Atlas Reactor open alpha event begins this week

Atlas Reactor, a unique simultaneous-turn-based competitive multiplayer game from Trion Worlds, will be playable to the public at large for the first time beginning this week. Anyone who wants access to the game will be able to get in beginning Thursday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. PT.

Though still early, the open alpha will include 14 playable characters, multiple maps and an early version of account progression. Players will be able to level up and unlock new character skins, taunts and other cosmetic items. Players will also be able to earn mod tokens, which can in turn be used to unlock ability mods, which can modify your character's powers heading into matches.

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Players will also receive free "test credits" during the event, to help test how the game's real-money currency will work. Actual real-money transactions will remain disabled for now.

The 14 characters in Atlas Reactor's alpha will be split into three groups: Firepower (or high-damage characters), Frontline (or high-hitpoint, tank-style characters) and Support (characters that can heal or buff up teammates. Daily quests will encourage players to try games in different roles, with rewards increasing the longer a player goes without playing any single role.

Atlas Reactor will also implement something that Trion Worlds calls "GG boosts." These operate similar to XP boosters in other competitive games like League of Legends, except activating them provides a boost for yourself, your teammates, and all of the opposing team as well. Boosts will be cumulative when used by different players, so as many as eight could be stacked on top of each other if everyone in the game uses one. Since Atlas Reactor will not allow cross-team communication, Trion says this system allows a way for players to let the other team know that they had a good time.

Since this is still an early test, Trion says account progress made during this alpha will not carry over to the beta or final version of Atlas Reactor. The open alpha event is only planned to be live for a week, although Trion wasn't able to provide the exact date at which it will go offline as of press time. Trion says it will continue doing open tests regularly leading up to the game's expected launch later this year.