‘Off the Grid’ Battle Royale Shooter on Avalanche Hits PS5, Xbox, and PC in Early Access

One of the most anticipated blockchain-based games popped up in early access on Tuesday, offering a glimpse into its mechanics and gameplay.

Avalanche-based “Off the Grid” is now available to play in a limited form on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, as well as on PC via the Epic Games Store.

Developed by Gunzilla Games, which has its own Avalanche L1 (aka subnet) called GUNZ, Off the Grid is a battle royale shooter that drops players into a reality show-like experience, where they’ll have to fight to survive in large-scale online matches.

While the game broadly recalls other battle royale hits like Apex Legends, Fortnite, and PUBG in many respects, it has some unique characteristics.

One is that players can equip robotic limbs and even swap them at will during a match to gain new abilities.

Another unique element, of course, is the integration of blockchain features.

Off the Grid will let players optionally mint rare weapons and items as NFTs, which can be traded and sold. The economy is built around the upcoming GUN token on Avalanche.

This early access or beta release is not the full Off the Grid experience, but it offers a playable taste of what’s to come. The free-to-play game has one large city map and a 60-player mode called “Extraction Royale,” which sees squads of three players battle to be the last one still standing at the end.

One burning question about Off the Grid that’s lingered for some time is exactly how it would handle crypto integration on consoles, given that Sony and Microsoft have yet to welcome other blockchain games on their platforms. And still, it’s not entirely clear.

We downloaded the early access version on PlayStation 5, and sure enough, it offers in-game items that are denominated in the GUN token. You can earn GUN through the game by completing in-game missions, but there’s no apparent way to purchase more GUN right now in the game.

The actual GUN token hasn’t yet launched on Avalanche mainnet, so that kind of integration isn’t baked into the game just yet. However, a testnet version of the token has been used during previous playtests.

Decrypt reached out to Gunzilla Games for clarification on the blockchain integration for the game, particularly the console versions, but did not immediately receive a response.

Off the Grid debuted its early access release Tuesday with support from major streamers, including Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who has a custom character skin available in the game. He played with other prominent streamers, Seth “Scump” Abner and Tim “TimTheTatman” Betar, in an hours-long promotional stream on Twitch.

Off the Grid is set to include a promised 60 hours worth of narrative-driven gameplay, offering a battle royale experience with more of a cinematic story angle than most genre entries. Gunzilla Games was co-founded by film director Neill Blomkamp (“District 9,” “Chappie”).