Watch a full match of Ninja Theory's Bleeding Edge
Zombies aren't real
A lot of people are going to describe Bleeding Edge as 'Overwatch in third-person', which is probably reductive and unfair, but not enough to make me avoid introducing it as such. It's a colourful upcoming 4v4 hero shooter from developers Ninja Theory, who were last seen wandering about the viking underworld in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.
Someone filmed a full match at Gamescom in August, so here's a chance to ogle its spinny topless knife-men and parasitic snakes.
The footage comes courtesy of YouTuber Arekkz.
It's a strong look. I like to do my shooting somewhere vibrant, though from a (muted) distance the weapons themselves do seem a tad lamp. I don't want to drily whittle away at health bars, though there are melee characters that might sidestep that problem. Every character has three abilities, in addition to choosing one of two ultimate abilities that can be swapped out when you respawn. That teenager with an exoskeleton can ride around on a giant rocket, though the person playing plumps for a mech-suit instead.
Brendan got his hands on Bleeding Edge at E3. He liked it, but couldn't call it a cut above the competition:
"It’s not exactly a fresh idea to anyone who has played other games of being heroic within an arena, like Battlerite. And that is maybe the one great worry while I play. I’m having a good time being a sneaky nan, definitely, but these games always live or die on their numbers, and I don’t know how I would sell this to my friends apart from emphasising the fun character design. 'Yeah, it’s not bad!' I’d say. 'You can be a pink-haired women whose entire lower body is one big wheel. You can be a ninja who dresses like a spraypainting skaterboy. You can ride around on a hoverboard.'"
I like the zombie, who steps up to the plate about six minutes into the video. I'm pretty sure you're actually control the snake coiled up inside his flesh that peeks out to spit poison at people - look at the way his head flops around with each hoverboard swerve. That's just a magic snake, mate.
There's no word on the price or release date, but you can sign up for possible alpha testing on the game's website.