Why you should play Off The Grid, a new battle royale, now

As multiplayer shooter games move away from battle royale and extraction formulas, Off The Grid, now playable by everyone, attempts to combine both with fun new mechanics that breathe life into tired game types.

Off The Grid is a free game in Early Access on PC and in open beta on PS5 and Xbox Series X, which is functionally the same. While it adopts many gameplay mechanics from previous battle royale games (like Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone), it offers more movement through jetpacks and greater variety thanks to so-called “Cyberlimbs,” which have different abilities that can be swapped out can be in and out during a round.

All of this gameplay somehow fits into a surprisingly well-designed world, where the games you drop in are watched by fans around the world looking for carnage. With cheeky self-reference, the game’s fighters flown in to fight are elite players (looking to get rich) and ex-military personnel, all of whom agree to have their arms and legs removed so they can quickly attach new cyber limbs on the battlefield . “Off The Grid” is part schlocky satire of streaming culture, part call-out to gamers who play battle royale-style games, and it’s all a smart, self-aware story.

It should come as no surprise that Off The Grid studio Gunzilla Games received help from Hollywood in realizing its world-building, particularly through short films by Neill Blomkamp, ​​whose sci-fi films (District 9, Elysium, Chappie) feel like feel tailored to the game’s universe. A new in-game cutscene about cyberlimbs, first shown during the Early Access release, was directed by Blomkamp – and is a bit gnarly, so viewer discretion is advised.

So far, the game only has one mode that mixes battle royale and extraction shooter formats, but there could be more to come that offer different gameplay. Since the game is in Early Access, you can expect these details to change.

Would you like to try Off The Grid? Here’s what you should know.

What is Off The Grid?

Off The Grid is a third-person shooter coming to Early Access for PC (via the Epic Games Store only), PS5, and Xbox Series, according to a GameRant interview with Gunzilla Games CEO Vlad Korolev in May (although it is unclear whether the PC will also be included).

How do I get Off The Grid early access?

Off The Grid is in Early Access on PC and can be played via the Epic Games Store. It’s free to play and has benefits you can unlock without spending a dime. However, there is a battle pass and other microtransactions in the game. Off The Grid is free to play in open beta on PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles, which you can download from their respective digital stores.

Who does Off The Grid?

Off The Grid is developed by Gunzilla Games, a Ukraine-based studio that has been presenting the game at major trade fairs such as Gamescom for several years. They’ve also conducted several closed gameplay tests for the game, and this current Early Access (or open beta on consoles) is the first large-scale release to be made available to the public.

How is Off The Grid different from other battle royales?

Two big innovations make Off The Grid stand out from the crowd of multiplayer shooters. As soon as you enter the game, you can find various interchangeable limbs that you can swap out for your own and offer great abilities such as: B. extended jumps, ground strikes, ballistic shields or invisibility. There is also a jetpack that you can use at any time to gain altitude and reposition yourself for flights. However, if damaged, it will be temporarily disabled.

These features make Off The Grid’s gameplay more mobile and dynamic than other battle royale games. There’s the usual mix of weapons and backpacks to collect and swap as you roam areas and open loot boxes full of gear, and a small amount of other quirks that make it a new take on old subgenres of shooting games.

How to play Off The Grid

For now, in Off The Grid’s Early Access phase there is only one mode you can play: Extraction Royale, a mix of both genres. 60 players drop onto a map with a slowly closing ring that pushes teams of players towards each other. There is a menu option for a Battle Royale that is not playable, so for now players will only have Hybrid mode available to start.

As with other battle royale games, after entering the game’s map, you’ll find new gear in scattered loot boxes, which contain a random selection of weapons, cyberlimbs, cash, and goodies. The boxes contain consumable armor plates that you can manually deploy for additional protection, similar to Call of Duty: Warzone. You also need to conserve your inventory, which can be expanded with backpacks.

There are currently 21 weapons, divided into seven categories of typical modern shooting weapons: assault rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, sniper rifles and pistols. They come in varying rarities and add more attachment slots as you level up.

Like other battle royale games, all you have to do is go down with a gun and your wits. Aside from what you find on the ground or on the bodies of dead enemies, you can retrieve pre-made loadouts (more on that later) that cost cash, which you pick up from loot boxes. But you should have cash ready to be able to retrieve your teammates later in the round. At the start, players respawn for free, but after a certain point (there will be an announcement) only respawn machines will bring them back into battle.

What are Cyberlimbs?

Cyberlimbs come in two varieties: arms and legs. They give you similar abilities that are usually tied to characters in other shooters. Unlike Apex Legends, where you rely on one set of skills throughout the round, Off The Grid allows you to rotate your limbs in and out as you find them (which takes a moment and is therefore not advisable during a fight ). Abilities have a cooldown before they can be used again.

There are 13 different weapons with abilities including a hook shot, goo bomb, poison smoke grenade, ranged missile, invisibility, sword slash and fire grenade. Note that the arms in a round come in the specified left and right variants and are not interchangeable. There are four leg types, which include increased jumps and temporarily higher sprint speeds. Enemies can destroy limbs when shot. So be careful – if someone takes out your legs, you need to get to safety.

Off The Grid Extraction Elements: Hexes and Loadouts

Rounds in the current Extraction Royale game type do not end with you extracting the card; Instead, you extract items to unlock them after the games are over. These items, called hexes, are small cubes that you find randomly in loot boxes.

Extracting hexes is no walk in the park. You need to find a special extraction module on the map, insert your hex and turn it on – this will inform everyone in the area about what is happening. A long countdown timer starts and you must defend the machine as others can hijack your process and steal the hex for themselves.

Hexes contain cyberlimbs, weapons, cosmetics, or other goodies, but they do not help you during a round. Once extracted, you can unlock them using Energy (a limited resource that you gain from playing games and completing challenges) and then insert them into loadouts.

The more items and the more unusual the rarity, the more cash you will need in the round to claim a loadout. Therefore, it may make sense to reserve one of your loadout slots for cheaper options at the start of a round or at a later date. You have little money.