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The PUBG developers' new PVP shooter looks like top-down Rainbow Six Siege with a bit of Hotline Miami

Fancy a different sort of trip down the PUB?

Players aim guns at each other in close quarters, top down combat in Project Arc.
Image credit: Krafton

PUBG Corporation and Krafton have just gone and announced Project Arc, a top-down 5v5 shooter "inspired by PUBG". To be honest with you, it looks more inspired by Rainbow Six Siege with what looks to be one team aiming to hack a crypt by breaking down defences, while the other reinforces structures to prevent them from doing that. There's also a big emphasis on sightlines, too, where gaining or robbing an enemy team's vision is crucial to blatting them in the head with lead. It looks interesting! If a difficult sell, given the fact it's yet another 5vs5 shooter…

As mentioned above, the attacking team's aim is to hack into a "hidden Crypt" on a map, all of which seem to be small buildings promoting close-quarters fights. To get to the crypt, they're to use grenade launchers and "explosive hammers" to break through walls or get the jump on baddies. Meanwhile, the defenders can barricade walls, chuck gas grenades, or pop mobile cover to counteract the raid.

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Success seems to rely on getting sightlines on your enemies, or robbing them of theirs. That seems to be achieved through, say, chucking a stun grenade to suddenly reduce an enemy's cone of vision drastically. Or maybe, extending you and your allies' vision cones by lighting up a segment of the map over in the distance. It's a neat idea and one that could make for some Hotline Miami-esque duels between players in confined spots.

Weirdly, it reminds me a bit of League Of Legends. In the sense that a lot of League's map is permanently fog-of-warred, so good players and teams gain vision control by placing Wards (these light up the fog-of-war) in clever spots. A lot of fights (and matches) can be won or lost based on these Wards and who's spotted who first. I'd imagine the same philosophy rings true in Project Arc.

There's no release date yet for Project Arc but you can follow its progress over on Steam.

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