Live-service games have become all the rage over the last decade or so, and while there are many downsides to a game that never ends – we have seen plenty of great live-service games that have been going strong year after year. As such, many developers are still trying to work their way into this newfound market. But that said, NCSoft already has some experience of crafting MMO-styled experiences with the likes of Guild Wars, and the Korean developer is now taking a natural step forward with its upcoming Project LLL.
We recently got to see the game in action, thanks to a chunky gameplay trailer that has sparked a ton of hype and anticipation for this game. Project LLL seems to have taken inspiration from many places, ranging from contemporaries of the genre to not-so-obvious sources. And to that end, the time seems ripe to dig deep into Project LLL and try to uncover what makes this game click amongst a barrage of similarly styled games that are vying for a player’s attention.
Project LLL is set in a post-apocalyptic future, one where the country of South Korea is overrun by mercenaries fitted with all sorts of high-tech gadgets and mechs that seem to oppress the denizens of this land. NCSoft’s upcoming action-adventure also takes place in an alternative history which combines its sci-fi premise with lore elements from the 10th century – which can be seen in certain enemy designs.
You take on the role of a soldier, one who takes the fight back to these tyrants with an effort to drive them out of this place. It seems that you might be a member of a rebel group, though we can’t confirm these story elements since the trailer uses Korean as its language and there are no supporting subtitles as well. That said, NCSoft has stated in an interview that it plans to deliver a story that puts its characters at the front and center, and we can’t wait to see that come to life with the final release.
Project LLL is a third-person shooter, and most of your time will be spent carrying out high-stakes missions throughout the futuristic city of Seoul. The trailer opens up with the player character donning a cape on his back as he makes his way through what seems to be an underground network of tunnels. Unlike most MMOs, Project LLL actually has some stealth options, and you can use your drone companion to scout ahead which will reveal the location of enemies through walls. You could try to take the easy way out by sneaking through gaps, or you could try to engage – and from the looks of things, sometimes the former might be the most feasible option of the two.
But when swords do eventually clash, Project LLL completely transforms into a fast-paced shooter where you must make your moves quickly and switch between different tactics on the fly to get through combat encounters. The weapons have minimal recoil, allowing you to spray bullets towards your enemies with relative ease. Enemies seem to have a massive health bar, so you will have to keep chipping away at those shields while dancing around the battlefield.
Your choice of weapons range from assault rifles to automatic shotguns and others, but you also have access to plenty of special abilities – thanks to the futuristic combat suit. You can fire smoke grenades, throw a stasis bomb at your enemies, or lock on to your targets and unleash a flurry of auto-targeting missiles towards your adversaries. Furthermore, you can even turn invisible for a short while – which should allow you to flank the opposition from a different angle or create a distraction to hack a Titanfall-styled mech and ride it into battle with your allies.
All of these abilities will obviously have a cooldown period, and combining these with your standard third-person shooter results in a highly dynamic combat loop that seems like it would be a joy to interact with. It looks pretty open-ended too, so hopefully – players will never have a shortage of options when it comes to tactics or build options as they deck out their characters with specific loot that suits their playstyle.
Project LLL is also set to feature a massive open-world that will span over 30 kilometers of virtual space that players would explore on their own will. The developer has already confirmed that a decent chunk of that landmass is being created through procedural generation, but the content that players will be able to do in these areas will be curated by another algorithm that reacts to a player’s situation accordingly.
Hopefully, it does not fall prey to the cookie-cutter design model that so many MMOs and live-service games have adopted in recent years. On that note, we also don’t know what vehicles players will be able to drive to get from one end of the map to the other, or if there would be vehicles at all – so a clarification on these matters is certainly due at the moment.
NCSoft is positioning Project LLL as a true next-gen experience, and the game is being developed on Unreal Engine 5. And this choice of engine might be the best considering the developer’s ambitions with the project, since Epic’s latest provides plenty of options to craft huge open-worlds with effortless world streaming technology all while boasting a consistently high level of micro-detail within those environments. From what we have seen of Project LLL, these tools are certainly being used to great effect here with high-resolution textures and post-processing effects highlighting the fantastic art direction of the game’s world and the characters.
As for release platforms and timing, NCSoft has remained rather tight-lipped on the matter which is by no means a surprise considering that the game is still being referred to by its project name. No release dates have been specified as of yet, but the developer has said it’s targeting a 2024 release window. Furthermore, the game may be released in early access first – which would allow for a more transparent development cycle as the game nears towards its final release. Thankfully, it has been confirmed that the game would be available globally on PC and console platforms.
In conclusion, Project LLL is looking like a potent mix of ideas drawn from all contemporaries of the genre. You have shooting mechanics that are reminiscent of The Division, a sci-fi story like Destiny, and armored suits with cooldown-based abilities that instantly remind us of Anthem or Titanfall. NCSoft seems to have paid a lot of attention to how these mechanics would work in tandem with each other, and the end product looks like something that could end up being the next smash hit in the realm of MMO releases.
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