While Zeno Clash might have been on the receiving end of some hefty accolades already, we shan’t forget there are others in line for a title shot at the crown of the new Dark Messiah! A trailer recently reared its head for a new challenger in the seldom-seen HTH-FPS genre, Merchants of Brooklyn (MOB for short).
This CryEngine 2-based, Steam-distributed PC-only game from Paleo Entertainment pretends to the throne from vastly different origins than the two aforementioned fantasy games, for it presents to us a Babelian Manhattan in the year 3100. The city has been rebuilt – entirely skywards, this time – after a devastating flood caused by global warming.
As its inhabitants ascend, not enough work force remains; meanwhile, human cloning has advanced immensely and has primarily refocused on the Neanderthal DNA for its physical resiliency. However, due to a contractual miscalculation in producing workers for the city, too many Neo-Neanderthal clones end up being produced and are outright outcast to be the bottom feeders of the new society.
To the save the local mob – the Merchants of Brooklyn – who discover a lucrative opportunity in the plight of the clones and begin to arrange lucrative Neonean fights to the death. The player, a Neo-Neanderthal himself, has his arm unwillingly replaced with a chainsaw and realizes he’s had enough of the fun and games, and then begins his journey at the very bottom of this violent, bottoms-up society to work his way up – via gratuitous violence – and ultimately exact revenge upon his former masters and take over the Brooklyn empire together with his fellow clones.
The first teaser trailer for the project presents to us an ultraviolent, comic book –influenced dystopia with an off-the-wall setting equally influenced by the new resurgence of martial arts and the combat sports as it is by the environmental panic and the economic downturn. Perhaps. After all, sci-fi has always been a magnificent vehicle for social critique, and although several other games tackle similar ideas as presented in the backstory to MOB, it will be very intriguing to see if there’s more to the game than the bone-crunching melee.
Check out the teaser trailer and pictures after the jump and stay tuned for an in-depth Side to Side on both Zeno Clash and Merchants of Brooklyn!
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