Why You Should Be Playing Off The Grid, a New Battle Royale, Right Now

As multiplayer shooter games drift away from battle royale and extraction formulas, Off The Grid, now playable by anyone, seeks to bridge them both with fun new mechanics that breathe life into tired game types. 

Off The Grid is a free-to-play game in early access on PC and open beta on PS5 and Xbox Series X, which is functionally the same thing. While it inherits a lot of gameplay mechanics from prior battle royale games (like Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone), it has more movement via jetpacks and greater variety thanks to so-called "cyberlimbs" that features different abilities that can be swapped in and out during a round.

All of this gameplay somehow fits in a surprisingly well-crafted world, where the matches you're dropped in are watched around the globe by fans eager for carnage. With cheeky self-reference, the game's combatants flown in to fight are elite gamers (looking to get rich) and former military operatives, all of whom agree to have their arms and legs removed so they can quickly swap out to new cyberlimbs on the battlefield. Off The Grid is part schlocky satire of streaming culture, part sendup of the gamers playing battle royale style-games, and all shrewd self-aware storytelling. 

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Off The Grid studio Gunzilla Games got help realizing its worldbuilding from Hollywood, specifically through short films made by Neill Blomkamp, whose science fiction films (District 9, Elysium, Chappie) feel tailor-made for the game's universe. A new in-game cutscene about cyberlimbs that debuted during the early-access release was directed by Blomkamp -- and is slightly gnarly, so viewer discretion is advised.

So far, the game only has one mode that mixes battle royale and extraction shooter formats, but others could follow, offering different gameplay. Since the game is in early access, expect any of these details to change. 

Want to give Off The Grid a try? Here's what to know.

What is Off The Grid?

Off The Grid is a third-person shooter that's free to play in early access for PC (through the Epic Games Store only), PS5 and Xbox Series X. While there is no crossplay right now, the plan is to eventually allow console players to play with each other (though it's unclear if PC will be included as well), according to a May GameRant interview with Vlad Korolev, CEO of Gunzilla Games.

How do I get Off The Grid early access?

Off The Grid is in early access on PC, which you can play through the Epic Games Store. It's free to play with perks you can unlock without spending a dime, though there is a battle pass along with other in-game microtransactions. Off The Grid is playable for free in open beta on PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles, which you can download from their respective digital stores. 

Who makes Off The Grid?

Off The Grid is being developed by Gunzilla Games, a Ukrainian-based studio, which has been teasing the game for a couple of years at big shows like Gamescom. They've also done several closed gameplay tests for the game, and this current early access (or open beta on consoles) is the first large-scale exposure made available to the public.

How is Off The Grid different from other battle royales?

Two big novelties make Off The Grid stand out from the multiplayer shooter crowd. After dropping into the game, you can find different replaceable limbs to swap with your own that offer neat abilities, like extended jumping, ground slams, ballistic shields or invisibility. There's also a jetpack you can use at any time to gain height and reposition for flights, though getting damaged will briefly disable it.

Those features make Off The Grid's gameplay more mobile and dynamic than other battle royale games. There's the usual mix of guns and backpacks to collect and switch while roaming around areas opening loot boxes full of equipment, and a small slew of other quirks that make it a new take on old subgenres of shooting games.

Gunzilla Games

How to play Off The Grid

Off The Grid's early access period has, for now, only one mode you can play: Extraction Royale, a mix of both genres. 60 players drop into a map with a slowly-closing ring pushing teams of players toward each other. There's a menu option for a battle royale that isn't playable, so for now, players only have the hybrid mode to boot up.

Like other battle royale games, after you drop into the game's map, you'll find new equipment within loot boxes scattered around that provide a random assortment of guns, cyberlimbs, cash and extras. Boxes include consumable armor plates that, much like in Call of Duty: Warzone, you can manually slot in for added protection. You'll also need to conserve your inventory, which can be expanded with backpacks.

Currently, there are 21 guns split across seven categories of typical modern shooter weapons: assault rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, marksman rifles and pistols. They come in varying rarities, adding more attachment slots as they increase in tier. 

Like other battle royale games, you drop with just a pistol and your wits. Aside from what you find on the ground or off the bodies of dead opponents, you can call in premade loadouts (more on those later), which cost cash that you pick up from loot boxes. But you'll want to keep cash on hand to bring your teammates back later in the round. At the beginning, players respawn in for free, but after a certain point (there will be an announcement), only respawn machines will bring them back into the fight.

Gunzilla Games

What are cyberlimbs?

Cyberlimbs come in two varieties, arms and legs. They'll give you similar abilities that are typically locked to characters in other shooters. Unlike Apex Legends, where you're stuck with one set of abilities through the whole round, in Off The Grid you can rotate your limbs in and out as you find them (which takes a moment, so it's not advisable during a fight). Abilities have a cool-down before they can be used again.

There are 13 different arms that have abilities including a hook shot, a goo bomb, poison smoke grenade, ranged missile, invisibility, sword slice and a fire grenade. Note that arms appear in designated left and right varieties in a round, and they aren't interchangeable. There are four leg types, which include increased jumping and temporarily faster sprint speeds. Enemies can destroy limbs if they're shot, so watch out -- if someone takes out your legs, you'll have to crawl to safety.

Off The Grid's streamer announcer holding a Hex, which players can find midmatch and extract.

Gunzilla Games

Off The Grid's Extraction elements: Hexes and loadouts

Rounds in the current Extraction Royale game type don't end with you extracting from the map; instead, you'll be extracting items to unlock after matches are over. These items, called Hexes, are small cubes you'll randomly find in loot crates.  

Extracting Hexes is no picnic. You'll have to find a dedicated extraction module around the map, slot in your Hex and turn it on -- which will alert anyone in the area what's happening. A lengthy countdown timer starts and you'll have to defend the machine, as folks can hijack your process and steal the Hex for themselves. 

Hexes contain cyberlimbs, guns, cosmetics or other extras, but they won't help you during a round. Once extracted, you can use energy (a finite resource gained by playing matches and completing challenges) to unlock them, after which you can slot them into loadouts. 

The more items and fancier the rarity, the more in-round cash you'll need to call in a loadout, so it may be sensible to have one of your loadout slots be reserved for cheaper options for earlier in a round or when you're low on cash. 

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