Hello!

I bring exciting news! We’ve locked down Cobalt’s release date. It’s coming to Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Steam for Windows on February 2nd. It’ll cost $19.99 or equivalent.

I am slightly biased, but it’s worth mentioning that Cobalt is an excellent video game. Your experience may vary but I’ve been playing multiplayer for over three years, and I still think it’s great. Why?

Read on for an impartial breakdown of Cobalt’s awesomeness. Note that Cobalt is developed by Oxeye Game Studio and published by Mojang. I work for Mojang.

ROLLING

Rolling things in real life isn’t usually that much fun. Well, it’s kinda fun. But rolling in Cobalt is extremely fun, especially when you do it mid-battle. Time a manoeuvre correctly and you can deflect incoming projectiles and bounce them back towards your enemies. That makes Cobalt’s gunfights a lot more enjoyable than the ones you might have experienced in other video games.

EXTREME LOCATION-SPECIFIC SLOW-MO

Unlike rolling, slow motion is extremely fun in both real-life and other video games. But Cobalt’s slo-mo is probably the best slow-mo in any video game to date. Why? Because it’s location-specific and triggers automatically. Whenever your cyborg (you control cyborgs in this game by the way) gets in danger from bullets, grenades, or incoming melee attacks, things slow down around you. That gives opportunity to switch weapons and retaliate, or pull out your fists and punch projectiles back in your opponent. It makes you feel even more skilled than you actually are. Spectacular stuff.

A MASSIVE CAMPAIGN

OK - it’s not massive. But it is pretty big. The latest estimate is around eight hours. You’ll end up shooting a lot of stuff, but there’s a lot more to Agent Cobalt’s adventure than that. Over the past six years, the development team have laced in a ridiculous amount of features from dancing mini-games, to tameable pets, to conversation trees that can lead to fulfilling relationships with mushroom people. You also get to upgrade your suit and weapons to your liking as the adventure progresses. It’s great, OK?

SPEED AND COMBAT CHALLENGES

Though I’ll get into more multiplayer aspects of Cobalt in a moment, it’s worth talking about another type of competitive mode - the Speed and Combat challenges. The rolling I mentioned earlier can be used for more than just deflecting bullets. Skilled players can punch the ground during a tumble to generate extra momentum. Master the technique and you can generate more speed than characters in other video games could even dream of - that’s why the timed challenges are so enjoyable. Combat challenges are a similar affair, but include guns, and combos, and extra explosions. There are leaderboards so you can see exactly how good you are compared to the rest of the world.

SURVIVAL MODE

You might be familiar with survival or “horde” based modes from other inferior video games. They’re the ones where you take on waves of enemies and upgrade your equipment as the difficulty ramps up. Cobalt’s got that mode too! And you can play it alone or in local co-op.

MULTIPLE LOCAL AND ONLINE MULTIPLAYER MODES

Cobalt also includes loads of multiplayer modes. My personal favourite is Plug Slam - Cobalt’s own future sport. Shoot, throw, or punch the plug into the opponent’s goal to score, and get more points than your opponent to win. It sounds a bit generic in that description but, honestly, it’s great. Cobalt also features deathmatch modes and and Team Strike - an entirely original gametype where two teams fight to the death over multiple rounds and earn currency for upgrades. All multiplayer modes can be played locally or online.

NOW A NOTE ABOUT THE ABOUT THE STEAM RELEASE

As mentioned earlier, Cobalt is coming to Steam for Windows. And it’s going to have Steam Workshop support. That means enthusiastic players will get the chance to create their own levels and share them with others around the world. Pretty cool. Its also worth noting that anyone who’s already bought into the Cobalt alpha will get a Steam code via their Mojang account. Please go to https://account.mojang.com/me to claim your code

So yes! Get hyped! In around 18 days you’ll be able to download Cobalt and experience this wonder for yourself, you lucky sons of a guns.

Owen - @bopogamel