The co-op shooter Blacklight Retribution which launched on PS4 and PC around that console’s launch has been staying relatively strong, if a bit obscure. The good folks behind the title, Hardsuit Labs has just seen a bit of a windfall with publisher Paradox Interactive picking up a 33% share of the company for a cool $2 million.

The statement released by Paradox  outlined that they’re always looking for new studios to buff their catalog, and they have high hopes for what the studio will be able to accomplish with their backing. Paradox only holds a minority stake at the moment, which will allow them to “act more like a silent partner and the studio will continue to operate like it has been previously.”

While nothing concrete was said about it in the press release, we now know that Hardsuit Labs is hard at work on a totally new project that Paradox will publish. Whatever that title is, look forward to Gamingbolt covering it in the future.

Zombie Studios, which is responsible for online free to play FPS Blacklight: Retribution and first person horror title Daylight, is closing down. According to the developer, “The owners of Zombie Studios are retiring”.

It’s especially amazing when you consider that the developer has been around for roughly 20 years and was responsible for creating the Spec Ops franchise. Blacklight: Retribution will be handed over to a new start up studio called Builder Box but at this point, the future of other assets and IPs hasn’t been revealed.

Zombie Studios doesn’t seem to be facing any financial trouble either. A recent farewell letter from the studio at least didn’t reveal such issues and it seems to be more of a peaceful retirement more than anything else.

What are your thoughts on the closure of Zombie Studios and the future of Blacklight: Retribution? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Zombie Studios is currently busy with Daylight for the PC and PS4 and besides being one of the few psychological horror games for the next generation, it’s also the first commercial release to use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. How does it take advantage of the PS4? Also, given the studio’s experience with the PS4 with Blacklight Retribution, how have they been able to further push the hardware this time?

Studio director Jared Gerritzen stated, “Developing on the PlayStation 4 is great, and since Daylight is the first Unreal Engine 4 title to come out on the console, we’ve been really pleased with the entire process.

“We recently announced a Twitch Chat Stream integration that will allow viewers watching a live stream of Daylight to spook the player even further by typing out a word that corresponds to a sound in-game. We obviously had to time this to prevent spamming, but this interaction is yet another way Daylight creates a very cool (and creepy) experience.”

As for the benefits that Unreal Engine 4 brings when used alongside the PS4’s unified memory architecture and how it makes things that wouldn’t be possible on the PS3, Gerritzen said, “Very direct access to texture memory is a major advantage of having unified memory. This access allows us to work with render targets easily without being forced to write a bunch of specialized code designed to simply move data between buses.”

The team also opted for Unreal Engine 4 as opposed to, say, CryEngine 3 because, “Zombie has heavily invested in Unreal technology over the last few years. Throwing all the knowledge away to transition to a different engine represented a significant amount of cost without an obvious award.”

Daylight will be out on April 8th for the PC and PS4. Stay tuned for more updates on the game.

Zombie Studios has confirmed that players in the current beta for the PS4 version of Blacklight: Retribution developer will be able to carry over their progress on to the final launch build. Associate producer Kael Hammond stated this will include character progress, in-game ZCoins currency, and other stats over to the game when it exits its beta state.

Hammond added that, “We here at Zombie Studios […] feel this is a great way to give thanks to those Agents that have been helping us by playing and commenting on the beta.”

When will Blacklight: Retribution be coming out of beta? That hasn’t been revealed as of yet, though there are a fair number of things it can improve on. Check out our review of the game here. What are your thoughts on the beta thus far and are you enjoying Blacklight: Retribution on the PS4? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Zombie Studios’ free to play PC shooter Blacklight: Retribution had launched in North America for the PlayStation 4 on November 15th, but it – along with thatgamecompany’s flOw – were delayed in Europe following some slight problems. Now however, Zombie Studios has confirmed that it will be available today at some point, so stay tuned on the PlayStation Network for an update on the same.

Blacklight: Retribution originally released in April this year for Steam and saw some fairly good critical reception since then. As a multiplayer-only first person shooter, you’ll be able to participate in all the typical game types such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Domination, King of the Hill and Kill Confirmed (with players needing to collect tokens from downed opponents to earn kills for the team).

Though you’ll need PlayStation Plus for typical multiplayer titles such as Killzone: Shadow Fall, Blacklight: Retribution won’t require the same since it’s a free to play title.

Luckily, the delay isn’t a heavy one. “Both flOw and Blacklight have been subject to brief delays. They should be with you next week, but I will 100% confirm the date as soon as possible.”

Blacklight: Retribution is already available on PC, while flOw can be picked up both the PC and PS3. At this stage, slight delays usually occur due to certification issues, but it appears to be more of a last-minute resolution than anything else. The PlayStation 4 will be launching tomorrow in Europe with launch titles Knack, Killzone: Shadow Fall and Resogun among other games. Stay tuned for more details.

