Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade is a F2P PlanetSide-ish war 'em up

The announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade this week was quite confusing, both because it was light on details and because, well, it's made by the folks behind Wet and Naughty Bear. But, new details: it'll be a free-to-play PlanetSide-y PvP fight for control of planets, with a splash of AI Tyranids on the side to add extra trouble.

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The announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade this week was quite confusing, both because it was light on details and because, well, it's made by the folks behind Wet and Naughty Bear. But, new details: it'll be a free-to-play PlanetSide-y PvP fight for control of planets, with a splash of AI Tyranids on the side to add extra trouble.

The Space Marine, Eldar, Chaos Space Marines and Orks will duke it out for control of planets over three-month campaigns, MMORPG.com reports. Elected players are in charge of the war efforts, issuing orders which aren't mandatory for players but will offer bonuses. Armies will capture territory across the world, breaking fortresses then refortifying them to fend off the inevitable counter-attack. They'll also need to collect resources to make everything they need to wage a war: weapons, armour, vehicles, ships, armaments and whatnot.

A winner's declared after three months, then the war moves to a new planet.

The free-to-play model is an interesting one, only offering a single class for free: the weedy Ork Boyz. Five of those punks are needed to take down one single Space Marine. Behaviour reasons that freeloaders will always outnumber paying players, and this nicely balances the numbers while providing good incentive to start paying. The other races and rest of the Ork classes will open up for money, so, well, you probably won't want to freeload forever.

Eternal Crusade also has a fifth faction, the swarming Tyranids. These AI-controlled hordes are there to provide a splash of PvE to players who want it, and can interfere with the war effort by, say, infesting a mine, but the game's focus is certainly PvP.

But is Behaviour equipped to make an MMORPG? Studio head Miguel Caron was CEO of Funcom Games Canada, launching MMORPGs including The Secret World, and TSW's dungeon lord David Ghozland is creative director on Eternal Crusade. Behaviour also told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that it's picked up "some of the best MMO tech employees from all the recent layoff in Montreal," referring to the trouble at Funcom one imagines.

Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade is due on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in "late 2015." It's still weird that this is happening, but gosh, the dream does sound promising.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 13, 2013 3:15 PM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade is a F2P PlanetSide-ish war 'em up.

    The announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade this week was quite confusing, both because it was light on details and because, well, it's made by the folks behind Wet and Naughty Bear. But, new details: it'll be a free-to-play PlanetSide-y PvP fight for control of planets, with a splash of AI Tyranids on the side to add extra trouble.

    • reply
      June 13, 2013 5:16 PM

      It's everything I could ever want... /sob.

    • reply
      June 13, 2013 5:27 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      June 13, 2013 5:29 PM

      OK, now I'm interested. This might be the first F2P I actually play or even put money in. If it lets you use vehicles and/or play as a Dreadnaught I will probably be in on this. If there are Titans I will definitely be in on this.

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        June 14, 2013 6:07 AM

        Oh man.. if you can pilot a dreadnaught or predator tank I'm all over this! Or LasCannon Space Marine.. that will be a purchase! I hope this doesn't suck.. I was super disappointed when they cann'd the last space marine 40k mmo.

    • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      June 13, 2013 6:45 PM

      For the Emperor!

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      June 14, 2013 1:36 AM

      I fear one hell of a flop Behaviour Interactive is not that good most of the games are poor to just out right bad.

      The only guys i would trust to make this are Relic after the job they did on Space Marine and the DOW games.

      In fact i am fairly sure this will just be a MMO version of space marine just i do not think Behaviour Interactive will pull it off to the same standard.

    • reply
      June 14, 2013 2:11 PM

      Welp, was looking forward to this until I saw who's working on it. Shovelware online games :(

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