PAX East – Project Cyber Hands-On Impressions

All you have to do is look at what Spearhead did with Tiny Brains, and the transition to a three vs. three, team based multi-player game, entitled Project Cyber (working title), seems like a no-brainer. Tiny Brains was at its best when it was able to use the unique abilities of each individual character in Tiny Brains, Project Cyber takes that foundation and expands it. Project Cyber is played by each team using the abilities of a character to propel a disc into the goal of the opposing team (think hockey). The team that scores the most goals within the time limit wins.

Each character has two normal abilities in addition to an ability that is tied to a cool down. For example, I was playing the Negotiator, and by all accounts they’re supposed to be played as a defensive character — even though, a Spearhead team member ensured me the Negotiator I was playing could be used offensively. One of his normal abilities was putting up a wall that is able to deflect the disc, and his cooldown ability would send the disc bouncing off the walls. I wasn’t able to demo The Punk, however, he seemed to have a specific offensive function, and scored several goals. Spearhead also has a very ambitious plan of adding an new character every month.

For a game that is relatively early in development, Project Cyber is surprisingly polished, and the interplay between all the characters seemed to be well-executed and balanced. Additionally, the game is quite a bit of fun to play. It is simple to pick up, and minutes after jumping on the mouse and keyboard the booth was literally “booming” with players yelling at each other from over their screens. How Spearhead is attempting to achieve the previously mentioned balance is rather interesting. They are streaming the development process daily on Twitch, and have a sign-up for curious individuals to play and provide feedback.

Like previously said, for a game so early in development it looks primed to put a dent in competitive PC gaming. It was refreshing to play something that is being built from the ground up with community input, and Spearhead is taking the wacky abilities they do so well and creating a game that could potentially become a competitive PC gaming staple.