If you didn’t get a chance to jump into last month’s Echo Combat open beta weekend, the upcoming online shooter expansion to Echo Arena, then you’ll have another chance soon, as the studio is opening up their pod bay doors to all Rift users starting today, August 16th.
Update (August 16th, 2018): Echo Combat Open Beta 3 kicks off today at 10:30 AM PT (your timezone here) and ends Sunday August 19th at 10:00 AM PT. Developer Ready at Dawn has confirmed that the so-called ‘Gear Patch’ brings three new features: Arc Mine, Stun Field, and Energy Barrier. The patch also includes a range of gameplay and balance changes, as well as bug fixes. You can find the full patch notes here.
Update (August 7th, 2018): A third Echo Combat open beta is set for the weekend of August 16th, the folks at VRespawn reported. As with the prior open beta, we expect it will open sometime around 10:30AM PT (your timezone here).
According to a video on the official Echo Games YouTube channel, the August 16th open beta weekend will also usher in the ‘Gear Patch’, which we expect will focus on tweaks to equipment like grenades and abilities, possibly even introducing some new elements.
Update (July 19th, 2018): Celebrating the one-year anniversary of Lone Echo (2017) and Echo Arena’s release, the upcoming team shooter Echo Combat is getting its second open beta period this weekend, starting July 20th at 10:30 AM PT (local time here) and going through July 22nd at 10:00 AM PT (local time here). The latest open beta is said to deliver “a more stable gaming experience,” and the ability to use your weapon in your left hand.
According to a Ready at Dawn blog post, this weekend’s open beta “is the first of many scheduled throughout the rest of the year and leading up to Echo Combat’s official release. Alongside more opportunities to play Echo Combat until release, players can also look forward to new content monthly.”
Original Article, Updated (June 20th, 2018): Echo Combat throws you into a beefier combat-ready avatar with a few guns and abilities at your disposal. Offering a payload-based objective, much like the gametype in Team Fortress 2 (2007) or Overwatch (2016), you push the cart on a track through the winding maze as an attacker, or defend the advances of the cart by pushing it backwards and running down the three-minute game clock. Check out our full hands-on from the closed beta for a better idea of what to expect.
Ready at Dawn says that players can expect continued open beta periods leading up to the game’s launch later this year. The full release is slated to cost $10, so now is a great time to find out if the zero-G shooter is right for you.