Everything you need to know about Disintegration, from the co-creator of Halo

Upon first glance, Disintegration may look like a Destiny wannabe, but it’s trying to forge its own path instead of following in the footsteps of others. Sci-fi shooters, in particular, make up a large portion of an already packed genre, so Disintegration will need to go above and beyond to set itself out from the rest of the herd. But when it’s the brain-child of one of the co-creators of the Halo franchise, we have high hopes.

Disintegration is a first-person shooter and a new IP from the co-creator of Halo, Marcus Lehto. You can easily see that it wears its sci-fi roots on its sleeve, which makes sense given the history of the Halo franchise. Disintegration will feature a dedicated single-player campaign alongside three multiplayer modes.

From the co-creator of Halo

Marcus Lehto joined Bungie in 1997 and went on to conceptualize and co-create the Halo series, serving as Art Director on the first three Halo games before moving onto the position of Creative Director for Halo: Reach and eventually becoming Studio Director. He left Bungie in 2012 after 15 years with the company. Following his departure, he founded V1 Interactive, an indie studio “focused on high-quality small games.”

Disintegration story

Disintegration takes place in the near future. It’s a world ravaged by a climate crisis, overpopulation, food shortages, and a global pandemic. These ripped-from-the headlines problems have led the in-game society to collapse. To save humanity, scientists transplanted people’s brain’s inside robotic armatures in a process known as “Integration.”

Fast forward several decades and the Integrated have found that they like living as this new hybrid form of robotic humans. What was once meant to be temporary is quickly becoming a permanent solution, but not everyone feels that this is what’s best. You can probably see where this is going. The Integrated came together to form a group known as the Rayonne, who hunt down any remaining humans — forcing them to Integrate — and those who do not share their views.

Players will control a character named Romer. He used to be part of the Rayonne, but he rebelled because he did not share their beliefs. Now, with a group of Outlaws, he works to protect humans and save humanity.

Disintegration gameplay

From gameplay we’ve seen of its multiplayer that debuted at Gamescom 2019, it looks a bit like Titanfall in a few regards. According to Lehto, it blends FPS mechanics with real-time tactical elements. Players can control a squad of units on the ground, with each having unique abilities that will come in handy during different scenarios. Their goal is to make gameplay “fluid and action-focused.”

One of the multiplayer modes, Retrieval, sees two teams fighting over two cores. The offense’s objective is to get one core and deliver it to the enemy base while the defense attempts to keep the core from landing on their territory. During a match, there will be two rounds where you’ll switch from offense to defense between rounds.

Players will always control a Gravcycle pilot, which is an aerial vehicle with offensive and defensive weapons Gravcycles will be broken up into three models: Heavy, Medium, and Light, all of which can be enhanced. Grounds units are AI-driven, but players can control their location and how/when their abilities are used. AI units can still take appropriate actions during a fight so that you aren’t holding their hands at all times, so to speak; you won’t be micromanaging them. This applies to both the single-player and multiplayer aspects of Disintegration.

According to IGN, which spent hands-on time with Disnitegration, despite how chaotic all of the elements may seem, everything just works. If you’re worried about being overwhelemed by what you need to do in battle, from commander troops to piloting your own vehicle, don’t be.

We have yet to see the other two multiplayer modes or what we’ll be doing during the campaign. From what little IGN showed of the campaign, at least two missions started off by having the player find salvage and upgrades, but there is a lot that could happen while playing through them, and the robotic characters themselves have been described as surprisingly emotive and human.

Disintegration Upcoming multiplayer tests and Alpha sign-up

The developer will be holding multiplayer tech tests at an undefined future point, though it hasn’t offered any more information beyond that. You can sign up for the newsletter at Disintegration’s website to be one of the first to hear about any upcoming Alphas. It’s within reason that these will take place closer to the game’s launch — likely next year — as the team stress tests the servers. It’s unknown whether these will be open to all players or if you’ll need to pre-order the game to take part.

Disintegration When can I play it?

Disintegration is expected to launch on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC sometime next year in 2020. There has been no word on any next-generation versions of the game. It is not available to pre-order at the time, but a listing for the game is up on Steam.