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Thunder Tier One gets first trailer, free Steam preview at The Game Awards

From the team led by a former PUBG dev, Thunder Tier One got its first trailer at The Game Awards and is getting a special free preview period on Steam tonight.

Ozzie Mejia

December 10, 2020 6:14 PM

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Not everybody knows the name Pawel Smolewski off the top of their heads. He has a standout resume in the gaming world, having worked as Senior Character Animator on Arma 3 and as Head of the Action and Gunplay Unit on PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. He's now working on his own game, a top-down tactical shooter called Thunder Tier One, which got its first trailer during Thursday's Game Awards. On top of that, players are going to be able to jump in on Steam right now!

Thunder Tier One's first teaser trailer shows the type of tactical action that one would expect to see out of a game like Arma, Rainbow Six, or SOCOM. However, as noted before, this is played with a full top-down perspective. While the camera position may be slightly different, the objectives will be similar to other games in the genre. Players can take part in multiplayer modes like Advance & Secure, as well as Deathmatch. Those looking for a more PvE-type of story can jump into the game's campaign, which will be playable in both single-player and co-op.

Those who want a first taste of Thunder Tier One won't have to wait very long. In fact, as noted at the end of Thursday's trailer, there's a free Steam preview available later tonight! The preview build will feature the aforementioned Deathmatch and Advance & Secure multiplayer game modes, as well as the game's first two campaign missions.

Thunder Tier One's Steam listing has been active for several years, but Thursday marked the first trailer reveal, as well as the first details on its actual game modes. It's inching closer to release, with the final version slated to include a full campaign, additional multiplayer modes, and full mod support. Smolewski previously noted that following a long down period, the team has been hard at work on the game since late 2019 when they were approached by publisher Krafton.

"The last year has been very fast-paced, we have grown the team even further and now have a small, full time studio in Portugal - recruiting people that we know we click with both professionally and personally," Smolewski said back in October. "We've brought in Pedro Pinho, who is responsible for in-game and out-game systems, our lead technical and environmental artist Jorge Aguiar, sound designer Lorenzo Salvadori, Ricardo Mota who handles community messaging and supports with testing features, and level designers Ricardo Sousa and Joao Rebelo. We also hooked back up with our lead content artist Michał Flodrowski who had worked on the project with us at the beginning."

There's no release date for Thunder Tier One, but look for it to be ready sometime in 2021. In the meantime, the free Steam preview will be available until Sunday, December 13 at 8 a.m. PT.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?