A dormant kaiju is slumped in the middle of a city block, and you’re sprinting toward it with a serum injector, hoping nobody else on the 32-player map gets there first.
That’s BeastLink. A third-person shooter that wants the scale of Battlefield and the monster-stomping mayhem of Pacific Rim, in one fully destructible sandbox.
It’s out now in Early Access on Steam for $19.99, with an Xbox release coming soon.
Nobody else is trying this
Battlefield is so ambitious, and the scale it hands players so ridiculous, that almost nothing tries to copy it. Same story with Pacific Rim and Godzilla. Beyond a few licensed games that didn’t land, giant monsters flattening giant cities has stayed a movie thing.
Which is a shame, because both ideas are perfect for anyone who wants an immersive experience on a grand scale.
One developer decided to stop waiting.
What you actually do
You roam a vast city map that comes apart under you, hunting a serum that lets you link with the dormant kaiju scattered across it. Grab one, take it over, dominate the battlefield.
Solo and multiplayer modes are both here, including a narrative campaign with a customizable character. Vehicles add to the Battlefield flavor. The destruction runs on physics. Up to 32 people can share a single map.
The current build has three maps, a handful of story missions, multiplayer modes that can be played solo and offline, and four of the titular beasts to become.
The Grove Street Games problem
This is an early build, so it’s carrying the bugs you’d expect. The game’s reviews reflect that.
And yes, the developer is Grove Street Games, the studio behind the disastrous GTA: The Trilogy remaster. That’s the elephant in the room, and pretending otherwise would be silly.
But something else comes through when you play it.
Somebody clearly cared
BeastLink could only have been made by a team genuinely committed to a fairly absurd idea. The sheer pile of gameplay features. Offline modes, which barely anyone bothers with anymore. Promised updates.
All of it runs against the grain of the made-by-committee multiplayer games shipping right now.
The premise alone is worth a chance. The passion behind it is what makes you want to see where this goes.
Where it stands right now
Jank and bugs aside, BeastLink is already fun, and there’s real room for it to get better. Early Access means plenty of space to grow.
If you want tense, on-the-ground shooting with monsters the size of skyscrapers, or you’ve simply decided Battlefield’s era is over, this is aimed squarely at you.
The hope is that Grove Street Games stays with the concept through to 1.0. For $19.99 on Steam, you can go find out whether that dormant kaiju gets to you before the other 31 players do.