Of course, in hindsight, that all seems rather silly. Call of Duty 4 went on to sell more than ten million copies, and garnered a level of critical acclaim few games have managed to achieve, before or since. Since then, the franchise has gone on to dominate the sales charts year after year, and many of the series’ staple gameplay elements have been borrowed by nearly every major blockbuster title on the market. As the years have gone one, more and more military shooters have appeared, each trying to snag a piece of Call of Duty’s enormous pie, and many long running franchises, including the previously mentioned Halo series, have altered core parts of their gameplay in an attempt to emulate Call of Duty’s successes and draw in more players.

"Unlike its predecessor, the game is entirely focused on competitive multiplayer, and while the game doesn’t do anything particularly new or unique, it does provide a very polished experience that has all of the bells and whistles that players have come to expect from modern shooters."

This brings us to Blacklight: Retribution, a Free to Play title developed by Zombie Studios, and the sequel to Blacklight: Tango Down. In some ways, it’s rather surprising that Retribution exists. While its predecessor wasn’t a bad game by any means, it was a rather unremarkable military shooter in a genre that has quite a few quality titles under its belt. But every now and then, a game developer gets a second chance, and Zombie Studios has certainly made the most of theirs.

In many ways, it’s hard to believe that Retribution was developed by the same team; the differences in quality are that great. Unlike its predecessor, the game is entirely focused on competitive multiplayer, and while the game doesn’t do anything particularly new or unique, it does provide a very polished experience that has all of the bells and whistles that players have come to expect from modern shooters. Indeed, if you’ve spent any length of time with a modern shooter released since 2007, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how Blacklight operates. If you haven’t, fear not: Blacklight makes it pretty easy to jump in and begin playing. Once you’re in the game proper, you’ll play through the game’s tutorial.

It’s fairly standard stuff, and bears more than a passing resemblance to Call of Duty 4’s cargo ship tutorial, but it’ll get you up to speed on the game’s mechanics. Once you get through that, you’re free to jump into the game itself. That is, after you get through the rest of the game’s text-based tutorials that pop up whenever you enter a new section of the menus. These are long and fairly tedious to get through, and while the game does give you the option of turning off tutorials entirely, you’ll likely need them to understand how all of Backlight’s menus, options, and systems fit together.

"Blacklight: Retribution’s gameplay is just as good as its map design. Veterans of military FPS games will feel right at home here, and while Blacklight doesn’t do much to change up the standard gameplay formula, everything works well."

Once you get everything figured out, it’s time to jump into a game, and thankfully, Blacklight offers a wide variety of modes to play. FPS mainstays such as Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, and Domination make an appearance, but modes like Siege, Kill Confirmed, and others add a bit of spice to the mix for players who want something a little different. The game features a server browser which makes it easy to find the gametype you want, as well as quick match option for those who want to get right into the action, though choosing the latter will mean that you’ll pretty much exclusively be playing Team Deathmatch.

There’s also a fairly decent selection of maps to choose from, and just as with the gametypes, you’ll be able to find specific ones through the game’s server browser, though it should be noted that all of Blacklight’s maps are worth playing, which is an impressive achievement in and of itself. Each map is intelligently designed and offers a lot of verticality, meaning that you’ll be able to approach each one in a manner that suits your playstyle. In a rather unique twist, teams can open and close doors on each map by completing a simple hacking minigame, meaning that the battlefield is always changing, and that certain chokepoints may only be available at certain times in the match, so you’ll have to pay attention and make the most of the paths open to you if you want to do well.

Blacklight: Retribution’s gameplay is just as good as its map design. Veterans of military FPS games will feel right at home here, and while Blacklight doesn’t do much to change up the standard gameplay formula, everything works well. However, that doesn’t mean that the game doesn’t have any unique ideas of its own. Each player comes equipped with a visor that allows you to see all of the players on the map for a limited time, even if they’re behind walls, making it easy to avoid the frustration of rounding a corner only to find yourself staring down five members of the enemy team. This also adds a welcome layer of strategy to the proceedings, and smart players will use it often when setting up their attacks on the enemy.

"All of Blacklight’s gameplay is complimented by excellent visuals and sound design. Guns feel good to shoot, and provide a great level of visual and aural impact, while character models are impressively rendered and varied, as are the various explosions and fire and lighting effects that populate the levels."

The game also provides an interesting take on killstreaks and mid-match player rewards. As players earn kills, capture objectives, and help out their team, they’ll earn CP, a form of currency that can be used to buy temporary bonuses at depots scattered throughout the map. In addition to simple functional upgrades, such as more health and ammo, you’ll also be able to buy flamethrowers, miniguns, automatic turrets, and rocket launchers.

