RuneHeads and 1C Company have just dropped a new announcement for their latest game, Conglomerate 451. It’s a really interesting take on the mix of cyberpunk RPG titles and strategy goodness. The game will blend first-person dungeon crawling with some influences from strategy titles like XCOM, in a really weird but appealing mix.
You might remember the name RuneHeads if you’ve played Fall of Light, the story-driven dungeon crawling fiesta that was released in 2017 that brought lots of fun and a fair bit of dark and dreary themes to the genre. So all in all, RunHeads has managed to establish a pretty good pedigree for creating some really great entries into the genre.
In the case of this newest game, it’s not just a simple dungeon-crawler, oh no, Conglomerate 451 tasks players with taking on the corrupt and destructive corporations in Conglomerate city, and it won’t be an easy job either. Like I said earlier, the game borrows a fair bit from the likes of XCOM. Players in Conglomerate 451 will have to go on missions to infiltrate, attack and otherwise undermine the operations of their enemies. And because many of these massive companies have massive budgets and advanced technology, you’re going to be playing a fair bit of strategic catch up. As you complete missions and blast your way through enemy legions, you’ll pick up scraps of technology and weapons from their corpses. Using your R&D systems you can then string together some pretty potent weaponry to further make life hell for your enemies.
But it’s not just researching new technology that builds out the core of this game. Combat in Conglomerate 451 will be much more complex than you might expect. The gunplay is a mix of fast-paced tactical shooting and hacking action, all taking place in first-person, which makes the game much more visceral and tense. And don’t get too comfortable, because things can and will go wrong.
There’s another strategic layer in Conglomerate 451 with dealing with the fallout from combat, and things are going to get dirty. Injured team members can get horribly maimed and permanently injured during combat. And because of the VATS-like system for targeting limbs in combat, it’s possible to target an NPCs legs and take them out, slowing them down and making them a much easier target to hit.
In total, all of these gameplay elements and the very worrisome themes of sci-fi dystopia have the potential to create a really great game.
The game is slated to land on Early Access programs later this year. Check out the gameplay trailer for Conglomerate 451 down below.
