There’s a new Kickstarter in town looking to shake things up on some time tested game genres. Introducing To The Death, a hybrid brawler-shmup.
This is the idea, as best as I can tell; two rival warriors, long dead and arisen, with unexplained gravity defying flying/floating skills, are making their way towards each other, fighting minions and upgrading powers along the way. While they think their final faceoff will be with each other, they will end up teaming up for a confrontation with one final boss.
Or at least, that’s the single player campaign. Multiplayer is going to be wild with so many options and modes that you will essentially build up your multiplayer experience. The game is being made by Scary Monstro, another newly minted dev company composed of veteran developers. These are people who helped make the Call of Duty and God of War franchises. With this much talent on hand, they’ve promised the gameplay mechanics have been polished to AAA levels. They’ve also acquired help from art studio Section Studios, music from Logan Mader and sound design from Formosa Interactive.
What I can’t encapsulate into worlds is how pretty the game looks. It runs on full 60 FPS, and animation is smoother than a smartphone surface. They’ve also chosen 2D over 3D animation, which will draw eventual comparisons to Dragon’s Crown – and I think the comparison benefits To The Death.
The project is aiming for $ 400,000, with tentative stretch goals going as high as $ 1,400,000. To The Death is planned for release May 2015 on Steam in all OSes.