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Upcoming free-to-play hero shooter FragPunk may be entering a crowded market, but Bad Guitar Studio's game has a twist up its sleeve thanks to its random perks, one of which Twitch streamer Michael 'Shroud' Grzesiek was able to decimate an enemy team with in a recent closed alpha test.
FragPunk was revealed during last month's Xbox Games Showcase, and aims to set itself apart from other first-person shooters with its special power-up cards. There are over 70 different 'Shard Cards' in the game, which are selected by each team ahead of each round, and can be used to alter the rules and mechanics. Perks include everything from burning bullets to enhanced jump height, and even the ability to resurrect yourself and the rest of your team, but during the game's recent alpha test, players discovered Ricochet – a card that's already got some terrified about what's to come.
As demonstrated in this clip from Shroud, Ricochet allows your bullets to bounce off surfaces up to three times. That means that if you line up a shot well enough (or if you're plain lucky), you can shoot your enemies from around corners before they've even seen you, which is exhilarating if you're the one doing it, but perhaps less so if you're the one getting hit. In the clip, Shroud is able to kill three players without so much as looking at them by bouncing sniper bullets up a corridor, as well as using the ability to slay a fourth who runs into the room, by shooting the wall behind them for the final blow. The streamer also kills the fifth and final member of the enemy team just to top things off (although not with the Ricochet ability).
ricochet awping pic.twitter.com/LxI9H7A2HKJune 30, 2024
While the sequence of kills was incredibly cool, the response from FPS players has been rather mixed, to say the least. While some say it "looks like so much fun," others are concerned about what it's going to be like to face the ability in matches, with another tweeting: "I die to this in a video game I am simply not playing anymore."
It's definitely worth keeping in mind that this isn't a constant mechanic in the game since it's tied to a Shard Card, which had to be randomly drawn for the round to even have the chance of being selected at all. So, unless you're very unlucky, you're not going to have game after game getting hit with ricocheting bullets from around the other side of a door. Even so, if this Shard Card is just as strong when the game launches as it is now, you can bet that players are going to be rushing to attempt to pull off something similar to Shroud's clip.
FragPunk doesn't have a release date yet, but it's set to launch at some point in 2025 on PC and Xbox Series X.
In the meantime, be sure to check out our roundup of the 25 best FPS games for more action-packed titles to dive into.
