Ninja Theory's cyberbrawler Bleeding Edge leaked
Less edgy than the title suggests
Hellblade developers Ninja Theory are apparently trying their hand at four-on-four multiplayer next, if a leaked trailer for their next game Bleeding Edge is accurate. Blurrily captured at a Microsoft keynote at the weekend by Xboxer (they're Slovakian, so you may need Google Translate), it shows us a cast of brightly coloured cyborg weirdos gearing up for a rumble. One's part unicycle with buzzsaws for hands, another's a weird skeleton-faced guy full of guns. It all reminds me a bit of Platinum's underrated Anarchy Reigns by way of Sunset Overdrive, and is apparently due to begin technical alpha testing on June 27th.
While smaller-scale multiplayer games haven't been in vogue lately, I'm glad to see Ninja Theory trying something a little outside of their wheelhouse. While their games are well known for their flashy close combat, fans of Devil May Cry and similar will be quick to tell you that they've lacked depth. Maybe something lighter and less technical - like an online brawler - is more their speed. The character designs look like a fun lot, although if they are aiming for Anarchy Reigns's (sadly dusty) crown, they've still got to beat its godly soundtrack. I'm hoping that they at least try.
Internet sleuths on Resetera have been theorising about Bleeding Edge for a while now, thanks to a trademark registration from last year, and a possible leak mentioning that it would be a four-player action game. That fits with the four-on-four teams, but the quoted leak also mentions a co-op campaign mode, which we see no indication of here. This was obviously an Xbox-centric leak, but there are so few Xbox exclusives these days that a PC version seems likely. Even the walls of the Windows 10 store are beginning to crumble, with that most Microsoft of flagships - Halo - coming to Steam soon.
The Bleeding Edge site will apparently surface here, but isn't live at the moment. We'll almost certainly see the game officially unveiled over the weekend, at Microsoft's E3 keynote on Sunday at 9:30pm BST.
As an aside, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, along with Moonlighter, are heading up the current Humble Monthly. It's the cheapest Hellblade has been yet, even if you don't count the other games in the monthly collection.