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 title a couple of 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 alter 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’ll progressively degree 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 title change to Gene Shift Metropolis) it is a free Steam recreation that performs extra like a battle royale. Mechanically, it is nonetheless very comparable – you shoot enemies, drive vehicles round a metropolis, and improve your character’s MOBA-like expertise all through the course of a match – nevertheless it’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 Metropolis to “entice the correct of gamers,” relatively than these pondering they had been diving right into a basic GTA clone.
“The unique title was chosen as a result of Gene Shift Auto sounded rather a lot like Grand Theft Auto,” he writes in a put up asserting the title change. “This recreation does in any case have cops, missions, vehicles, 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 similar to GTA2!’ So I took that as signal that GTA was the principle promoting level and one thing to base the title on.”
“As an alternative, we would like a reputation that pulls 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 1000’s 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 huge participant counts. Nonetheless, it is hoped that the rebrand will carry some new gamers to Skillshot Metropolis as bencelot ramps up in the 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 style 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 cost proper right here.
For extra, take a look at our lists of the very best multiplayer video games and the very best crime video games.
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