It would seem that we have mostly gone through the derivate phase of the battle royale sub-genre and that there's an influx of considerably more innovative and interesting battle royales on the rise. Case in point: Egress, a steampunk-looking melee-focused battle royale, the main influence on which seems to have been none other than the Dark Souls franchise.
Egress seems to be a bit of an oddball, to say the least. It mingles the traditional Victorian-era style with a bit of steampunk-ish tech and a dash of Lovecraftian lore for good measure. This is, however, just the sort of game we need when all we're bombarded with are generic shooty-totties that dare not innovate or iterate upon the winning formula.
Fazan, the developers of this curious title, promise a multi-level city for the players to battle through. The kicker is that, instead of having a ever-decreasing radius within which the players have to duke it out, the map is vastly more vertical, and the water rises through the lower levels of the city as the match progresses.
Instead of employing generic, leveled-out characters, Egress will see you selecting from a set of unique Hero units, ranging from truly odd, nightmarish monsters to creature hunters, defenders, magicians, and the like. While this will make for a complex balancing task, it also has the chance of creating a significantly more interesting match dynamic than we are used to with battle royale games.
Since this is essentially a souls-like, expect a melee-focused combat system with dodges, ability combos, and stuff like that. This all looks a tiny bit stilted as it stands, but the game is in early stages of development, and is sure to improve as time goes on.
If all of this sounds more than a bit tantalising to you, why not sign up for the game's closed beta? It will be kickstarting on 1st of August, so there's some time yet for you to be accepted, provided that you send your application soon enough.
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