Last week Steve was at Gamescom 2019. He got to see a lot of titles. First up is Comanche. What were his impressions?
Comanche, much like the actual helicopter, emerged out of the clouds of the past and hit me hard and fast. THQ Nordic and Nukklear Digital Minds have taken it upon themselves to revive this simulation heavy franchise as a multiplayer shooter.
Highway to the danger zone
The team working on Comanche seems to have had some experience with multiplayer games. I was shown a live match with one developer in the room and the others in their offices. It was an 8v8 Infiltration-Mode match, which is similar to bomb defuse modes in other games. The biggest difference to similar modes is that all players can respawn. So no side can win by just taking out the other players. The aim of this mode is to get as close to a specific area, so that you can unload your drone. Once you are controlling your drone, the Comanche will hover unprotected. So you may want to have one team mate run defence. Using the drones you need to hack a specific point to score. The defenders will of course try to do their best to stop you. Your drone respawns in you Comanche, while the Comanche may spawn quite far away from the goal if destroyed.
Feel like a Comanche
In this version of Comanche two classes were playable. The Wraith, was very stealthy and closest to an actual Comanche helicopter. The Cyclops can be considered the sniper class. Very lightly armoured, but it’s gun is very hard hitting. So a Wraith should try to stay low in the various canyons of the maps. The Cyclops will try to stay away and hide in the clouds to rule the skies.
A pretty cool detail is that the developer was advised by a real Comanche pilot. That way they ensured that the feeling is as close as possible. I was informed that they had to reduce the realism a bit, to broaden the potential player base. Another great info is that the game will not have micro-transactions. All unlock-able items will be vanity items, like skins, and unlock-able using XP. Which makes sense, seeing they want to try to get into the e-sports community.
Lift off
I for one really had to fight my urge to ask to get hands on. The fights look dynamic and tactical, but not overbearing. All in all I cannot wait to lift off when Comanche will go into early access in early 2020. That version will feature 4 Comanche, 3 maps and 2 different modes.
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