The year is 2033, and a devastating virus and rogue AI have combined to bring Earth to the brink of collapse. To find a new home and save humanity, a group of people follow a superintelligent AI called EVA on a journey through space. During the long trip, EVA creates a virtual universe for them to inhabit to keep them happy and hopeful. But when EVA has to go dormant to conserve power, this once idyllic virtual space begins to fracture and corruption starts to spread.
That’s the premise of Prism 2033, an open-world MMORPG built around the core concept of parallel worlds. Developed with Unreal Engine 5, it emphasizes immersion, exploration, and interaction with the urban environment. You’ll use a detailed character creator (which you can see in the video below) to make your character, who is a new investigator in a civilian group known as the Harbor Agency. You’re investigating an entity known as Sha, the being responsible for the growing corruption. You need to gather clues to figure out what Sha is, how it’s spreading its influence, and how you can put a stop to it.
Your primary goal is important and the premise might sound a bit heavy, but this isn’t a dark and gritty game. You’ll mostly operate out of the central hub of Flux City, a photorealistic multi-district metropolis where you’ll run into some wild and weird NPCs, from giants lumbering down the street to joyriding teenagers on hoverboards. These NPCs go about their lives all around you, and you can stumble across all kinds of random events that happen organically across the city.
Flux City is also the nexus point where you can access the many parallel worlds of Prism 2033. You’ll discover portals throughout the city that lead to these worlds, each of which has its own towns, NPCs, and unique visual style, and you can visit them at any time once you’ve discovered the portal that leads there.
You can form relationships with any NPCs you want, whether in Flux City or one of the parallel worlds. That includes romance, and you can start a family, with your offspring inheriting physical traits from your created character and chosen partner. As time goes on, your child will age and develop, just as NPCs throughout the world will also progress through life.
Just like real life, the passage of time affects more than just aging. As in-game days and months go by, seasons will shift in real time and changes in the environment can happen. Forests can wither and then bounce back, but every parallel world isn’t affected in the same way. In some worlds, time might progress faster or slower. Others might just experience one persistent season that never changes, like a snowbound world that’s locked in an eternal winter.
Generally, you won’t stay in these parallel worlds for long stretches. You’ll set out to complete story quests and side missions, and when you’re done, you’ll return to the hub in Flux City. However, you’ll still be able to access previous worlds, so if you really like a particular world or form a relationship with an NPC there, you can always go back.
The primary story content can be completed solo, and the main multiplayer gameplay at launch will consist of large-scale interstellar fleet battles. You form guilds with fellow players, and you can team up with your guild members to face off with other fleets to claim uninhabited planets and get access to their resources, which can be used to improve your guild or your individual character.
If you’re the type who’s usually turned off MMORPGs because of the massive time commitment they can require, you might like to hear that Prism 2033 isn’t designed that way. The dev team has said that 60% of the game’s content can be completed in short sessions, so this isn’t a game you need to play for hours at a time to see any progress.
Prism 2033 is being developed primarily for PC, but a version for mobile devices is also planned. No release information has been provided yet, but it’s available to wishlist on Steam now. To keep up with the latest news and updates, you can follow the game on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Discord.
