Tencent and subsidiary Polaris Quest have announced Light of Motiram, an open-world survival-crafter coming to PC, PS5, and mobile devices sometime next year, and it bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain PlayStation franchise.
In a press release, Polaris Quest and Tencent describe Light of Motiram as an “open-world multiplayer survival game” set in a “lush world dominated by mechanical beasts”. I’m sure that you can guess which PlayStation franchise it’s jostling against from that description.
Said press release also promises a “dynamic, impactful combat system” in Light of Motiram, as well as “saga-worthy boss fights” with elemental weaknesses you’ll have to exploit alongside your “mechanimal” friends.
It’s probably worth pointing out at this stage that if you haven’t figured it out already, the PlayStation franchise with which Light of Motiram seems to share its mechanical DNA is, of course, Guerrilla’s Horizon series.
The game’s “mechanimals” are strikingly similar to Horizon‘s creatures, right down to the soothing blue light that appears to represent their vision and the articulated limbs and appendages the creatures seem to have.
However, gameplay-wise, it seems like Light of Motiram will differ quite a bit from Guerrilla’s series; it won’t be a single-player action-adventure game with RPG elements, but a free-to-play survival-crafter with base-building and a multiplayer focus. Whether that’s an improvement, I’ll leave up to you to decide.
Polaris Quest and Tencent are promising “realistic physics simulation” in which every object in the game is subject to a physics engine, as well as weather systems you’ll need to respond to in order to emerge victorious against the mechanimals and survive in Light of Motiram‘s world.
Tencent’s game will also differ in a few other key ways; you can enlist mechanimals to help you in combat and crafting, for instance, and you’ll also unlock new crafting recipes as you take down bosses, so it looks like you can throw Palworld and Monster Hunter into the mix as well. Jolly good!
Light of Motiram is set to launch on PC and “console platforms” next year. Some reports based on Chinese social media seem to indicate this means PS5 only, and that the game is coming to mobile devices too, but the press release doesn’t specify. You can wishlist it on Steam right now if you like.
