PvPvE with robots. What STEEL HUNTERS, a new game from Wargaming, has to offer

Wargaming has established itself as a developer and publisher of popular multiplayer arcade combat simulators. But during The Game Awards 2024, Wargaming announced something new and unrelated to the main World of franchise – STEEL HUNTERS from the British Wargaming studio in Guildford. This PvPvE third-person shooter is a mix of Battle royal and Extraction. Such a mixture of genres can seem both extremely trendy and unlike anything else. Let's figure out what it is, who it is for, and whether this free game, which has already been released in Early Access on Steam, has any prospects.

Who are the Steel Hunters and what is happening here?

The world of STEEL HUNTERS is built in a post-apocalyptic setting. A cosmic catastrophe has destroyed almost all of humanity, but the remnants of civilization, divided into factions, are engaged in the usual human-like extermination of each other in the fight for a valuable new resource that the cataclysm brought with it - Starfall. This new material also revealed a rare feature of some people, which allows them to transfer their consciousness into huge robot hunters. It is in the role of such mechs with human consciousness that players will fight on abandoned lands for control of Starfall.

There are currently seven hunters available in the game from four factions. Each has a unique appearance, movement features, combat equipment, and progression. The most classic representative of the combat robots, the Razorside, will be available first. This is a basic yet versatile character that allows you to try out the basic mechanics and get acquainted with the behavior of these large and inert machines on the battlefield. It has renewable shields and grenades.

Trenchwalker is Razorside's faction ally and a combat medic who can regenerate health for himself and his partner. Heartbreaker is a mercenary with a sniper rifle who fights exclusively from a distance, and owes her survival under fire to fast movement and camouflage. The last of the humanoids is the mysterious Prophet, who looks more like a mage from fantasy worlds and uses an unusual energy cannon and can call a fire support drone.

In addition to the usual humanoid robots, STEEL HUNTERS features an unusual trio of characters from the Scrapers faction. These are four-legged zoomorphic robots. Here is the panther-like Fenris, the armored and hardy bear Ursus, as well as a spider with a minigun and Weaver shields for positional battles.

All machines differ in weapons, skill sets and movement speed during combat, which diversify the tactics of shooting and will suit almost any style of play. At the same time, controlling the robots does not require the reflexes of an e-sportsman to win in duels. This lowers the threshold of entry for new players and provides a pleasant experience. In the near future, the developers promise to expand the list of characters.

However, after a dozen hours in multiplayer battles, you can notice the favorites of the audience. Partly this is a preference for the appearance of the mechs. After all, they are very detailed here, which is more on that later. But the main reason seems to be the unfinished balance - some characters are simply easier to play. Especially if you play with random partners, who you can't always rely on. And here the abilities of some hunters come to the rescue, for example: shield regeneration, or a sniper rifle for fighting from afar, avoiding the threat of being surrounded.

Game cycle and genre features

Having chosen a hunter to your taste, you can go on a hunt. The mixture of genres of STEEL HUNTERS builds an interesting perspective of the development of the match. First of all, it is a shooter, and therefore you need to learn to practice with the weapon of the chosen hunter and fight with appropriate tactics. Then there is a mix of Royal Battle with Evacuation - together with a partner you need to survive the other five teams, or make it to the evacuation point first. On the way to the goal, we have fun with PvE elements - it's about collecting resources and hunting bots to get improvements during the battle.

The map features hunting areas and supply points where you can knock out or find improvements to your mech's characteristics: damage, armor, and health, consumables for repairs and quick summoning of a partner in case of death, as well as energy boosters for leveling up within the match.

You can knock out special rare items from containers and high-level enemies. This can be a shield dome, a core booster. The most interesting is the colossus kit, which allows an already large mech to become even larger and more survivable. In this mode, the berserker tank can withstand a lot of damage and inflict even more damage on enemies. The player's arsenal becomes missiles, a throwing spear and a powerful melee attack.

For various actions, such as killing bots or enemy hunters, experience is given and the level of the mech rises. In total, during the match. you can get five levels. Each level opens up new skills, that is, the entire arsenal of possibilities will not be available from the beginning of the match. And for the most successful course of the battle with opponents, it is better to prepare.

