EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT AMAZON’S CRUCIBLE
May 27, 2020
Amazon Games Studios recently released a brand new free-to-play shooter called Crucible. With interest in the game at an all-time high, there’s also some confusion as to what Crucible is exactly.
One thing that’s nice about Crucible is that it’s free so you won’t have to pull your credit card out to play it for yourself and get a feel for it if you’re someone who prefers to dive right into a game rather than read up about it.
That said, it can be helpful to check out an overview of the game before you install it on your computer. To help with this, we’ve put together a feature going over everything you need to know about Amazon’s Crucible!
Everything we know about Amazon’s Crucible
Crucible is a brand new free-to-play shooter from Amazon Games Studio. Other titles from Amazon Games Studio include the upcoming MMO, New World.
Reading the official description for Crucible, it can be easy to make comparisons to other games in the hero shooter genre like Overwatch or Paladins.
However, Crucible has its own set of differences to help it stand apart. Yes, you can play as one of eight different characters who are referred to as Hunters and compete as part of a team to complete objectives, but there’s more to it than that.
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Hunters work differently than characters in Overwatch for example as none of them are confined to any particular class or role. Wondering who you can play as? Below, we’ve listed the names of all Hunters currently available in Crucible.
- Earl
- Captain Mendoza
- Summer
- Tosca
- Bugg
- Shakirri
- Drakahl
- Ajonah
- Sazan
Again, rather than break these characters apart into specific categories like Tank, Healer, or Damage, each Hunter has their own playstyle. No two Hunters are alike. Because of this, you can pick a character that suits the way you play best, or experiment with different characters each round to keep things fresh and interesting.
All of the Hunters have different balances when it comes to attributes like control, damage, range, mobility, health, and defense. If you’d prefer a Hunter with more control, you can play Summer. Want more damage and range? Ajonah has you covered. To further tweak each Hunter to your liking, you can select upgrades before the start of every match.
It’s a little like the item system in Paladins but instead of earning currency during the course of a match to buy more items, you need to acquire Essence. You’re also unable to pick and choose what upgrades you get after your initial pick.
As you level up, you’ll earn pre-selected upgrades (all of which are useful) for the first five levels, and then more health and power to keep you alive longer after that. You can earn Essence by killing opponents, creatures, or by controlling various objectives.
Speaking of objectives, you may be wondering what those are. Do you need to capture a point? Escort a payload? Well, Crucible does things differently here as well. Right now, there are three game modes available in Crucible: Heart of the Hives, Alpha Hunters, and Harvester Command.
Heart of the Hives is almost like a raid where you need to kill Hives and collect the hearts they drop. Whoever collects three hearts first wins. Alpha Hunters is a hardcore Team Deathmatch where eight teams of two fight to be the last players standing.
If you fall in battle that’s it, you’re done. Lastly, Harvester Command is a “Capture the Flag” type mode where you need to control Essence harvester points. The longer you hold a point, the more Essence you’ll earn. While this is going on, you’ll also need to take out the enemy team. When a team reaches 100 points, they win.
If you want to play Crucible, it’s free and can be downloaded from the game’s Steam page. As with any free-to-play game there is an in-game shop where you can buy a Battle Pass and cosmetic items.
As added incentive to play Crucible, there’s an offer where you can receive 1,000 Credits for use in the store by downloading and playing the game before June 2nd.
Note that even though this is an Amazon game, you can’t buy items from the in-game shop using an Amazon gift card. You can use money in your Steam Wallet though. If you want to team up with your friends, you’ll need to be friends on Steam.
Even if you want to play solo, you’ll need a Steam account to play Crucible. You can’t download it outside of Steam. If you’re not much of a PC gamer, the bad news is that Crucible can only be played on PC right now through Steam. It’s not available on consoles.
As a whole, Crucible is a fun take on the genre and has some interesting mechanics to it that make it worth checking out. It may not be for everyone, but it’s different enough to feel fun. Best of all? It’s free.
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It is always an exciting time in the video game community when a new generation of consoles usher in a whole new age of gaming with never-before-seen graphics and performance. You have to have great games to be a good console, and fortunately for prospective PS5 players there already been a handful of games confirmed to be coming to the console in the future.
Morgan is a writer, metalhead, horror lover, and indie game enthusiast. When it comes to games, they love nothing more than to wax poetic about all the latest and greatest indies to anyone who’ll listen. On a typical day, you’ll find Morgan perched in front of the computer like a gargoyle browsing through Steam’s new releases with a large cup of coffee. You can find them on Twitter@Author_MShaver
