Game studio Emptyvessel is dropping trailers one by one as it tries to build excitement for its original shooter game Defect.
Emptyvessel released an extended gameplay trailer for the upcoming cyberpunk game with high-end 3D graphics at the Galaxies Gaming Showcase.
People are watching this game closely, as the first trailer captured millions of views on YouTube and work continues to progress toward a bigger reveal for the game that has both single-player and multiplayer combat. It’s making the case that small startups can actually create triple-A-like games with high-end graphics that make you go, “wow.”
The title is set in a dystopian world, where AI controls the city with fearsome police forces. They battle rogue gang factions in intense 4x4x4x4, multi-objective, multi-finale face-offs featuring futuristic weapons and tech.
In this trailer, we can see a team of futuristic soldiers go after a criminal element locked away inside a building. They break in, take out a multi-armed monitor watcher, and then go after the rest of the enemies in the place. A firefight breaks out and it’s pretty intense.
In one of the cool twists in the combat, one soldier fires an electrified shot at the guy who looks like a red demon. Then he uploads his consciousness into that enemy, turning the enemy into a soldier for the other side. The combat proceeds and you see a lot of destruction of the environment as two squads fight it out. And in a bit of a story twist, the soldier that you play as the gamer evidently has divided loyalties.
The world
This is a cyberpunk dystopian world reminiscent of Cyberpunk 2077, Bladerunner, and Judge Dredd among others but with its own take on the subject matter.
In practice that means future-tech is everywhere but it’s still a few steps away from lasers, teleportation and sentient robots. Emptyvessel said it is still trying to convey a more grounded element to the tech and action while propelling people into a potential future.
This extends to body modification. Potential fans will see humanoids that look like mutants to them. This is a result of experimentation and illegal augments that have resulted in a sub-class of people.
The setting is dark, grim, gritty and bleak. People are starving, society rots and fighting between police and gangs and gangs and police is rampant. Life is bad for the average person in this world for reasons completely out of their control These narratives are relevant to today times in ways the company hopes players (or even media) can infer themselves. The genre has always been rife with cultural commentary and this is no exception. The company says it is just not explicitly calling it out at this moment.
The studio
On the strength of the reveals, Emptyvessel raised $11 million in funding from investors including NCSoft and 1AM Gaming, along with Black Phoenix Games, Anurup Joseph, and Sebastiaan Hejne as well as initial investors Sisu Game Ventures, Raptor Group, and Compute.
NCSoft has teamed up with the startup for a long-term partnership, offering additional support across a myriad of aspects spanning equity investment and publishing resources.
Emptyvessel is focused on taking calculated risks with art and design that deliver on high-quality, immersive gameplay experiences. The process in which Defect is being developed reflects the team’s passion and spirited approach to navigating the industry as an independent game studio.
Defect is a cyberpunk, squad-based, Immersive Objective Shooter set in a dystopian world, where AI controls the city with fearsome police forces. Players will battle rogue gang factions in intense multi-objective face-offs in immersive single-player and multiplayer modes. Award-winning composer Mick Gordon (Doom, Borderlands 3, Prey) will create soundscapes for the studio and game. Select new screenshots of the map ‘Meatstack’, environmental updates and a new weapon called ‘Crowd Control’ show the game’s current development progress.
Defect is in development for PC and console and is currently available for Wishlisting on Steam and Epic Games Store.
Narrative and tone
The world as we know it is in ruins and now everyone lives in a single megacity The overall narrative of the game is that at some point in the future humanity has laid waste to the world through some combination of war, political strife, and climate change in such a way that only one mega city is habitable. In other words, the world of Defect is centered in the last city of humankind. The city is run by an AI with unknown motives with forces that have almost slavish devotion to it.
At some point and in order to avoid the problems that a 100% human run society resulted in (i.e. the essential end of most of the world), the people decided to cede control of law enforcement and order to an AI named “The System.”
This is an unseen and unheard force that runs the policing forces and attempts to control the city by preventing criminality and violence. In theory, it should be an impartial arbiter that brings order. In practice, it has resulted in an almost cult-like organization that sees the AI as god-like and runs the city with an iron fist oppressing the destitute citizenry of the city.
The action in the gameplay reveal begins when The System deploys police forces to one section of the mega city to deal with problems caused by one of the rogue gang elements
Players are then given a choice of what specifically to do within that mission structure.
The devs want to emphasize multi-objective gameplay(meaning every team in the map has its own unique objective and goals to win the game) as the structure of the piece only shows one mission through the eyes of one team(gathering data and resetting it via a machine that spawns in the world and protecting that machine, similar to something like a bomb defusal mission in counter strike) every other team they encounter has a different win condition with their own motives and goals as their objective. Consider that the gang factions would be controlled by players and have their own orders.
Squad-based Play format (4x4x4x4)
This plays out in a variety of gameplay modes with options to play single player, multiplayer and co-op matches The mention of single player should not be misconstrued as a suggestion that there will be a campaign. Rather, there will be missions that players will be able to undertake by themselves that have more narrative and story hooks and are potentially linked together.
Destruction
Destruction in the game offers both the spectacle of explosions demolishing areas around the player as well as additional potential avenues for tactics and strategy via new flanking routes and opportunities to surprise your opponent If possible, show clips from the trailer showcasing moments of destruction as a means of demonstrating the potential.
Weapons and Ammo Types
The primary weaponry of the game should be familiar to players. At least if we’re thinking about engagement ranges and explosions: Assault Rifles are for further away, shotgun for up close, pistols when you need to reload your main gun, grenades for crowd control etc.
The key differences between the familiar and this world come from boosts to capabilities of those archetypes with new technologies of the time (for example, being able to switch ammo types with a press of a button, the way that ammo interacts with the world etc.).
Gadgets and tools
Players will use this to find objective items, useful items in the world and even spot enemies that might expose their position through the use of scanners and other gadgets etc.
In the trailer before breaching the apartment you see two players put up these blue stealth walls, every player behind that wall is fully invisible.
At one point you see a player stun an enemy player and then chase them down and use their scanner to hack into their consciousness. This is the revive mechanic. Players have to find an enemy in the world, stun them and perform what’s called a body snatch in order to revive their downed teammates
Interactables in the world
You can create cover by flipping tables. The interactables are contextual so players can do things like flip tables or jam doors to create cover. When low on health, players’ health does not regenerate so they have to use things like health stations to heal. Healing takes time and will need your team to cover you while you use them. In the trailer you’ll see three yellow lights on the health station. They have three uses per station.
Before breaching the apartment you see a player use an electric box to force the door open. This is a nod to the run a bypass scene in aliens.
And there’s a gear-up phase. In the beginning of the game you’ll notice players can vote on a mission, they can also gear up together in the beginning of the game.
Players might choose different gear depending on their task at hand. The game isn’t a hero or class shooter. Every player can define their play style by whatever they equip in the world. This gear up phase is similar to the loadout phase in a game like Due Process or Phasmophobia.