Mavericks: Proving Ground is literally the biggest game at E3

Battle Royale games are the new MOBAs – everyone's making them now. Even this year's Battlefield and Call of Duty games have a Battle Royale mode, joining the likes of Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in the gaming industry's hottest subgenre.

When so many developers are trying to get in on the action though, how can newcomers stand out? If you're the upcoming Mavericks: Proving Grounds, you start by scrapping the more-or-less standard 100 player limit and aim bigger. Much bigger – think a 1000 player battle in a persistent world.

Developed by Cambridge-based Automaton Games, Mavericks is aiming to achieve its lofty goals by working with Improbable's SpatialOS, a cloud-based scaling tool that allows developers to build bigger and more immersive worlds. Rather than a single client-server approach, SpatialOS provides multiple servers and can combine resources across them, delivering what each player needs at the time. The result is much larger worlds, more concurrent players, and persistence of their actions in that world – think bridges that stay demolished after you take a rocket launcher to them, or fires that burn down forests, permanently removing areas of camoflage.

The plan for Mavericks is to build to a larger tactical multiplayer shooter game – one set on a post-World War 3 version of the British Isles where an autocratic government oversees everything, and forces rebels to fight to the death to stem resistence. Post-Brexit parallels aside, the final version will have what Automaton Games' CEO James Thompson calls a "player driven narrative" as gamers push back against the corrupt administration.

The game will also include a central hub known only as "The Capital", which is intended to be a Destiny-style social hub where players can meet, trade, and partner with other players in a neutral space, before heading out on missions. The Capital's gleaming but ominous central tower will be a fixture, hovering like the Eye of Sauron over every playable space to drive home the oppressive nature of the world, but also serving as a fixed compass point players will always be able to see, helping them plan movements in-game.

Using SpatialOS means the final Mavericks game world could be one of the biggest seen in the genre to date. It's set to span a colossal 16x16km area, and include that much-vaunted persistence based on player actions. The Battle Royale mode will be slightly smaller, at 10x10km, but that still dwarfs PUBG's roughly 6x6km area.

"We have a distributed cluster of computers being very smart about what information goes to what server," says Thompson. "For example, you’re looking a certain way, and the update rate dynamically changes the players behind you, depending on what you have equipped. The actual network layer knows a lot of information about what your player's doing, what it's doing and how it can see the world, and that literally blocks what needs to be known by different workers across the map."

The game will be soft launching with a closed beta this winter, using the Battle Royale to test its server load and the technology behind it. The first, expected around August/September, will accommodate 200 players, then 400 players "very quickly afterwards", according to Thompson. The full 1,000 player version is set to be available to beta testers by December, while the persistent world elements are due to be pushed live in 2019.

Sadly, none of this was on display when I played Mavericks at E3 2018. Poor internet provisions at the venue meant I was only able to play a local four-player match, getting no impression of how larger player numbers affect gameplay.

Despite being a pre-alpha build, it looks solid visually, although there were only three character models available. Expect more come release. Mechanically, it plays as you'd expect a Battle Royale to play, starting you off in a forested area with time to find weapons, ammo, and armour before the combat zone starts shrinking, forcing players into conflict.

The rural setting of the map provides ample opportunity for cover, secreting yourself away in bushes or between the crags of more mountainous terrain. Sound appears far more important than in other Battle Royales, with some excellent directionality allowing you to pin point where other players are in relation to you from the sound of their movements. It was harder to get a feel for the game tactically, only playing a few matches, but it has potential – blowing up gas canisters to create a lure or distraction, or using the smoke from fire to hide your approach on enemies proved possible, and emerged naturally from seeing how elements of the environment reacted to my actions. It was an enjoyable shooter experience played locally, but by virtue of technological failings, I still have no idea how Mavericks stacks up as a massively multiplayer experience.

However solid the final version proves to be, there is still an elephant in the room when it comes to Battle Royales though, no matter how many payers they cater to – the whole problem that everyone's chasing the craze. Will that lead to burnout?

"I don't think think people have to find other Battle Royale games fun to think that Mavericks isn’t going to be a really exciting experience," says Thompson. "There are so many more things we're doing with Mavericks than Battle Royales have done so far. I can enjoy playing Battle Royale games, but I don't personally find them as exciting as what we're doing with Mavericks."

There is huge potential in Mavericks, both as an online multiplayer shooter steeped in its own lore and narrative, and as a Battle Royale. If the closed betas and gradual launch can deliver on its promise of massive scale, unrivalled player numbers, and impressive core mechanics, then this could be something very special.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK