Subnautica Studio Reveals Moonbreaker – Game Informer

Hearthstone miniatures. It’s an oversimplification, but if the idea captures your imagination, you recognize why the developers at Unknown Worlds think they’ve hit on something special. Subnautica is the most well-known game by the Unknown Worlds team. The group has quietly been working for the past five years on an entirely digital miniatures gaming experience. Moonbreaker was designed to imitate the collection, customization and tactical sophistication that are hallmarks of tabletop miniature games. However, it also has the appeal and accessibility of video games. After over an hour checking out the result, I’m convinced Unknown Worlds is onto something.

Moonbreaker is set in a sci-fi/fantasy world created in collaboration with Brandon Sanderson. It explores The Reaches’ distant, faraway solar system. Moonbreaker finds that a number of moons have intricate orbits around one another, and each has its own culture. The moons of the Reaches contain a rare resource, Cinder. It fuels superpowered Solars’ abilities. The Solars will not survive unless they consume more Cinder. To do so, they gather a team and board their ships.

After that, the players step in to the shoes of one these captains. This fiction borrows from sci-fi. FireflyAnd Guardians of the GalaxyAnd more terrestrial nods towards properties like Pirates of the Caribbean. You will face your opponent captain with up to 10 crew members in a tense one-on-one match. Your goal is to eliminate the captain.

That fictional framework offers an excuse for Unknown Worlds to accomplish its real task – a massive and varied collection of incredibly detailed digital miniatures to be recruited onto a crew. At early access launch, we’ll see three captains and dozens of potential crew members, each with their own distinct power sets, movement styles, and support capabilities.

Equally important, each of these characters has their own incredibly detailed digital miniature, crafted and posed with the same care you’d expect from a high-end tabletop skirmish game. Every character comes standard with a pre-painted scheme. However, you have the option of customizing each one using the robust paint tool.

The customization tools are more than just skins for a hero shooter, RPG or RPG. Each character can be customized with a variety of digital colors. Dry brushing, stippling, decals, washes, airbrushing – the game allows you to apply many of the same techniques used by expert miniature painters but also provides tools like auto-masking to get a clean and desirable look without extensive practice. This system can be modified as often or little as you wish.

As I painted minis, it was fascinating to see how those miniatures were dropped into a tactical battle system that is turn-based and gridless. In a given match, each player starts with their captain deployed on opposite sides of a carefully crafted map – think the most extravagant miniature table setup you can imagine, but placed into digital form. Cinder has special abilities and can send new units to the isometric fields as drop pods. It makes for an exciting choice. It allows you to increase the intensity of any fight from one unit to an entire melee, unlike tactical games. In addition, players have access to two ship assist powers in each battle – tide-shifting abilities that come hurtling in from orbit to turn the fight to your favor.

Moonbreaker includes single match mode, Cargo Run. As you battle AI foes, your crew gathers cargo drops that can be used to upgrade or add new members. This will keep you going for the duration of your run. It is particularly challenging to survive the high-powered and rule-breaking fights.

Players can earn experience through match play or Cargo Run, which gradually unlocks seasonal rewards. The game launches with a premium version rather than free-to play. Purchases unlock full access to the season structure for at least the initial access period.

As a longtime tabletop gaming enthusiast, it’s hard to overstate how much Moonbreaker seems to “get” what’s fun about the experience. It’s clear that Unknown Worlds is not looking to replace the fun of those physical experiences, just as games like Hearthstone or Gwent haven’t eliminated the thriving card game scene. Moonbreaker is a loving letter to science fiction and an opportunity to explore a new world of science fiction. I’m eager to see how the game continues to evolve as early access begins.