It's rare to see a first-person action game that actually looks a bit different, which is why Dead Shark Triplepunch's Epigenesis is so intriguing. It's a futuristic arena ball game that ditches miniguns and grenades in favour of jumping around like a lunatic.
Two teams at each end, all armed with gravity cannons and jetpacks, and a ball in the middle to hurl in the opposition's net. What could possibly go wrong?
A lot, actually, which is sort of the point. Players fling themselves between floating platforms in search of the ball, firing those gravity guns to try and send other plummeting down to earth. Avoid the crossfire and you might be able to get close enough to the opposition net to hurl the ball in and score a very satisfying goal, earning a slight passive stat boost for your team. It's a nice mix of frantic arena-based action (bringing to mind the classic days of Quake 2 without all the gibbing) and tactical team sports.
Get a good game together (servers are currently slightly light, but hopefully they'll pick up) and it's a blast to play. Well worth checking out if you fancy something a bit different. It can be a bit tricky to get to grips with, though - thankfully the developers have made a bunch of tutorial videos teaching players the basic skills required, all of which you can find on Dead Shark's Youtube channel.
Epigenesis was originally conceived for Epic Games’ Make Something Unreal Live 2013 competition, where it won first place. Dead Shark released it on Friday, with a 15% launch discount. You can get hold of the game on Steam for $9.99.
