Polaris is a new sci-fi shooter that takes inspiration from Halo, Syndicate Wars, and Battlefield, and you'll be able to play it soon.
When you look at upcoming shooter Polaris you'll inevitably think of the vehicular shooter action of series like Halo and Battlefield. What it really reminds me of, however, is a co-op version of Red Faction Guerilla, with fully destructible buildings and a focus on rebellion. If that sounds like your thing, then I come bearing good news - you can sign up to play its first pre-alpha test now, and the test itself is just around the corner.
Polaris is the surprising child of the team behind games like Virginia and Last Stop, created by a spinoff team focusing on sci-fi shooter action. This co-op game places you in a beautiful yet dystopian world where you and your team of three other players engage in guerrilla warfare against the totalitarian Regime. Your goal is to smash infrastructure and ruin the day of your fascist overlords, by whatever means necessary.
To do that you'll have access to weapons galore, including the ability to take over vehicles and ride them about, laying down cavalcades of devastating fire. With a world you can demolish piece-by-piece in the quest for freedom, you can see how this begins to compare to the sadly-defunct Red Faction series, albeit with more blue skies and fewer piles of red sand.
Announced back in June, the first pre-alpha playtest event is about to start and signups are already live. For those who have signed up to the game's newsletter, four Steam keys will be sent out that will give access to the event. Others can simply request access via the Steam page, though these will be manually approved closer to the pre-alpha's launch.
The Polaris pre-alpha playtest runs from Friday September 6 at 10am PDT /1pm EDT / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST through to Monday September 9 at the same time. You can learn more over on its Steam page, where you can also find the button to sign up.
Should you want to dive into something else in the meantime, our guides to the very best multiplayer games and the best upcoming games will keep your excitement flowing into the future.