On Monday, Hypixel co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme revealed the good news that he’d followed through on saying he’d chat to Riot Games about buying the rights to the Minecrafty sandbox game Hytale by buying the rights to said game. Now, with an independent team back working on the game following the closure of itsoriginal studio, Collins-Laflamme and co have shared a 16 minute look at what Hytale’s currently like to play.
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The snippet shows off some exploring and enemy battling, with the game’s world in its survival-esque exploration mode currently looking straightforwardly hostile and dungeon crawly. You run around, you collect materials by hitting things, then you hit the likes of skeletons before they hit you. The biomes look nicely varied and visually interesting given where the game’s at right now, especially when the light fades, allowing certain fauna or weather effects to coat the area in an atmospheric coloured glow. The combat and climbing animations also look very fluid and snazzy.
“I promised players videos, screenshots and blog posts,” Collins-Laflamme wrote in the video’s description. “One day after the acquisition, I’m keeping that promise. Now that you’ve seen the first gameplay footage in a long time, I’m heading back to work on the early access launch. The team will share more clips and screenshots as we go. It mattered to me to release raw footage today so we break the curse once and for all. Stay tuned, Cursebreakers. More is coming.”
According to that same description, this snippet is “the original legacy engine from the 2018 trailer, running on a four-year-old build as we push Hytale forward again”, and was “recorded in a single morning and put together by Collins-Laflamme. “No bells or whistles,” the blurb adds. “Just the game as it is. Raw and broken, but still beautiful.”
As you might expect given this showcase has come so soon after the announcement of Hytale changing hands, there’s no fresh update on when its promised early access launch is due or how much it’ll cost you to grab. Though, Collins-Laflamme’s been clear the team plan to show off more of the game and has delivered on that right out of the gate, so for now there seems no reason to doubt your patience in giving the devs time to finalise those key details won’t be rewarded soon.
