Blacklight: Tango Down developer Zombie Studios revealed back in January that it was planning to make the sci-fi shooter's sequel a free-to-play game. Now, with E3 barrelling down upon us, that sequel has been formally revealed as Blacklight Retribution.

It's been picked up by Perfect World Entertainment, the publisher who's also brought us free-to-play MMOs Jade Dynasty and Battle of the Immortals, and owns a majority stake in Torchlight developer Runic.

"Blacklight Retribution will set the new standard for free-to-play shooters, by fully leveraging Unreal 3 technology and implementing DirectX 11 to give gamers cutting-edge graphics that will blow away expectations as well as minds," according to the announcement. Blowing expectations and minds. It does have mechs, which are, if not mind-blowing, always pleasant at the very least.

Blacklight Retribution will be released exclusively on PC under a free-to-play model. Unlike the original, it seems there'll be no console release. There's no word on what exactly will be charged for, but the usual assortment of XP boosters, bonus weapons, and other premium gubbins are probably to be expected. Perfect World hasn't stated a launch window either, though Retribution will be on show at E3 this week.