Beastlink just got announced, and it looks like pure monster madness. You get to play as both the monster hunters and the kaiju, laying waste to the sandbox environments, which have all been built with developer Grove Street’s proprietary SuperDestruction physics-based system. The multiplayer game will launch with four different kaiju, the Horned Lizard, the Bull Shark, the Vampire Bat, and the Mandrill.
There’s vehicular combat, urban maps to wreck – with 250,000 destructible objects, no less – where the ultimate aim is to collect enough resources to support fuel an experimental procedure to Link with sleeping kaiju. According to the developer “once the BeastLink is established, the perspective shifts from tactical survival to city-shaking power as players tear through buildings and engage in massive, real-time monster brawls.”
Developer Grove Street Games is no stranger to giant creatures or large urban environments. Founded in 2007, the studio has worked on the Ark series and Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. Beastlink opens for early access on console and PC this summer, beginning with the first of several upcoming closed beta weekends starting this Friday, May 8. Players can now register for the closed playtest on Steam.
“Our team has a long history of making great games while tackling complex technical challenges, but at its core, BeastLink stems from one goal: to create the ultimate kaiju experience,” said Thomas Williamson, CEO of Grove Street Games. “Community is an integral part of building that, beta testing gives players the opportunity to jump in early and help us shape what a modern Kaiju game should be.”
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
