The devs behind Fortune’s Run, an upcoming shooter/immersive sim that looks like a grungier The Fifth Element and plays like Jedi Knight at 1.5x speed, just announced a July-September early access release window with a fly-through of one of its early levels. This “ridiculously huge, fully simulated centrifugal gravity space station” features a fully-modeled exterior set against the void of space, and strikes me as a fascinating departure from the game’s demo level, Trouble at Club V’heni.
Set to more of the game’s banger breakcore soundtrack, the trailer weaves in and out of hydroponic labs, long maintenance shafts, and enemy-infested living quarters. I’ve got my fingers crossed that, with all the detail put into the station’s whirring, constantly spinning exterior, we might do a little bit of EVA in the inky black as part of this mission. Whatever the case, I’m just happy to finally see another arena for Fortune’s Run’s pulse pounding swordplay.
Some of Team Fortune’s other posts on Twitter show off just what we’ll be getting up to in this space station. This clip shows protagonist Mozah getting up in the guts of its hydroponics system, turning off a fire suppression system, slicing open a pipe full of fertilizer, and setting it alight to trigger an out-of-control fireball in the pressurized environment. Meanwhile, you’ll have to hand-cut bulkheads with a blowtorch, revealing hidden paths through the facility.
Another few posts share some insight on new enemy designs, including how Team Fortune turns fully-modeled 3D characters into pre-rendered 2D sprites, producing the game’s unique throwback look. I’m a big fan of this candy red Darktrooper-looking guy and his delightfully anime cinematic intro.
Of course, while I’m pumped for the space station level, an even bigger get might be a promised train level. These early screens don’t give away too much, but I’ve already got an image in my head of the train missions from Jedi Academy or Blood, just blown out to Deus Ex levels of detail and reactivity. Maybe something like the sick underground tram from Wolfenstein: The New Colossus but with a cool skybox instead of just, well, darkness.
Fortune’s Run has been one of our most anticipated games of 2023 ever since its Realms Deep Demo blew us away last Fall, and we can’t wait to finally try more levels of this striking, singular shooter. You can currently wishlist the game on Steam, and also check out its gaming mag-throwback official website that was so cool, we wrote about it.