During The Game Awards 2024, publisher and developer Wargaming (best known for World of Tanks) showcased its new game Steel Hunters. It’s a third-person shooter at its core, but it incorporates gameplay elements seen in MOBAs, extraction shooters, and hero shooters with the main hook being the hulking mechs you control called Hunters. You play in competitive objective-based matches in teams of two against multiple other duos (for a total of up to 12 players and six teams per match) and with AI-controlled enemies around the map, making it a PvPvE-style game.
I was able to check out a hands-off demo of Steel Hunters and saw the game in action prior to getting unveiled at The Game Awards. It’s an intentionally slower-paced game with more of an emphasis on tactics rather than twitch-shooting skills, although it does carry many similarities to shooters that inspired it. Multiple capture points are spread across the three different maps available, and emergent side objectives pop up throughout a match which can lead to loot and items that'll help you in combat. Players can also come away with cosmetic items that persist for their Hunter if it can be extracted at a final standoff in a match.
Hunters are essentially the Hero characters with unique playstyles through their own main weapon, set of skills on cooldown, and style of mobility. For example, Fenris is a speedy wolf-like mech that’s nimble while Heartbreaker is a long-range sniper. You also have a combat medic in Trenchwalker and a spider-like tank in Weaver, and ability-focused strategist with Prophet and your prototypical run-and-gun Hunter with Razorside. (You can see all the Hunters available in the beta in the screenshots in this article.) All the Hunters are said to have a level of tactical synergy regardless of which ones are paired together on a team, and players need to use their strengths in tandem to get the most out of their Hunters in matches.
As for the monetization model, Wargaming isn’t straying too far from what’s seen in its other games. Hunters will be highly customizable from a cosmetic standpoint, but each will also have their own progression tracks to unlock different abilities and modifications to customize to a loadout. Wargaming stated that nothing that can be purchased with real money will give players a competitive advantage. However, there will be ways to pay to accelerate progression (essentially time-savers).
You will start with three Hunters available and must either play to make progress towards unlocking new Hunters or pay to unlock them. There will also be a battle pass and seasonal content similar to other live service games; however, the exact details of how these systems work are still to be determined.
A closed beta for Steel Hunters is active now and runs until December 22, which you can sign up for on the official Steel Hunters website. An open beta is planned for 2025, but there is no set date or release window yet. The beta periods and initial release will first come to PC, but Wargaming is planning on having a console version at some point afterward.
Michael Higham is IGN's Tech Editor.
