Online multiplayer has overtaken the gaming genre and why shouldn’t it? It’s stressful, hilarious and ultimately satisfying to pit your skills against every wannabe salt shaker out there. By now, you’ve hidden in the bushes, grappled for that last bit of ammo and built walls all over the place, so why not do it all over again blind.
From the creators of the VR horror title Stifled, Gattai Games plunges you back into the darkness Daredevil style (minus the acid) in the very first multiplayer echolocation shooter. Muffled Warfare takes a step away from horror and focuses more on trying to sneak up and shoot people that you can’t see.
I had the opportunity to check out the game a couple of weeks ago via a random Facebook message from Gattai’s co-founder that invited me to jump on the game one night. Not knowing what to expect along with several other people we proceeded to wander around the dark and play. Hilarity ensued.
The game hasn’t been released yet so they’re still in the tweaking phase or what the team refers to as “trial by fire”. But let’s get into it, we start off in the dark with a pistol and a vague outline of where we are. With no instructions whatsoever we proceed to wander around, die multiple times and figure out what it takes to be a blind assassin. The game is pretty easy to get into. A right click will send out a little echolocation pulse in whatever direction you’re facing and even your footsteps and the weather outside will showcase a little of your location. Being blind is easy!
Unfortunately every noise you make also lights up your location to everyone around you. So basically without knowing the map, you’re kinda in a catch situation. You could be smart like me and just slowly tiptoe silently waiting for other people to light up their location, or you know have it fail because you’ve just walked yourself into a corner and can’t get out. Or just un-ninja your way through, light up the whole map and just start shooting up! Whatever way you choose to play it, it’s hella lot of fun.
The idea for Muffled Warfare began as a joke after last year’s GDC to put the Stifled concept into an FPS shooter ala CoD: MW. And thus this game was born. My 20 minutes of mindless fun compromised of people mostly just yelling “Who’s there??”. I for one had no idea who anyone was or even where I was. It’s probably for the best no one could see me because I probably looked like the equivalent of an ungraceful penguin dodging bullets.
I’m seeing a ton of Twitchability for this game and if you want to check it out (which you should) it’ll be out on Steam Early Access for less than USD$10. It’ll probably go up after that. So go ahead and wishlist it and check out the team’s other channels on Facebook, Twitter and Discord for more information.
