If you're looking for something to play over the weekend, Steam has a little something you might want to take a gander at. They're making a game free-to-play for the next couple of days, with a discounted price available if you eventually decide to take the plunge. It's time to try out Battlerite.
Battlerite, a top-down, team-based brawler still in early access, is free on Steam for a limited time. In case that wording is a little tricky, we mean you can download the game and play it at no cost for a limited time and, after this weekend, you'll need to buy it if you want to keep playing.
According to Gamespot, all you have to do to get in on the action is head to the Battlerite Steam page, download the game and get to playing. The free play is available through Sunday, July 16, at 1 p.m. PT. If you like what you see, you can get it for 33 percent off ($13.39) through Monday, July 17, at 10 a.m. PT.
In case you haven't heard of Battlerite, it's another one of those games that takes titles that takes mechanics made popular by MOBAs and plugs them into unique settings. The MOBA genre is a pretty rough place to set up shop. If you manage to find a home there, you're pretty much set. The problem is, everybody is trying to do exactly that, which means a lot of new entries basically fly by unnoticed. League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm are obviously top of the pile, with games like Smite and Paragon managing to carve out a little slice for themselves.
So what a lot of folks are doing rather than competing with the juggernauts is taking the look and feel of a MOBA and doing something unique with it. The best example is Overwatch, which bolted those concepts onto a first-person shooter. Battlerite falls into this second category, using themes familiar to MOBA fans but in a interesting new way. If you look at Battlerite footage, you wouldn't be blamed for thinking it's just a straight MOBA. Instead, the game is more focused on combat, with teams of 2-3 players running into battle and using their unique abilities to pummel each other.
According to the original report, Battlerite is being billed as the spiritual successor to Bloodline Champions. The latter boasted similar game types, but with teams boasting the more typical roster of five players. Keeping the player count down, matches move more quickly, typically only lasting about 15 minutes. Also, it's much easier to get a couple of friends to play a game with you instead of four, making it more likely you won't have to play with randos.
Anyway, since the game is free for the next couple of days, there's no harm in trying it out. If you get a chance to dive into Battlerite this weekend, feel free to drop your thoughts on the game into the comments below.
