Disintegration's closed beta is currently underway, with its open beta set to take place later this weekend. For gamers looking for something unique, Disintegration brings together RTS elements into a first-person shooter game. It's a somewhat confusing concept, but one that developer v1 Interactive manages to pull off. The game will have a campaign when it launches, but for the beta, players can only check out the multiplayer.
The concept is rather simple: with Earth on the brink of collapse, scientists effectively humans into robots through a process known as integration. This allowed humans to survive for decades, but the goal was to eventually reverse the progress. A splinter group called the Rayonne disagree with this idea, though, leading to a global war. The Rayonne appear to have won, as they hunt down any who remain, human or otherwise, with Disintegration players taking on the role of Romer, an outlaw in these times.
It'll be interesting to see where this story takes players when Disintegration fully launches, but for now, here's what those interested need to know about its beta.
Disintegration's Gameplay Modes
Players will be able to cycle through 3 different gameplay modes during the Disintegration beta, which includes Retrieval, Zone Control, and Collector. Each mode is rather self-explanatory. Retrieval is a 2-round combat scenario where one team tries to defend cores, while the other team tries to take the core to score. Zone Control is the basic King of the Hill scenario, and Collector requires players to defeat enemies and pick up cans to win.
Presumably, there will be more multiplayer modes available when the game launches, so while this sounds incredibly basic, it's worth mentioning that Disintegration is anything but. These modes have appeared in games before, yes, but it's hard to really make any comparisons for Disintegration.
Halo Elements
However, as V1 Interactive's studio founder and Halo Co-Creator Marcus Lehto has pointed out himself, comparisons are inevitable. One major draw for this game is the aforementioned fact that Lehto is considered the father of Master Chief and how Lehto has briefly worked on Destiny in the past. Looking at Disintegration and the overall design, it's simple enough to see Halo and Destiny vibes if they're being looked for. It's also worth noting that it started off as a pure RTS game, not unlike Halo, and evolved from there.
That's ultimately where the comparisons ends though. Lehto has previously stated that he wanted to make something fun and unique, and it is certainly like that. As a first-person shooter and real-time strategy game, it's definitely unique and so it remains to be seen how it is received when it is officially launched.
Disintegration's Crews
When players dive into the game's multiplayer, they will be given a choice from 7 different crews in Disintegration: The Sideshow, King's Guard, Lost Ronin, Neon Dreams, Tech Noir, WarHedz, and The Business. There are some questions of balance (but remember, it's a beta), yet each is geared to a certain playstyle. The Sideshow, for example, seems to be more support and trap-based with a touch of field control—it has 4 units as opposed to others having 2 or 3—while Neon Dreams is more of a glass cannon with low durability but high DPS.
Each Disintegration crew has 1 or 2 abilities adhering to its Gravcycle, whether it's the Sideshow's sticky grenades or the Lost Ronin's Fumi Rockets. The units range from Snipers and Warriors to more tank-like units such as the Destroyer that will battle it out on the field, while Gravcycles support or battle other Gravcycles. Overall, it's a unique take that combines elements of a first-person shooter and an RTS game, so fans of Halo or even Destiny 2 should check out the Disintegration beta and decide for themselves on how these elements pan out.
Disintegration is set to release in 2020 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.