Industry insiders have recently claimed that Mountaintop Studios is developing a new video game called Spectre, which is reported to be the next-best entry in the competitive shooter genre. The indie studio was founded in 2020 by Nate Mitchell, a co-founder of Oculus. Mountaintop even has veteran developers from other studios like Riot, Blizzard, Naughty Dog, Epic, Respawn, Ubisoft, and Raven.
Despite having a team of industry veterans, creating the next big shooter is impossible without the proper finances. However, the indie American studio raised over $30 million in 2021, a significant financial boost for a newly formed studio. This helped the studio kickstart their 3v3 competitive shooter.
Mountaintop Games teased their upcoming shooter title earlier this year. According to the studio’s game director Lee Horn, Spectre would be an exciting genre evolution title where players could spend over 10,000 hours playing and yet feel like they have just touched the surface. The game’s concept art suggests the developers took inspiration from anime, manga, and comics to design the characters.
What sets Spectre aside from other competitive shooters?
The upcoming Mountaintop Studio title Spectre is going to be a 3v3 competitive shooter. This doesn’t seem like a genre-evolving game, as there are many excellent competitive shooters like Counter-Strike 2 and Valorant. However, Spectre has a unique “Duality” feature that helps it stand out from the rest.
This Duality feature enables players to control two bodies in the game. The second body is called a Spectre, which possibly gives the game its name. The players can set down a spawn marker to take control of the second body as necessary. Following the first shift into the Spectre, the player resumes control of the characters where they left off.
Soon. pic.twitter.com/vEWhnFPsTb
— Mountaintop Studios (@itsmountaintop) August 1, 2023
Due to players having to control two bodies, they would have to master the maps and angles of two characters rather than just one. This unique feature would create many interesting moments for players while playing the game. There would be eight playable characters in the game, but the roster might increase after its release.
Spectre is currently in its third alpha playtest and has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from testers. However, the playtests are limited to PC and it’s unclear if it will be coming to consoles. Mountaintop Studios is also yet to confirm if they plan to enter the esports scene, but it definitely feels like a game meant to have a healthy competitive scene.
