Crucible, Amazon’s recently launched free-to-play team-based shooter, will be “retiring” two of its three modes “for the foreseeable future”.
When Crucible was announced back in 2016, it was touted as a “last one standing third-person shooter”, but, as developer Relentless told Eurogamer last month, things shifted dramatically during development. By the time Crucible launched on 20th May, it had morphed into a team-based shooter closer to a MOBA, featuring three distinct modes.
Alpha Hunters mode is designed to offer a battle-royale-esque fight for survival against seven other teams of two, while Harvester Command sees two teams of eight players attempting to capture and hold control points around the map. Last up is Heart of the Hives, pitting players not only against other teams but giant creatures that dropped hearts upon defeat, with the winning team being the first to secure three hearts.
In a new developer update, however, Relentless has announced it will be “retiring” all but Hearts of the Hive mode, which it says is where an overwhelming number of all matches are played. “Focusing on one mode allows us to refine the design of core systems without the compromises we needed to make to support three game modes”, it explained.
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“The community has rallied around Heart of the Hives in an amazing way,” it wrote, “Moving forward, we’ll be putting all of our efforts towards Heart of the Hives and what we can do to make that mode shine.” To that end, Alpha Hunters will be removed “soon”, while Harvester Command will be dropped “once our new player experience has been improved.”