The word ‘punk’ is thrown around a lot in games. Too much, some might say. Cyberpunk 2077, the game in which you can’t really be a punk and can side with the police. Frostpunk, a survival city builder. It’s definitely frosty, but punk? I’m not so sure. NASApunk. Cloudpunk. Jazzpunk. Punk, punk, punk.
But Fragpunk promises something different. While its presentation is all bright colours and graffiti stylings, there is more than just a generic punk aesthetic here. Developer Bad Guitar Studios wants to rip up the tactical shooter rulebook, eschew player expectations, and do things their own way. What can be more punk than taking on Valve at its own game?
Fragpunk Breaks The Rules
“We would like Fragpunk to break the norms of the traditional FPS games,” art director Yiming Li tells me at the Bad Guitar offices in Hangzhou. “Punk itself includes the spirit of rebellion and also to break the norms. So we want to use this as our core concept to design the whole game.”
This applies to the visual style that Li is in charge of, but also stretches to include the narrative and mechanics. But before we delve deeper into Fragpunk itself, I wanted to hear more about punk culture in China. Coming from a Western perspective, I had pictured the country as one of obedience and conformity. That had already been proven wrong – the most popular car brand in Hangzhou is Tesla rather than a domestic manufacturer like BYD – but what was the history of the subculture in the country?
“In China, you can date [punk culture] back to the 1980s and 1990s,” Li explains. “But at that time, not many people knew the concept of punk. And it’s only a few people living in the city who were playing or listening to punk music and other things.
“But recently, as the culture is gradually opening up, more and more young people, especially young people, love to do punk things.”
That goes for music, dress sense, and even graffiti, although the latter is managed in permitted areas of cities. It’s not punk as you or I would know it, but as the country opens its borders to tourists, immigrants, and other cultures, more of that punk ethos is finding roots in Chinese society.
“Maybe hardcore Counter-Strike players won’t like that.”
As for the game itself, the developers are mostly keen to break away from the conformity that is found in tactical shooter games. A Valve hegemony has stalled innovation in the genre. Be Counter-Strike or be prepared to fail has been an unofficial motto of countless games, but Bad Guitar is determined to go against the grain.
Slaying Spires And Fragging Punks
Fragpunk is about changing the rules as you play, creative director and producer Xin Chang tells me. Whereas in a similar game like Counter-Strike or Valorant the player with the best accuracy would be likely to win every round, Fragpunk gives you the tools to change the rules and give yourself an advantage.
This comes in the form of cards, 150 of which will be implemented in the game at launch next week. They can do anything from preventing damage from the rear by putting a tortoise shell on your back, to covering the entire map in ice to enable slick slides and open up all manner of movement potential. Pick which buffs you want before each round, and hope your opponents don’t have a good enough counter.
Chang believes that this will make Fragpunk a more inviting tactical shooter to new players. For experienced players who may want a more balanced affair, Fragpunk’s ranked mode will change how the cards work slightly. Instead of picking as many as you can afford from the random three dealt to you at the start of a round, both teams pick and ban from eight cards.
Chang confirms that you will never be able to purchase cards for real money, and the only microtransactions will be cosmetic options: “For competitive games, you never sell things about the gameplay.”
The whole system is an innovative addition to a tactical shooter, an element of roguelike strategy borne from Chang’s hours spent playing Slay the Spire. And the cards themselves take inspiration from all manner of unusual things. The card that increases your enemies’ head size is based on Mario sprites, and Chang says he’s found ideas in everything from movies to memories. And the game’s most interesting – and potentially most divisive – system has been taken straight from the football pitch.
To tiebreak draws between teams, Fragpunk sends you to a smaller map, in which your five teammates will fight individually, one after another. If you kill your opponent, you stay on. If you die, your next player takes over. Your health doesn’t regenerate, though, so if the first 1v1 was a close-run fight, you’ll have to deal as much damage as possible before your second opponent finishes you off. First one to wipe out the opposing team wins.
It’s a penalty shootout in all but name, and I love it. I was fifth in line during our sole Duel in a playtest against the developers, and I was called upon to act. As the sole player between the devs and victory, the pressure was intense. So intense that, after I’d unloaded a clip from my assault rifle into my opponent, I accidentally switched to my close combat knife instead of my sidearm. That’s when panic sets in. I was swiping wildly as they reloaded, seconds between an incredible victory or crushing defeat. One knife blow landed. Then another. I’d won.
“We want to make a game which we love to play.”
It’s been a long time since a game made me feel that exhilarated. It makes an Apex Legends endgame feel like an evening stroll along the beach. It’s not the best part of Fragpunk – that award goes to sliding on the ice – but it’s an invigorating ending to a match that would otherwise fizzle out. Playing another 5v5 like CS:GO or Valorant is all well and good, but why not shake things up? Why opt for extra time instead of giving players a chance to become Jerzy Dudek in the Champion’s League final?
Chang tells me that there will also be a zombie mode when the game launches, but wouldn’t tell me any more than that.
Chang admits that these changes won’t be for everyone. CS:GO players might not like the Lancers and their powerful abilities that distract from the gunplay. Valorant players might not like the fact you can shoot just as accurately while running as when standing still. “Maybe hardcore Counter-Strike players won’t like that,” Chang freely admits. “But more other players will.”
Post-Launch Plans
His confidence is astounding, and it’s because he has the backing of thousands of hours spent in FPS games. He’s a fan of the genre, he’s a player in the genre, and vehemently believes that this new take on the tactical shooter, complete with roguelike elements and Mario-inspired mechanics, is exactly what the genre needs.
Chang tells me that Fragpunk was nearly a very different game, with the team testing a huge open world map early in development.
“We want to make a game which we love to play,” he explains, and that passion shines through. Fragpunk has a multiverse story behind it, which will be supplemented by in-game comics. It has myriad builds and tactical complexities, it has great gunplay, and there’s a solid plan for future updates. Fragpunk will receive three seasonal updates a year, each of which will be split into two halves. Every ‘semi-season’ will come with a new Lancer character, new cards which will rotate into the current pool, and a new map will arrive every full season.
The roster is already pretty diverse, but art director Li tells me that the devs “want it to be more inclusive and represent more different kinds of people” moving forward. I’m excited to see where Bad Guitar takes the characters mechanically, too, as it will take a lot to pull me away from Zephyr, who is canonically described as a tabletop game expert and turns invisible to take down foes with a concealed blade.
Six new characters and three new maps a year is a lot to promise, not to mention the card additions and any balancing changes that need to be made, but Chang is confident the team can produce.
“Chinese developers are very hardworking,” he tells me. “We are very concentrated on working efficiency.” That much has already been shown in the success of Marvel Rivals, developed by another branch of NetEase, which has had a deluge of post-launch content to keep players invested. Chang doesn’t expect the new IP of Fragpunk will reach the same heights as its cousin across the corridor, but he’s got some tricks up his sleeve.
As well as the main diffuse game mode, Fragpunk will launch with a rework of the Team Deathmatch that appeared in the tests. Zombie mode will spice things up, despite Chang keeping his cards close to his chest. The roster of ten Lancers to test out, eons of multiverse lore to dive into, and 150 cards to play with will also provide hours of entertainment as players figure out optimal strategies and the characters that synergise with their preferred playstyles.
I played a lot of Fragpunk during the alpha test, and I can safely say my recent preview felt better than ever. I’m fully prepared to pour every second of my spare time into this game come March 6, fully prepared to get my head engorged to the size of an overripe melon, and fully prepared to get my arse handed to me on numerous occasions. But it’ll all be worth it when I hit that stealthy kill in the final duel to clinch the win for my team.
Next
Can Fragpunk Be The Game To Break The Tactical Shooter Duopoly?
On Valorant’s fourth birthday, I’m playing its newest rival