With both the Tekken and SoulCalibur series to it's name, Bandai Namco clearly knows how to make a fighting game. It's not a genre that gets a lot of traction on PC, which is why the announcement of Rise of Incarnates, a free-to-play fighting game exclusive to the PC, is so intriguing.
Bandai Namco boasts that the game is from the creators of the Tekken and SoulCalibur franchises, but it doesn't at all look like a traditional fighting game. It will feature “unfettered 3D combat,” where teams of two run, fly, and battle through destroyed cities. From watching the trailer, you get the feeling that players aren't locked into the same 2D plane, but free to roam around big environments. If anything, it looks more like Namco Bandai's Naruto and Gundam fighting games, or the GunZ games, which are also free-to-play.
If you're interested, you can sign up for the Rise of Incarnates Alpha on the game's official site. It's also where you'll find more background on its delightfully ridiculous post-apocalyptic setting and characters. There's even a short comic book about it packed with “ka-booms,” “pows,” “whumps,” and other onomatopoeias you'd expect from a story consisting mostly of violence.
Bandai Namco says Rise of Incarnates is set to release in “the latter part of 2014.”
