Two weeks out from launch, Finnish developer Housemarque has offered new insight into its blistering twin-stick shooter, Alienation, with new videos emerging today designed to spotlight character classes, upgrades and the game’s loot system.
Taking to the EU PlayStation Blog, Community Manager Tommaso De Benetti began by outlining Alienation‘s three character classes — Tank, Saboteur and Bio-Specialist — with each archetype boasting its own “unique primary weapon, three unique upgradable active abilities and three upgradable passive abilities.”
Players will be able to level up each class to level 30 upon release, be it through the shooter’s campaign, bounties or procedurally-generated scenarios. While we await more details on the latter, here’s a rundown of each class.
- Bio-Specialist: Every game this brutal needs at least one class that heals other players: that’s the Bio-Specialist. That said, she’s also very competent at creating areas of damage using a poisonous trail, or take control of powerful nanomachines to swarm enemies and chip away their HPs.
- Tank: The Tank is all about protection and splash damage: if you’re under heavy fire you want one next to you sharing his shield, or if you’re overrun by too many enemies he can blow everything away and give you room to maneuver. Plus, he’s the only character able to command a devastating death ray piercing everything in a straight line.
- Saboteur: If you like swift characters you’re gonna love the Saboteur. He becomes invisible, and uses his plasma sword to clear the area in front of him with ease. When some help is needed, he can also call in deadly airstrikes to open paths through a sea of Xenos.
Unlike Housemarque’s fellow twin-stick shooter Dead Nation, Alienation heralds a new loot system, allowing users to “obtain rarer weapons or upgrade your weapons’ stats to match your play style” upon completing a mission.
The game features four different types of Alien Cores, each upgradable up to five times and activating a different effect when set in one of the weapon slots. For example, Red Cores augment damage, while Yellow Cores modify the clip size of the weapon. Carefully planning where to put the Cores you collect during missions is a vital part of progressing in Alienation, as specific combinations can even add additional bonuses.
Alienation shoots for PS4 on April 26.
