Behold: Nikita Buyanov, the game director behind Escape from Tarkov, premiered on November 4 the first 14 minutes of gameplay of Fragmentary Order, the hardcore sci-fi tactical shooter from his new studio, Rant Gaming. On the same day he opened Prime Batch, a paid closed-testing program priced at $44.99 for the Candidate tier and $79.99 for the Founder tier. The game is PC-only and is sold through its own site rather than Steam; prices checked on November 5.
A world where war has been outsourced
The premise, my dear readers, is deliciously absurd. Fragmentary Order is set across the Solar System in 2251, and combat has become labor: players fight through RepEnts, remotely operated clones deployed across a broad theater of operations. Losing a RepEnt is a cost, not an end. In the studio’s own words, death is a business expense, risk is an investment and combat is work.
The approach is hard sci-fi, “predicting the future” instead of inventing magic: according to the studio there is no wall-hack trickery, and the electromagnetic sensors you rely on also expose your own signature. Maps are large, with varying environmental conditions, vehicles, drones and smart systems, and operations are squad-based with up to four players. The trailer is in-engine footage, and the game runs on Unreal Engine, according to Insider Gaming.
Buyanov summed up the ambition like this: “We’re not building a match you play. We’re building a world you live in, for years. Tarkov is still worth playing after ten years, and I want Fragmentary Order to be just as playable and engaging a decade from now.”
What Prime Batch includes
Prime Batch is the game’s paid closed-testing program: it runs throughout the pre-public development phase and, per Rant Gaming, becomes unobtainable afterwards. The Candidate tier ($44.99) grants access to alpha sessions and major technical playtests, a “Candidate” ranking designation and an in-game package still to be announced. The Founder tier ($79.99) adds a Founder package, earlier experimental builds, early roadmap visibility and a closed community with direct developer access. A player’s rank on cor3.gg, the game’s ARG-style companion experience, grants discounts that stack with vouchers earned during that event.
In practice, this means paying to test a game that has no release date yet: the first closed alpha wave, under NDA, is planned for later this year, and another FragOTV podcast will detail the testing schedule. Rant Gaming says it has a team of 150 and plans to grow to at least 500 developers. Sales go through COR3, a direct-to-consumer PC publisher and platform, and Fragmentary Order is its first major exclusive, so no Steam page for now.
The world is not ready for another hardcore Buyanov shooter… and I love it. If you would rather play something today, check the free Phantom Line prologue, the GRAVHOUNDS early access launch and our list of November releases.
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See also this month’s game releases.
Source: Rant Gaming (press release) and Insider Gaming.
