Previously:
• Uncover the tragic history of Fallout Online: The MMO that could have been
• There's a Dune MMO game on the way
• Amazon is now developing another Lord of the Rings MMO
