Project ETHOS has room for growth in more ways than one

Late last week, 2K Games unveiled the debut project from the team at 31st Union. At first glance, it was easy to get caught up to its visual similarities to the gobs of hero shooters in the gaming landscape. It's hard to ignore its on-the-surface resemblance to games like Overwatch. However, when those comparisons are cast aside, Project ETHOS shows some potential and with some development time, could be a contender in its own right.

The best way to describe Project ETHOS would be to call it a shooter that combines PvP and PvE elements. The game starts off by being thrown into a central hub world known as the titular ETHOS. Players all join in to chat with the game's various NPCs and then launch themselves into the primary game mode known as Trials. Trials is an extraction mode where the objective is to collect Cores, which can be done in a number of ways. When time runs out or whenever the player is ready to exit, they can run to their extraction point and exit the game, though escaping safely isn't as easy as it sounds.

Project ETHOS' Trials mode pits players in squads of three. While the macro goal is to collect Cores, the best way to do so is by eliminating other players and taking theirs. With a selection of weapons, unique character abilities, and secondary gadgets available across the map, players must use what they have available to defeat any foes they may come across. With most inventory items, as well as armor and health recovery, being available via crate, it makes the moment-to-moment gameplay loop feel much closer to a game like Apex Legends. This proves especially true given that there are multiple playable characters with unique skills and abilities, each of which can be upgraded as the Trials session goes on through a mechanic called Evolutions.

Survival is also essential in Trials, yet can become more difficult as the game goes on. Those who rack up a high kill count and, consequently, collect a high number of Cores will have Bounties placed on them. If a player has a Bounty on their head, their position will show up on the minimap and give others a high-value target. It's a cool idea to give players an incentive to go after a person on a hot streak or, conversely, give them a dangerous threat to avoid entirely.

One idea that helps Project ETHOS stand out is the idea of Events, which trigger regularly throughout a session. This provides an alternate means to collect Cores by tossing in a PvE objective. It could be as simple as taking out a slew of hostile robots in a certain area. What makes this interesting is that while Events can be a strong source of Cores, they inevitably attract multiple teams, meaning it quickly turns into a PvP slugfest. It's a novel way to force some action in case things start to feel a little slow.

The extraction element of Trials is another neat way to force some action. After collecting Cores, the object is to leave the map safely. Players can go to the extraction point at any time, but those who stick around for the long haul will have a harder time exiting. Once the session timer runs out, a circle will close in, similar to most other battle royale games. Everyone will be headed to the extraction point, where CPU-controlled robots will be waiting. Upon dispatching the robots, it'll be time to exit, but players may also have to compete with other users looking for one last score by popping them at the last second and stealing their hard-earned Cores.

Cores takes from the Trials mode can be taken back to ETHOS and turned in for Augments. This is the roguelike aspect of the game in play, giving players permanent buffs that can be used in future runs. It's similar to ideas from games like Hades, where by the 20th or 30th run, a player's character will be vastly stronger than when they first started.

Project ETHOS brings some neat ideas to the table and it'll be interesting to see how 31st Union builds on them to create something that's wholly their own. The team will have some challenges ahead of it. Creating a strong first impression will be paramount and it may mean going back to the drawing board with the art style, which looks like a retread of most other hero shooters on the market.

The other big issue is that the game has a presentation similar to games like Apex Legends and Fortnite, right down to the usage of teams and some full-on PvP battles. However, beyond collecting Cores, there doesn't seem to be much else at stake. Players are given medals depending on how many Cores they collect, but there's nothing else that really comes out of a successful Extraction. There are no real winners or losers among the teams, there are no post-match stat screens, or even any way to give post-match kudos to the other players in your squad. With that said, this is only a community playtest, so it's reasonable to expect that these features will eventually come in time, maybe by the time it hits the beta stage.

When Project ETHOS was first revealed, I had some good laughs at its expense. After all, put out a game looking like that and it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Perhaps I was a little unfair and having now tried it, I can say that it's still a game that looks like nearly every other hero shooter on the market, but it does have some interesting ideas. Whether the final product blossoms into a competent multiplayer experience remains to be seen, but in the meantime, we'll continue monitoring Project ETHOS. It's coming soon to PC and, while the community playtest is over, it's likely that 2K will put it back in the hands of players before long for some additional feedback.

This preview is based on a Steam key provided by the publisher. The final product is subject to change.

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?