Matches in STEEL HUNTERS take place on three fairly large maps. They mark areas with containers with valuable loot and hunting grounds where you can hunt rare drones. Teams of other players can claim the same loot. This is where the first clashes begin. After a while, a random evacuation zone is activated and the stakes become higher. After all, the first to capture this zone receives a larger reward.

It's great to have a constant partner to play with. This will open up new tactics and allow you to defeat even the strongest fighters if they don't have similar synergy.

Progression and leveling

In addition to leveling up within the match, STEEL HUNTERS also features the usual general progression. There is a general account level, increasing which gives experience boosters, various in-game currencies, including the resource needed to unlock new heroes.

The first in-game currency and resources are given by completing a short course for a young fighter, which will introduce you to the basics and introduce you to the main mechanics. Surprisingly, these training missions look more developed than the online mode. It felt like they had all the mechanics that were planned, but they haven't been added to the PvP mode yet.

In addition, there is a leveling of each mech in the form of a branched tree. This gives room for customization, because you can "level up" different branches and choose different skills to use in battle. So this system looks quite deep and well-thought-out. Some of it is leveled up for mech level points, and some for game currency, which, by the way, is now generously poured in for levels and completing daily challenges. Yes, daily tasks are common for session games, which encourage you to try different tactics, new characters, and reward you for completing them.

Of course, the Free-to-Play game also has premium currency and a battle pass. It has no direct Pay-to-Win mechanics and unlocks a bunch of cosmetics, boosters and currency. Some of the pass rewards are free, while others are locked and purchased for platinum – the premium currency. The first STEEL HUNTERS battle pass lures with a huge discount, and a small amount of premium currency should be in everyone after completing the introductory tasks. Also, some of this currency drops for completing the daily missions of each hunter.

STEEL HUNTERS rewards progression well and doesn't feel too slow. However, due to the small number of available hunters, the resource needed to open them is spread evenly across 100 levels of account leveling. This encourages grinding. And that would be fine, but again, due to the small amount of content, it eventually becomes monotonous.

More about the design and visuals of the game

STEEL HUNTERS maps are not very different from each other. Of course, the biome and design of objects in the locations change. However, the overall design of the levels is not very different, which makes it confusing where and what is located. Although there are different structures on the map, shelters in most cases are formed by folds of the terrain such as ridges and ravines. Although it is possible to jump onto some elevations, it gives a small advantage. I would like to have more verticality in the gameplay.

The detailing of the robots is at a high level. As mentioned above, they all have a unique design and it's a pleasure to look at them in the hangar. The animations of movement, reloading and interaction with external objects are also at a high level. And this is in Early Access.

The background is made up of buildings and other structures left over from civilization, reminiscent of the aftermath of the disaster. Compared to the size of the robots, the buildings seem to be toys and collapse from simple interaction. There is a feeling that the machine the player controls is really huge, heavy and powerful. However, the locations still look somewhat empty, which, combined with the imperfect level design, spoils the impression a little.

The list of bots to hunt is also poor. They are all very similar to each other and differ mainly in health level and size. I would like a greater variety of computer enemies.

Early Access Impressions and Wishes

Overall, the impression from more than ten hours spent in STEEL HUNTERS as different characters is even positive. The low entry threshold and variety of opportunities provide a good incentive to enter the game for an hour after work. The small number of hunters available makes them truly unique and encourages you to try different tactics to find your favorite.

Early access, and early access at that, which allows developers to see the reaction of players to various aspects of the game and improve them. The main thing that catches your eye is the small amount of content. Here, the relative diversity of robots contrasts very strongly with the sameness of locations and literally one type of computer enemies. Due to the limited amount of content, it is very "smeared" on the progression scale and this makes the grind boring, because the reward for it is not so significant. Because the discovery of a new character or at least a skin for an old one is emotionally perceived more pleasantly than just adding numbers to the account of game currency. In addition, before the full release of STEEL HUNTERS, which is supposedly due this year, I would like to see some changes in the balance between different fighters, as well as improved level design so that they do not feel so "flat".

STEEL HUNTERS undoubtedly has prospects for development. But the low online and restrained player ratings on Steam are a signal to the developers to make quick changes and improvements. Whether they will have time to do something before they completely confuse the players depends only on them. We want to see the development of the project and return to the game to try new features. Time will tell if this will happen.

PS When the article was being prepared for publication, information appeared that on April 29, 2025, a new Hunter – Taurus – would appear in STEEL HUNTERS.