'Turn-based game... but competitive!'

Rift developer Trion Worlds has announced its newest project: Atlas Reactor.

A free-to-play, simultaneous turn-based strategy game, all players carry out their turns at the same time, meaning there isn’t hours and hours of downtime. They make out like this is revolutionary, but I’m pretty sure Frozen Synapse did the same thing a few years ago.

Anyway, the game puts you in control of a team of “Freelancers”, who battle for the last remaining reactor on the planet. Trion is really trying to build a detailed world around the game, giving each character his own style and personality, and writing in-universe news posts about what’s happening in game.

The optimistic side of me thinks this looks pretty neat: a strategy game that doesn’t take forever, with a cool art style and rad character designs. The rest of me is cautious to see just how people take to it when it comes out, because it does feel kind of like Frozen Synapse-by-way-of-Overwatch.

You can sign up for the Atlas Reactor alpha over on the official website.