Warriors of the wasteland simulator Fractured Lands, a vehicular drive-and-survive game set in the blighted thunderdome of humanity's seemingly-inevitable future, will roar into Steam Early Access release on July 31. And since no launch date announcement is complete without a trailer, we've got one of those for you too.
Fractured Lands is a fairly straightforward battle royale in most respects: Players seek out weapons and gear to use in to-the-death combat within the confines of an ever-shrinking arena, with victory (a Supercharger Royale?) going to the last person standing. What makes it unique is the addition of vehicles (motorcycles and cars will be available at launch, more are planned "very soon"), which provide increased mobility, additional inventory space, and of course more and bigger guns.
We said in our recent preview of Fractured Lands that the Road Warrior twist "doesn't feel necessarily revolutionary," but it is pretty cool—not just because Mad Max machines are awesome, but because of the additional tactical layer they add to the game. "Never get out of the car" is timeliness advice, but in Fractured Lands you might sometimes have to.
"There’s a very tense, asymmetrical, predator-prey relationship that develops deeper into a match between players on foot and players that are still behind the wheel of a claptrap death machine. If you’re caught on foot at ground level by a skilled driver, you’re most likely going to end the round as a hood ornament unless you can quickly duck into a doorway too narrow for your pursuer to follow," we wrote.
"The flipside, though, is that a gunner with a great perch can take pot-shots at passing motorists with relative impunity, daring them to bail out and engage in urban combat to unseat them from the high ground."
The Early Access release of Fractured Lands will go for $20, which also covers the first season of content planned for "the coming months." You can find out more at fractured-lands.com.