While attending E3 2018 this year we had the pleasure of attending a private meeting with Gearbox to show off their much rumored Project 1v1. Some of the most intense moments of gaming come down to when its the the last two players in a match and this game is comprised solely of that!
It is easy to see the amount of influence 1v1 has received from other famous FSP shooters and some of the weaponry even plays almost as a love note to twitchy shooters of days past. As it sounds, 1v1 pits you and your opponent in a typical FPS death match, think like old school Quake or Unreal Tournament with power ups and card boosters littering the field. Each death counts as a tally and whoever has the most kills (less deaths) by the end of the round wins. Not to say this is a lame ass game of hide and seek, killing wont be a problem, as you are running around a very small arena utilizing your abilities to just fucking murder each other with everything from rapid fire Rocket launchers to level hopping ride-able rail guns.
While gun play is the meat and potatoes, 1v1 also brings in card based abilities where each player can select their own customize-able special ability card deck. From turrets, double jumps and even vampire abilities there is no limit to how insane these special abilities are and no way anybody will ever have the same loadout. Once you have selected your cards there is one more additional twist, their abilities are not shared with you until they actually use them in game, thus allowing you (or your enemy) to set up more extreme strategies or hide a”trump card” ability until the end.
When you lose a match of 1v1 you are actually kicked out of your current lobby as you have “lost” your right to fight. However, if you win the match you immediately queue up again to defend your position as the winner. Think more akin to your days as a kid where loser had to give up their controller and winner stays on to keep playing.
If you love old school Quake or Unreal Tournament 2k3 you will immediately fall in love with the controls and weapon styles of 1v1. I am by no means a great FPS player, but UT2K3 was my jam back in the day and muscle memory pretty much took over, this tells me 1v1 will be easy to learn ensuring accessibility to new players.
Now you may ask yourself; “Jason, what makes this game stand out from all the other crazy shooters out there?” Well, I have great news! Project 1v1 (or whatever its called at release) is currently slated to be FREE TO PLAY at launch and will only be monetized via a shit ton of customization to your avatar and card deck. Why is this great news? Because 80% of what made 1v1 so amazing was the level designs and gunplay, meaning, that even a new player has a solid chance to dethrone a seasoned vet as long as they can shoot and we will hopefully avoid any major pay to win pitfalls (looking at you Battlefront).
OK, super honest time, I had a blast with this game and spent well over an hour playing it (as I couldn’t be dethroned) and even with a small amount of abilities/levels to choose from currently it still felt fresh and interesting each round and I found myself shouting for joy with each kill as it was a well earned victory.
I will be watching Project 1v1 very closely over the next year if it stays as tight and fun we could easily have next years game everyone wont shut up about, especially me.