In Crucible, players choose from a diverse roster of aliens, robots, and humans, and work with teammates to hunt opponents, take down hostile creatures, and capture objectives, all on a rogue planet at the edge of known space.

Crucible pits teams of hunters against a dangerous planet and enemy players in pursuit of Essence, a resource that amplifies hunters’ powers. Players begin each match by selecting from a line-up of 10 distinct hunters, each with their own unique weapons and abilities. Crucible has a hunter for every playstyle—including Earl, an inter-stellar trucker who’s built like a tank and has a gun sized to match, Bugg, a robot botanist whose primary concern is protecting his plants, and Summer, a champion fighter and former welder whose flame throwers keep things hot on the battlefield. As players collect Essence, their hunters level up, increasing their power and enhancing their abilities. Crucible’s fast-paced combat requires players to constantly re-evaluate and adjust their strategies, adapting to their opponents’ moves and the ever-changing planet itself.

Crucible will launch with three modes: Heart of the Hives, Harvester Command, and Alpha Hunters. In Heart of the Hives, two four-player teams battle giant boss Hives that spawn throughout the world. Each Hive contains a valuable Heart, and the first team to capture three Hearts wins the match, making each match a dangerous balance between racing to defeat the opposing team and battling to survive the powerful Hives. Harvester Command challenges two teams of eight players to capture and hold Harvesters spread across the map, vying for control of the Essence that drew them all to the planet. The first team to deplete its opponent’s resources wins. In Alpha Hunters, eight teams of two fight to be the final team standing.

Having launched earlier this year, Amazon does not seem to be happy with the result and it taking the unusual step of pulling the game from public consumption and bringing it back under closed beta.

Hello, Essence hunters,

A few weeks ago, I told you about the steps we were taking to change and improve Crucible in response to your feedback. That plan is still the same, but we’re taking a new step that will help us focus on providing the best possible experience for our players as we continue to make the game better. Starting tomorrow, Crucible is moving to closed beta. We’ll continue following the roadmap we laid out previously and working on map, combat, and system changes to improve the Heart of the Hives experience as well as implementing other improvements based on your feedback and what we think the game needs in order to thrive.

For the most part, your experience as a Crucible player will stay pretty much the same while we’re in beta. One of the biggest changes you’ll see is that we’re going to schedule dedicated time each week when we as devs will be playing with the community and soliciting feedback. The game will be accessible 24/7 so you can continue to self-organize matches with other players—we recommend joining our Discord server to find players to queue against. You’ll still launch Crucible through Steam (you don’t even need a new download), you’ll keep all the progress and customization items you’ve already earned, and the battle pass, reward tracks, and in-game store will continue to be supported.

We’re setting up a community council, made up of beta participants of all playstyles from casual to highly competitive players, who we’ll be working especially closely with. We’ll have more information on that council, as well as our weekly play schedule, soon.

Even though Crucible will be in closed beta, nothing is changing about the way you can engage with the game: you’re still welcome to stream, to share screenshots and clips, and to talk about what you experience in the beta.

What now?

If you’ve got friends who want to be part of the Crucible beta, you can encourage them to get the game before tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. PT (6 p.m. CET). In the near future, newly interested folks will be able to sign up through playcrucible.com.

We’ll keep putting out updates, working with organizers to run tournaments, talking with you on Discord, the subreddit, and our other social media channels, and making Crucible better and better with your help. When we exit beta, it will be based on your feedback and the metrics that we see in-game.

Thank you for being part of our community. We’re looking forward to the closed beta and to what’s in store for the future of Crucible.

We’ll see you in-game, -Colin Johanson & the Crucible team

Key Features:

• Three game modes at launch for a variety of team-based play: Heart of the Hives, Alpha Hunters, and Harvester Command
  • Heart of the Hives (4 vs. 4): The first team to take down massive bosses and capture three of their “hearts” wins
  • Alpha Hunters (8 teams of 2): Pairs of hunters fight to be the final team standing
  • Harvester Command (8 vs. 8): Teams earn points by capturing and holding Essence Harvesters—the first team to 100 wins
• Diverse roster of 10 humans, robots, and aliens at launch, each with unique weapons and abilities
• Fast-paced combat requires players to constantly re-evaluate and adjust strategies
• Collect Essence to level up, increasing your hunter’s power and enhancing their abilities

Crucible is being developed by Relentless Studios, a Seattle-based development team of Amazon Games. The studio is led by Louis Castle, co-founder of Westwood Studios, and includes industry veterans with previous experience at companies including Activision Blizzard, ArenaNet, Electronic Arts, and Xbox. Crucible will be the first of two major titles from Amazon Games in 2020, followed by the launch of New World in August 2020.

Crucible is in development for PC (Steam).