We were recently invited to an exclusive preview of upcoming third person shooter ‘Beyond Flesh and Blood’ and were fortunate to get a hands on with an alpha build demo of its gameplay and story. Though it was an early build, we could already see a lot of potential and how can you go wrong when your mech can grab a street lamp and go play golf with bad guys?
The year is 2281 and military grade VR is the only way back to Earth, 80 years after a Global War for resources forced decent society to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. Space is safe but rumours of aliens, terrorists and a meteorite strike finally conscript Ethan away from the UGR Astralis orbital colony.
This is where the opening to the demo and the story of ‘Beyond Flesh and Blood’ begins as the player takes the role of Ethan Cunningham as he takes an entrance exam to see if he has the skills needed to join the military defended force and pilot the most advanced battle mechs possible.
But as this is just the start of the story poor Ethan is already doomed to fail but the exam itself puts you in the top end prototype mech suit and throws you into the heart of battle taking on a whole army of enemies but it gives the player a real sense of the power that piloting the mechs can give. Having a full Arsenal of abilities try out really gave a great look at the combat which was fluid and fast but brutal and satisfying all at the same time.
Sadly it is scripted for Ethan to fail the exam and as a result ends up as a low-level menial task mech pilot, much to the disappointment of his family, but with the will of becoming far more. The game itself will feature five classes of mech, each with its own weapon arsenal and abilities and as you progress through the story you will move up or upgrade to a more advanced mech. The first real mech you pilot is an industrial level one which has basic weapons and is a real change in power level from the prototype used in the prologue test.
All mechs can be used to hack the security, identify enemies, and take them out as you explore a city devastated after the world war to end all wars has ravaged the planet. Which has an intriguing and unique twist, the city you are exploring is…..Manchester.
Yup whilst other games focus on either made up city’s on Earth or use a famous US city like New York, Beyond Flesh and Blood’s main action takes place in Manchester England. It becomes less of a surprise when you learn the game is being developed by a four man team at Pixel Bomb games and all hail from Manchester. I really enjoyed the British feeling to the game in the midst of what could be a generic sci-fi story of humanity wrecking the planet, forced to escape to a space station and using advanced robot mechs piloted by crew on that space station to explore city’s and look after survivors.
But for me what really stood out from this preview demo was the combat, and I really enjoyed it. From basic third person combat, the player can really feel the difference in fighting as you move to more advanced mechs. Attack options can be linked together for devastating combos that blend weapon and melee attacks with superb and glorious results included great execution animations. I got a real kick from using guns and rockets to obliterate enemies and range but it was using the grab ability to pick up enemies and scenery to throw as weapons that made me have an almost maniacal smile which reminded me of the combat from The Darkness 2. Allowing me to grab a street light to go swinging it around sending enemies flying was great fun. All the above made the combat really intuitive as I was putting combos together which was made all the more possible thanks to the bullet time ability that when triggered in combat slows down time allowing the targeting of multiple enemies which proved very handy when caught in a jam.
I came away from the preview demo impressed with Beyond Flesh and Blood. It has a story and setting that is interesting, visually the game looks good and the combat was rewarding enough that I look forward to seeing how the final version plays. Knowing that such a small developer team is working on this title just makes it even more impressive and I am really think this is one to watch for fans of shooters. There is certainly enough going by what I was fortunate to play to make Beyond Flesh and Blood firmly on my to be played list.
* To be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
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