EastWorks Studios have recently announced that their narrative driven tactical RTS Gray Zone will launch on Steam Early Access in March. The Slovakian studio promises a new take on the real-time strategy formula, combining the best elements of beloved classics with RPG trappings as well as other interesting mechanics.
Travel many years into the future and embark on the great adventure of Valern, a slave in the hands of a corrupt government who’s destined for great things. Explore colonized planets of our galaxy, worlds rich in animals, creatures and characters. Help Valern face his foes who stand between him and the truth. Both in-game and cutscene dialogs are fully voiced in English.
In Gray Zone you command your heroes and other friendly units to avoid or defeat the enemy, to complete story objectives, mandatory or optional. You build fire teams, use machines, vehicles and weapons, collect and distribute items. Your goal is to choose the right combat strategy to minimize your losses whilst achieving a result. The game allows you to freeze time in “tactic mode”, which gives you unlimited time to re-think your strategy and issue different orders to multiple units at one moment.
The full game will consist of four chapters, each consisting of six missions. Plus a small bonus mission in the first chapter. That’s 25 missions in total. There are 2D Artworks and comics that chronicle the story’s progress between missions. The game also features its own electro-orchestral soundtrack.
The Early Access launch build will include five (out of seven) missions from the first chapter, with the other two being added a few months later through an update. According to the developers, all of the core features are complete ahead of the Early Access launch, so their updates will focus on adding new content and improving the game according to players’ feedback.
Gray Zone will launch on Steam Early Access in March 2020 for US$19.99. The game’s price will increase with each significant update, but players who purchase it for the US$19.99 launch price will receive everything for that price.
