When I hear the phrase “map-altering destruction,” Battlefield, naturally, is the first game that springs to mind. The ‘Levolution’ events from Battlefield 4 especially blew me away – you start the game in a sunny, tropical paradise, and by the end it’s shrouded in dust and you’re scrapping with each other in the rubble of a dozen skyscrapers. Combine that with parkour, stunts, and airborne combat, the kind of free-running, acrobatic ducks and dives you can show off in Mirror’s Edge and Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. Then throw in the large-scale combat of Call of Duty and Tarkov, make the whole thing explode on TikTok, and launch a playable alpha on Steam. This is Combat Champions, a new fast-paced FPS where you kill each other to the delight of a stadium audience.
Developed by C77 Entertainment, you might have seen Combat Champions doing the rounds on TikTok and other social media channels. Fast and frenetic, it’s an FPS game in the vein of Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament – no frills, pure combat, easy to learn, but difficult to master.
At the start, you feel like some kind of pseudo-Matrix gunkata maestro, leaping through the air, sliding across the ground, and gracefully eradicating enemies as you go. But then the difficulty curve steps in, and unless you take time to master the maps and learn how best to exploit the acrobatics and stunt tools, you’ll end up left behind.
In Combat Champions, each team represents an in-game corporation, forced to battle one another in front of TV cameras and a baying live audience. You can launch yourself from catapults, drop in by parachute, soar through the air from jump pads, and sprint-slide between cover.
The more mayhem you cause, the more arenas fall to pieces, and if you can catch the eye of the commentators – who run play-by-play on every match – you can rack up more points and rewards. Best of all, Combat Champions is available to try on Steam right now. Just head over to its official page and you can apply to join the current alpha playtest.
Alternatively, try some of the best multiplayer games on PC right, or maybe the best battle royale games, apart from Tarkov and PUBG.