Epic Games announce tactical bosher Battle Breakers

As the press release sharks swim around our heels on the opening of GDC, one of them has gone in for a testing nip. Battle Breakers [official site] is an upcoming tactical RPG, Epic Games have announced. It’s done in the flavour of Saturday morning sci-fi cartoons of the 80s, they say - a turn-based battler about taking back your Kingdom from space monsters. It is as ugly as a mauled bottom.

Well, that was my instinctive reaction from opening the gameplay screenshots anyway. You might like ultra-busy screens full of clashing cartoon colours and flashing power-ups and textual reminders of how much XP your last kill earned. But to me, this looks like somebody ate an entire manga comic and then vomited it back up.

But let’s back off. Never judge a turn-based tactical role-playing game by its UI, that’s what my mum always used to say. Maybe the fighting is sturdy and smart, maybe upgrading your characters and fighting cross-platform with Android and iPhone players will be right up your lava-filled alley. If so, here’s how Epic are describing it.

A vibrant fantasy sci-fi cartoon adventure, Battle Breakers lets you recruit hundreds of unique heroes, and create dream teams of ninjas, knights, robots, and talking dinosaurs. Battle monsters from space that have infested every corner of your world, from ice sheets and lava fields to ancient forests and sheer mountains. Master the elements and defeat your enemies with strategy, smash crystals to unlock hidden treasures, and power up your hero squads to take back the Kingdom, one break at a time!

It’s going to be available later this year (or, if you’re in the Philippines, it's out now) but any interested parties can pre-register for a special hero.