Naraka: Bladepoint was originally sold as a more traditional MMO when it was revealed at 2019’s The Game Awards, but since then developer 24 Entertainment has switched gears, pivoting Naraka: Bladepoint towards the ever-popular battle royale genre. Now, a single map will feature 60 players all battling it out to see who’s best.
The rest of the game seems to have been retained, from its extreme parkour to a grappling hook that can get you anywhere in the blink of an eye. Players come armed with swords, polearms, bows, guns, and magic spells of all kinds, ensuring that nobody is without their preferred method of mayhem.
A gameplay reveal trailer from last month showed off much of Morus island, as well as the game's stealth mechanics that allow you to ambush a player for a quick kill. There are also combo attacks and combo breakers to go along with fireballs, healing spells, teleportation, and at least one spell that turns the player into a four-armed ogre.
Bladepoint still doesn't have a release date, but it does have an open beta this weekend. Players can play from now until Monday at 11 AM PST to get a feel for what Nakara: Bladepoint is all about.
To me, it looks like Naraka: Bladepoint is like a fantasy version of Warframe that got turned into a battle royale game, but that doesn't sound like a bad thing. It'll even run great on newer Nvidia GPUs thanks to DLSS, being the first Unity-based game to support Nvidia's AI-powered graphics processors.
You can download Naraka: Bladepoint on Steam to get access to the beta with no need to request access. It's a 9 GB download, so it shouldn't break your hard drive. So far, only a PC release has been announced, so console players will have to be patient for an eventual port.