Call of Duty Chases Realism, but Colorful Shooter VizionEck Runs in the Opposite Direction

Today, Sony published a video that shows off a first-person shooter unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The game is called VizionEck, and it’s being developed by a single man, Michael Armbrust. You can watch the video above.

VizionEck is a competitive shooter, but Armbrust is trying to dramatically change the shooter formula. It looks wild, with black and white patters all over the walls and floor, and colors frequently exploding across the screen. But gameplay itself is different, as well. “VizionEck is a competitive first-person shooter, but its core mechanics have been rebuilt from the ground up,” the developer explained in a PlayStation blog post. “Spawning is different, weapons are different, cover is different, etc.”

And from what the first gameplay video shows off, the game certainly is something new. In a match, you take control of a cube, and to fight you have to charge another cube that hovers about you. This allows you to defend yourself and attack other players, but it also prevents you from blending in with the surroundings. The video is so full of different patterns and colors, however, that it’s difficult to understand exactly what is going on.

To help explain some of the complexities of the game, Armbrust published a wiki about VizionEck. Although there is some good information, the community-driven wiki also takes some jabs at some modern trends in games. You might ask if there’s going to be DLC in VizionEck. The DLC page simply states “F that.”

This game comes at a time when many studios are aiming for greater realism in shooters. Last week, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games claimed that Advanced Warfare will have hyper-realistic graphics. “We did whatever it took to make the game look as photorealistic as possible,” Sledgehammer’s art director said. VizionEck looks like it’s trying to be the complete opposite.

The game will be released by the end of 2014 exclusively for the PlayStation 4. Personally, I’m very interested to see more of VizionEck, because its visuals look so much like Antichamber‘s. What do you think of the insane visual style of VizionEck? Let us know in the comments.

Alex Newhouse is an editorial intern at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @alexbnewhouse
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