New video game, Omega Strikers, has been revealed! While today’s drop was disguised as just “first looks”, the closed beta is out and playable for those who are lucky ehnough to get a key. (Read below for how to nab one.)
Omega Strikers is a 3 vs 3 brawler game and is intended to be cross-platform, competitive, and easily accessible to everyone. The former secret project called “Project P” is the first game by Odyssey Interactive, a Canadian Game Development Studio founded by former Riot Games developers. Odyssey has touted Omega Strikers as having the “goal-scoring gameplay of Rocket League, the physics-based fun of Super Smash Bros., and the deep character mastery of League of Legends”.
Knights’ GM, Garett “Grt” Bambrough was able to try out the game with the rest of his esports staff - Justin “sunman” Summy and Keith “Seaside” LaFortune. Here is his account of the gameplay and his expectations for the new title:
"I have never been one to get excited about new games that are released, as most titles are similar in concepts to other games with a few differences…a battle royale is a battle royale no matter how many are released and doesn't get me excited. Omega Strikers did not blow my mind when I saw some early game play but I appreciated they did something different. That all changed when I had my first chance to play.
To cut right to the chase - Omega Strikers is wildly addicting. I found myself going through the playtest on a day when I had my GM duties dialed up to 11 and had NO time to play… but I was pulled into the experience for over 4 hours, and my work suffered! I have always leaned towards games that would need a minimum of 40-50 minutes to engage with when I had free time and as a former professional Counter-Strike player, I was over committing that much time to have one experience in a game. Omega Strikers allows me to play a few games within a 15-minute experience if I am on limited on time, but likely the game will suck me in for hours more… but it's nice to have that option!
Each game is 3 on 3 with a 4-minute timer and can be ended early by having a 5-goal lead. Teams are comprised of a goalie and 2 forwards trying to score goals. Some characters have special traits that make them more unique to being a goalie (such as some gap closing abilities) or having a strong ability to damage and knock opponents off of the arena to give your team an advantage. I found myself playing an assassin-type character where I could go invisible to gain an advantage in position to score goals or damage my opponents to knock them off the arena. The possibilities of styles will be endless.
Having a sports background, I truly enjoyed the traditional sports feeling of Omega Strikers and the communication required to win a game. Bring in the speed of the gameplay and the uniqueness of each character that you would need to master makes Omega Strikers a game that you won't find yourself getting bored on, and this does not account for the change of the obstacles of the arena. Each game has something new to experience. While Omega Strikers has that addictive feeling casual players will get pulled in with, I can easily see this being a successful esport whenever Odyssey goes down that path, and the Knights will be ready when that happens.
The Knights have worked with many developers across gaming and Odyssey has blown us away with their decisions and the design of Omega Strikers. We found ourselves at every moment of the Omega Striker presentation just saying to ourselves, damn that's a good decision, I like where they are going with this, and “if I was a developer I would have done this too”. Odyssey is prepared for success with a team comprised of talented individuals who helped build very successful games such as League of Legends, and you will quickly see some of that inspiration in Omega Strikers. You see the passion in their team with what they built and that to the Knights means the world. Odyssey will do anything it takes to be successful and bring an amazing experience to their player base and we are extremely excited to see what else they have in store in the future.”
Launching with 10 playable characters - Atlas, Drek’ar, Dubu, Era, Estelle, Juliette, Juno, Kai, Luna, and X, the game aims to spread worldwide and compete with the likes of Dota 2 or League of Legends that dominate the gaming world.
So how do you get a key to play? The Knights have been given beta keys from the developer so follow us on Twitter and watch the Knights Twitch channel for drops throughout the day and weekend!
