Anchors in the Drift
When I hear “5th Cell,” my mind goes to the good times I spent with 2008’s action-tower defense Lock’s Quest or 2009’s creative puzzle platformer Scribblenauts. Those were cute, inventive 2D games. I definitely don’t think of Hybrid, whose 3D cover-based shooting I had forgotten about entirely until seeing this new project. 5th Cell is continuing in Hybrid‘s tradition of making run-of-the-mill looking games with one neat twist. Today, the developer announced its free-to-play action-RPG Anchors in the Drift.
At first glance, Anchors in the Drift looks like a standard Diablo-like, with its isometric viewpoint and and its magical abilities. The key that 5th Cell is hoping will differentiate Anchors is the ability crafting mechanic, which borrows a creative aspect from the studio’s earlier titles. Abilities are made up of different cards, which can be assembled in any order, customizing them to fit the player’s needs.
Anchors in the Drift is the second project to come to the video game-focused crowdfunding/investment platform Fig. The first was Outer Wilds, which just barely made its $125,000 base goal.
Real talk for a second here: this is weird, right? Crowdfunding a free-to-play game? Not even considering that the core gameplay looks just average, I can’t imagine this making its goal. It’s up on a little-known crowdfunding site, it’s asking for half a million bucks, and it’s going to be free when it comes out anyway. Who’s going to be putting money into this, let alone the hundreds of dollars necessary to bypass the free-to-play mechanics? Just the investors?
Best of luck to 5th Cell on this one.