Developer Bad Guitar Studio has announced that it has been working on a new game mode for its card-based competitive shooter FragPunk. Dubbed Farlands, this new game mode will be part of the free-to-play shooter and will give players a new PvPvE experience that revolves around making deliveries across a large map.
The studio describes Farlands as being a “delivery-driven adventure” that combines aspects of the extraction shooter genre with a delivery-based gameplay loop that has drawn some comparisons with Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding. Parts of Farlands drawing the strongest comparisons with Death Stranding include a map with constantly evolving weather, how players have to deal with the packages they are delivering, and even the ability to upgrade your character to improve their carrying capacity so that more packages can be carried at the same time.
The studio has released a trailer that showcases the Farlands game mode, placing quite a bit of emphasis on how important deliveries are to the world of FragPunk. Along the way, players will also have to deal with several threats scattered throughout the world. This includes strange creatures and even the terrain itself, since players will be forced to, among other things, deal with local wildlife, harsh weather, and even hostile terrain like mountains or swamps.
As for how the PvP aspects come in, players can run into each other and have the complete freedom to figure out how they want to deal with each other. This can range from simply helping people out, or even knocking them down to steal the cargo they were delivering so that you can get the reward instead. The narrator in the trailer notes that players should “deliver well” since getting paid means they can “build bigger” to get “better gear, better facilities” and “a stronger operation”.
While the first part of the trailer focuses on the narrative aspects of Farlands, the second half showcases some actual gameplay, with players seemingly being able to drive vehicles, find equipment, and take on a variety of threats. It also shows off some of the terrain-based hazards that players have to deal with, including a snowy region where even the simple act of walking is a challenge. Along the way, players will also get to unlock new cosmetics, giving their characters unique looks in the process.
FragPunk was released last year and, at the time, was praised for its unique take on the standard competitive shooter. The biggest thing setting it apart from other shooters is the existence of Shard Cards, which, according to the studio, allow players to break the rules of the game. These cards can give players unique abilities and equipment, and the studio has also noted that no shard card is locked behind any paywalls. Rather, players are free to “jump in and unleash endless possibilities in FragPunk.”
In our review from when it first came out, we gave FragPunk a score of 7 out of 10 thanks to its art direction and the Shard Card concept adding some intriguing twists to the typical formula. In more recent times, however, the shooter has struggled to maintain a consistent player base, with SteamDB noting that it has barely been getting over a thousand concurrent players on a regular basis.
In the meantime, FragPunk is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Farlands doesn’t yet have a release date.
