Indie devs Robin Entertainment has announced Polystrike, an upcoming 5V5 tactical shooter strictly designed to be played from a top-down perspective.
Set in an original universe, players are either on the side of Iron Will or Vanguard where the battles in the game are part of a larger war.
Polystrike will see you choose weapons, helmets and equipment before you head into a skirmish, not pick a character or class with a predetermined kit (in other words, this is not a hero shooter, or rather, a MOBA).
The tactical aspect comes from how much info you can gleam from paying attention: all the equipment you, your allies and your opponent have are presented visually. The sound of footsteps change depending on how fast you move and what surface you’re stepping on. Weapon and environmental sounds can also be a give away. There’s also a dynamic fog of war.
If you read this far and checked the trailer, you’re probably get the idea: Polystrike is what happens when you make Counter-Strike in Dota 2.
In fact, that is exactly what happened: Polystrike started life as a mod for Dota 2 in 2019 where it recreated CS:GO (featuring maps such as pool_day, Italy and of course, the classic de_dust2) as a game played in the top-down perspective.
Polystrike has since spun out into its own IP, and this standalone rendition has no connection to any Valve-owned IP or game engine (it’s running on Unreal Engine 5).
With that in mind, don’t expect to just go rush B in Polystrike. The bomb site objective has a unique spin to it. Instead of planting a bomb at a designated site, you send a drone to hack The Iron Fish so that it explodes. The Iron Fish doesn’t sit still, it can move around, changing the complexion of the battle when it does.
If the idea of “Dota 2 but CS” (or the other way around) is something that tickles your fancy, Polystrike will be coming to PC (Steam). There’s no release date yet.