author: Arantasar
Ground Branch - Free Tech Preview of Spiritual Successor to Rainbow Six Has Been Released
Blackfoot Studio has released a tech preview of their game Ground Branch, a tactical FPS similar to productions such as Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon. The title is built on Unreal Engine 4, and will be focused on the realistic presentation of special ops.
Ground Branch is a tactical FPS created by Blackfoot, a studio run by two people. In contrast to the spectacular, yet hardly realistic AAA shooters, this title is characterized by a high level of realism and emphasis put on careful planning of each mission. Therefore, producers intend to implement a number of interesting solutions, e.g. collision of weapons with the environment, realistic distribution of ammunition, or damage model in which our hero's behavior is modified depending on where he's hit and what is the depth of the wound. These are pretty serious promises and one could have doubts about their feasibility. Still, we need to remember that one of the members of the development team is John Sonedecker. He's one of the key people from Red Storm Entertainment, the studio whose portfolio includes the first part of Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and Ghost Recon. He also worked on titles such as Advanced Warfighter, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Red Orchestra 2 or Door Kickers. What's more, for many years now Sonedecker has cooperated with the United States Special Operations Command SOCOM in the field of creation of professional training tools for the army.
In Ground Branch, we get to command a small unit of SAD – Special Activities Division. This is a real entity that is the military branch of the CIA. Its ranks include only the best-trained soldiers. Since the unit is a part of the intelligence and not the armed forces, its activities are not restricted by military regulations, which allows it to operate more freely during missions. And these are often carried out in regions that are dangerous in terms of their geopolitical situation and where the US presence is not welcomed.
The tech demo of Ground Branch was recently made available on the official website of the game. As emphasized by the creators, it is not a presentation of the game itself, but only a glance at the technical solutions implemented. Therefore, the content of the material is not too rich; we are given access to an extensive selection module of weapons and equipment, a lobby that acts as a place of preparation before missions, and three maps: two shooting ranges and woodlands resembling a landscape park. We can also test the weapons. The game is built on Unreal Engine 4. You can see the video of the tech demo below:
It hasn't been announced yet when Ground Branch will be completed. The development team has been working on the title for some time now. In 2012, Blackfoot launched a Kickstarter campaign, but out of the planned amount of USD 425,000 the creators only managed to raise USD 111,000. Therefore, they didn't receive any money in the end. Regardless, the developers ensure that they have no intention of abandoning the project. The next step after the tech demo will be the preparation of the Early Access version for Steam.
