After announcing in July that Raiders of the Broken Planet will be relaunched as Spacelords later this month and free to play, developer MercurySteam shared a video discussing the free-to-play elements that players can expect. If you were looking for a quick overview of the changes being made for the relaunch, then this is it. MercurySteam also shared a video featuring a new Skin for Doldren and a powerful new gun called the “Patient Boy”.
In the video, Community Manager Karen Hernández begins by listing all of the obstacles the studio was faced with by turning a premium game into free to play, but are doing so because they feel it will help build the community they desire around the game. When the game becomes free to play, it will have a much larger player’s community that will result in more varied games and end the divide between premium and free to play players as they will be playing together in all of the same games.
Starting on August 23rd, all content will be accessible by playing the game except for the cosmetic items that can be purchased with Mercury points, and they are building over the well-received changes introduced with Hades Betrayal, the game’s third campaign. Veteran players who have invested in one or more premium campaigns will be compensated with exclusive content. Until the fourth campaign is out, all new players can enjoy the mission of the day completely for free, and the price for renting missions has been reduced.
In addition, MercurySteam also shared a video featuring a new Skin for Doldren called the Prisoner of the Pit of Repudiation along with a powerful new gun called the “Patient Boy”. We get some shots of the new gun itself, as well as some of Doldren using it in combat. Apparently, it is the barrel of a flare gun that has been attached to his revolver and loaded with mines instead of flares.
If you’d like some more insight into the game and MercurySteam, then check out DualShocker’s interview with Director Enric Álvarez, and a second one in which he talks about MercurySteam’s history and future. In a third interview, Lead Designer Joan Amat discusses the free to play transition, progression, and more, and in a fourth interview, Art Director Jorge Benedito shares about his inspirations for the game.
You can check out the entire video discussing the changes below as well as the video featuring the “Patient Boy” and Doldren’s new Skin below.