STRIDEN was just revealed by 5 Fortress, and this ambitious and inventive shooter is making an appearance during Steam Next Fest. In a short trailer, 5 Fortress unveiled the energetic, mysterious first-person shooter that boasts extraction and survival mechanics. It looks superb at first blush, but this is the first that gamers are hearing about the title and the studio developing it. Fortunately, there’s a playtest-grade product available on Steam right now for STRIDEN.

STRIDEN is one of those titles that walks the line between various genres. It’s not a milsim shooter nor is it an extraction shooter, and it’s not a simple FPS title, nor is it an open-world exploration game. It’s a mix of everything thrown into a melting pot, even if on the surface it replicates recent Battlefield games. This unique team-based title pits players against one another in a sandbox environment, with each match giving them 30 minutes to accrue points, collect resources, and extract from the map.

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And There Are Bears

In the short trailer that was released recently by 5 Fortress, we come to learn about all the base mechanics of STRIDEN. It has been dubbed a looter shooter with survival mechanics, and during each match, players will be able to secure resources, manage their inventory, and even build bases and upgrade weapons. The core gameplay loop requires competitors to assemble radio systems that they’ll use to call an extraction vehicle, escaping from the map and winning the game.

There’s a relatively bizarre twist, though. Through a system called ‘Powerspikes’, players can transform into animals, such as a radioactive bear. It’s an aspect of STRIDEN that hasn’t really been explained all that well, as in the trailer, this grounded shooter with a clean and true-to-life aesthetic is twisted around by bears with glowing eyes charging at enemies.

Also like recent Battlefield titles, STRIDEN will feature a class-based system that sees players pick up one of five roles:

• Assault
• Engineer
• Medic
• Scout
• Support

They’re roles that are replicated word-for-word in Battlefield 5, which boasts a very similar style and feel as a result of the World War II-themed setting. Strangely, STRIDEN doesn’t appear to be rooted in any particular era, as a range of weapons covering around 80 years are available, spanning WWI to the Cold War. Oh, and there’s also a closing field of fog that threatens to strangle players as the match progresses, which lines it up with the likes of Call of Duty Warzone and Fortnite.

In another Battlefield 5-like twist, we see a player pulling out a hammer and using it to build defences marked by ‘silhouette-style’ outlines, which again is a mechanic stripped clean from EA’s 2018 FPS title.

Here’s the trailer:

On the surface, STRIDEN looks fantastic, and in the trailer, we see high-octane combat sequences fused with exploration elements that cover a large map. Wildlife is important in STRIDEN, but when players aren’t transforming into bears, they’re using a wide variety of weapons and gadgets to destroy other teams and secure the best loot. It has the potential to be something solid, but has it ‘borrowed’ too many features from other games to be truly original?

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