Who right here remembers Geneshift? These with a love of basic, top-down Grand Theft Auto seemingly do. Launched all the way in which again in 2017, the multiplayer battle royale recreation modified its identify just a few years in the past to Gene Shift Auto, in order that it may put on its inspiration on its sleeve. Nonetheless, it is now determined to vary guises but once more – and it is ditching any sort of GTA reference or homage. Gene Shift Auto is now Skillshot Metropolis.
When it first dropped as Geneshift, it was one of many weirdest multiplayer video games round – a top-down, city crime recreation impressed by GTA 2, however with a League of Legends-esque gameplay loop the place you’d progressively stage up characters by looting and killing opponents throughout a match. It was launched with an array of multiplayer modes, however in recent times (and following its identify change to Gene Shift Metropolis) it is a free Steam game that performs extra like a battle royale. Mechanically, it is nonetheless very related – you shoot enemies, drive automobiles round a metropolis, and improve your character’s MOBA-like expertise all through the course of a match – but it surely’s extra oriented round being the final participant or group standing.
With it being a free multiplayer recreation, solo dev Ben ‘bencelot’ Johnson has now rebranded it to Skillshot City to “appeal to the proper of gamers,” quite than these considering they have been diving right into a basic GTA clone.
“The unique identify was chosen as a result of Gene Shift Auto sounded loads like Grand Theft Auto,” he writes in a post saying the identify change. “This recreation does in spite of everything have cops, missions, automobiles, gangsters and extra – and each time I might put up the sport on-line essentially the most upvoted remark was at all times, with out fail, one thing like ‘omg, this recreation appears identical to GTA2!’ So I took that as an excellent signal that GTA was the principle promoting level and one thing to base the identify on.”
“As an alternative, we wish a reputation that draws high-skill PvP followers,” he provides. “Followers who like creating combos, getting flashy kills, mastering their construct, and outplaying enemies. That is the place the replayability of the sport lies – not the cops and missions. That is what retains you taking part in 100+ matches as you unlock and uncover hundreds of recent and damaged combos.”
Other than that one time it was flooded by bots attempting to find Steam Buying and selling Playing cards earlier than its everlasting F2P change, the sport’s by no means boasted monumental participant counts. Nonetheless, it is hoped that the rebrand will deliver some new gamers to Skillshot Metropolis as bencelot ramps up in direction of 1.0 – extremely, regardless of being out for eight years, it is nonetheless technically in early entry.
So, a recreation now on its third official title, that is free-to-play, and that mixes old fashioned GTA with LoL – Skillshot Metropolis actually is an anomaly. If you wish to give it a go, you possibly can add it to your Steam library without spending a dime proper here.
For extra, try our lists of the best multiplayer games and the best crime games.
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