Crucible, Amazon's Free Shooter, Launches This Month

Amazon has announced that Crucible, its new free-to-play hero shooter, launches on May 20, and will ship with ten characters and three distinct game modes.

Crucible is a competitive game based around collecting Essence, which allows players to level up their characters and enhance their abilities. Team size and objectives depend on the game mode being played, which mix up both PvE and PvP gameplay.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/03/amazon-developed-sci-fi-shooter-crucible-out-next-month-ign-news”]

Modes available at launch are Heart of the Hives, Harvester Command, and Alpha Hunters. Heart of the Hives is a 4v4 mode in which both teams fight boss monsters called Hives, and gain hearts for killing them. The first team to capture three hearts wins the match, and so it’s a balance between killing the Hives and defeating the enemy team. It sounds a little like Destiny 2’s Gambit mode, which is no bad thing.

Harvester Command is an 8v8 mode that asks teams to capture and defend harvesters on the map that provide Essence for the holding team. The team that depletes their opponent’s resource pool is crowned the winner.

Finally, Alpha Hunters is Crucible’s answer to battle royale: eight duos go into the map and fight to be the last team standing.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=crucible-screenshots&captions=true”]

Before heading into any one of these game modes, players must choose a Hunter. There are ten of these characters to choose from, which developer Relentless Studios (one of the Amazon Games studios) says caters to every playstyle. Like a MOBA, your character starts afresh every match, but you have their full array of weapons and abilities from the moment the game starts. Collecting Essence allows you to upgrade your toolset, and the upgrades you get are assigned pre-match from a customisation menu.

Crucible will be available on PC via Steam from May 20. Amazon has made no mention of other platforms so far, so it is unclear if Relentless Studios plans to bring it to consoles.

Crucible’s May launch was previously confirmed by The New York Times, which reported that the game was originally due to land in April. The shooter is just one of Amazon Games’ larger portfolio, which also includes ambitious MMO New World.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter.