I never thought I’d tire of seeing new FPS games get announced, but I’m starting to get a bit weary of the stream of hardcore shooters with extraction gameplay elements. So, I should be rolling my eyes at the sight of Active Matter. However, I’m not. This eerie, sci-fi twist on games like Escape From Tarkov actually looks super interesting – and what’s more, there’s a closed beta test you can sign up for right now.
Active Matter is the first full title from Team Matter, a newly-formed group of developers from within Gaijin, the publisher behind the likes of War Thunder and Enlisted. At a first glance, it’s got all the realistic, milsim hallmarks of other PvPvE FPS games such as Tarkov, Delta Force, or Gray Zone Warfare. But wait – is that guy walking on the damn ceiling?
The game revolves around the pursuit of a substance called active matter, which has interdimensional and time traveling properties. As a result, when you’re in proximity to it, things start to get a little weird. In Active Matter, you can traverse walls and, yes, ceilings to get an advantage or surprise enemy players. The PvE enemies you’ll encounter are black, spiny “mutants” that are humans that have been overexposed to active matter and that possess “incredible abilities.” While I can’t find any more specific details on how this works gameplay-wise just yet, a press release says that you are “stuck in a time loop, returning, time and again, to the same point after each death.” I’m unsure if this is an actual, Deathloop-y mechanic or just the lore behind reviving and heading into other matches, but it sounds cool either way.
So yeah, this is no ordinary milsim shooter. This freaky sci-fi world has apparently been inspired by SCP lore – for the unaware, the SCP Foundation is a community-created secret organization that is the basis of a worldwide fiction movement.
The core PvPvE experience in Active Matter takes the form of “extraction-style raids” which can be played solo or in small squads. Team Matter says that you’ll be heading “inside quantum unstable zones in PvPvE raids in [your] quest for active matter and other loot.” Once you’ve got the goods, head for a safe zone to extract before the map collapses from the interdimensional strain. Aside from this, there will also be some PvP modes as well where teams will compete for control of active matter sources.
Active Matter is scheduled to release at some point in 2025, according to Gaijin Entertainment. However, right now you can sign up for a closed beta test that will take place soon, if you want to give it a go earlier and help shape its development. You can sign up and learn more about the game here.
Until we see more of Active Matter, you’ll find plenty of intense action on our best multiplayer games list. To see what else is on the horizon, you should head over to our upcoming PC games guide.
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