If you asked me to bet on what the folks behind World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes were cooking up next, my first, second, and third guesses would not have been Steel Hunters, a third-person PvPvE mech shooter. Wargaming just unveiled Steel Hunters at The Game Awards and announced that the first playtest starts today, December 12, and runs through December 22.
At a briefing last week, Wargaming told us more about Steel Hunters. First of all, the suits of mechanized armor players control aren't "mechs in the traditional sense," as Wargaming put it—they're basically robots uploaded with a human consciousness. Wargaming just calls them hunters. While the distinction seems arbitrary, getting away from the word "mech" might be an effort to set expectations accordingly. Hunters aren't walking tanks with swivel points and guns for arms—they're humanoid or animal-like combatants, several of which hold weapons with hands and can punch stuff. More Gundam than Mechwarrior, basically.
