Marcus Lehto, the man behind the Halo series at Bungie decided to open his indie studio back in 2014 and recently, after 5 years, we finally got the chance to play V1 Interactive’s very first project before its launch. If I want to put it simply, Disintegration is a clever mixture of Halo and Titanfall with some new ideas and promising improvements that make me look forward to its future more than ever before, though it’s not a flawless game. This is our Disintegration beta hands-on preview.
Disintegration is a first-person shooter where most of the action takes place in the air with a little focus on ground battles. It’s like playing Halo while Master Chief is hovering in the air or playing Titanfall while you are controlling a flying Titan. The idea behind the game is a worthy shot from V1 Interactive which isn’t going to disappoint you in the first place. However, it must be said that the game needs more variety to keep you engaged for a long time. Disintegration will be featuring a Campaign mode along with its multiplayer part, but the gameplay structure best fits into a multiplayer experience than a story-driven campaign. In fairness, we really need to hold off saying much about the campaign until its launch. If the developer intends to put multiplayer as a priority, then they have to consider some serious refinements regarding the gameplay.
Before starting every match, each player chooses his faction, which includes the player’s aircraft and the ground soldiers. While the ground army doesn’t differ so much in various factions, the main difference shows itself in three major factors of your aircraft: Speed, Durability, and Damage. Flying with a fast and agile vehicle helps you to stop opponents from aiming at you easily. Also, the size of this cutting-edge air-hoverer matters, as for smaller ones aiming is difficult.
During the matches, you should either capture flags or deliver some cargo to a certain place and all this will be done by the ground troops under your command. While you are busy in the air shooting at opponents, you have to guide your team on the ground in various situations. They can help you to take down an enemy aircraft, reach out to interactive points, and deal with enemy troops in the ground battle. The core gameplay is fun, engaging, and addictive, but it needs to be more balanced and feature better maps.
Among all the seven available factions in technical beta, only three of them feel like smart choices. The weapon distribution between factions is unbalanced with high-durability aircraft featuring too-weak weapons that seem to do little against an agile flyer. The only option is to flee. On the other hand, the three fast factions feature the most powerful weapons as well, making the other groups remain useless.
The two available maps of the game that I was able to try feature dense and small areas with buildings and objects to hide behind, which are proper for 8-player matches. However, I hope the game features bigger maps with more open areas to allow the player to use his flying skills in combat instead of hiding behind objects.
In the case of graphics, especially textures, Disintegration is more like a 7th-gen game right now, which could be improved in the final build of the game. While aircraft design is very welcomed, the environment design is entirely awful. Low-quality and late-loaded textures are the main problems of the game, technically, that have to be refined until its release. Of course, given this was a limited beta event, I have high hopes that all will be addressed ahead of launch.
All in all, there’s a lot to look forward to with Disintegration. But you don’t have to take my word for it! You can try it out for yourself during the open beta that kicks off later today and runs through tomorrow.