You don’t lose CP if you die, which adds an extra layer of strategy to the game. Do you spend your money early for a powerful weapon, or save up for the Hard Suit, an enormous mech that comes equipped with a railgun and a minigun? This may sound overpowered, but getting into a Hard Suit is a considerable risk: in addition to losing your visor, you’ll also be a slow, unwieldy target for the other team, and it only takes a couple of well placed rockets to bring one down, which is all the more frightening when you consider how cheap a rocket launcher is compared to a Hard Suit.

All of Blacklight’s gameplay is complimented by excellent visuals and sound design. Guns feel good to shoot, and provide a great level of visual and aural impact, while character models are impressively rendered and varied, as are the various explosions and fire and lighting effects that populate the levels. Even simple things, such as kill cams, have a bit of added flair, which each death offering a slow motion, Matrix-esque replay that looks as impressive as it sounds.

"Blacklight can stand next to Tribes: Ascend as one of the best Free to Play shooters on the market, and one of the most fair implementations of the Free to Play model currently available."

Winning or losing a match earns you GP, which can be spent in Blacklight’s in-game store on anything from guns to visual upgrades for your character. The game offers an almost unreasonable amount of customization, allowing you to build weapons entirely from scratch, choose what items appear in your depot, and even buy new emblems and emotes that can be shown off at the victory screen. You can also purchase items with Zen, which you’ll buy with real money, and while many of the game’s items can be unlocked via GP, certain cosmetic upgrades can only be purchased with Zen.

Still, players who don’t want to shell out needn’t worry: you’ll be able to access most everything with GP, though it should be noted that you’ll have to grind a really, really long time to purchase things that way. Thankfully, Blacklight also allows you to rent items in one, three, and seven day increments, meaning you can try before you buy. That said, the game is fun with just the starting equipment, and there’s nothing about Blacklight that’s pay to win. Bullets are just as deadly when fired from a “free” gun, after all.

Of course, the game isn’t perfect. There are occasional lag spikes, and the game will occasionally slow down in firefights or when you activate your visor. This is infrequent, but it’s extremely frustrating when you die because the game doesn’t feel like loading you into and out of your visor in a reasonable amount of time, or when you find yourself unable to move in the middle of a firefight.

Still, these are ultimately minor complaints against a game that knows what it wants to do and does it well. Blacklight can stand next to Tribes: Ascend as one of the best Free to Play shooters on the market, and one of the most fair implementations of the Free to Play model currently available. If anything, the major problem with Blacklight is its own lack of ambition. It still feels too much like a military shooter to win over those who don’t like genre, and it doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from the other games in its genre, which is already oversaturated as it is. Still, it’s a very well-made game, with great gameplay and good production values, with enough unique features to make it worth checking out. Just don’t go into it looking for something new.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Rashid Sayed: The game was originally released back in April, 2012 for the PC. What prompted Zombie Studios to re-introduce it again on the PlayStation 4, instead of making, say a sequel or a new IP?

Jared Gerritzen: Our players love the game, and we love our players! We wanted to make sure it was available to as many people as possible, for our current fans and our new. Zombie Studios also gained the rights to publish and produce Blacklight: Retribution, and we were excited to bring it to a new player base and console.

Rashid Sayed: Content wise, how different will the PS4 version be when compared to the onePC? Extra maps, maybe?

Jared Gerritzen: We have a lot of love for our PC players, and we want to make sure they get the same content as our PlayStation 4 players. Part of what we did during development was optimize our maps, and we plan to bring these to the PC for even better performance. We want to make sure our content is equal to our PC and console players.

Rashid Sayed: One of the core features of Blacklight Retribution is the indepth customization option. Have you made any changes or added anything that makes its different from the PC version?

Jared Gerritzen: We remade the menu system to allow controller players to easily customize and easily interact with the game, and we utilized the touchscreen to bring some of our systems to the controller because the keyboard just has more keys. We also redid the pricing and monetization for the game.

"It’s exciting to bring Blacklight to the PlayStation 4, where a new audience will get the see it and our existing fans can enjoy the game they already know they love."

Rashid Sayed: Are the pricingfor in game items similar to the PC version?

Jared Gerritzen: Since we are our own publisher for Blacklight on the PlayStation 4, we are in control of our own pricing, so we can offer our players benefits and deals unique to the PlayStation 4. We also changed the pricing drastically to allow true micro-transactions.

Rashid Sayed: Can you please let us know what resolution and fps does Blacklight Retribution run on the PlayStation 4?

Jared Gerritzen: We are currently at 1080p, and as the game evolves we are targeting the highest frame rates possible.

Rashid Sayed: As someone who has core experience with PC games development, what is it about the PlayStation 4 that excites you the most?

Jared Gerritzen: Any gamer knows that PC gamers and console gamers are different, but what brings them together is the mutual love for awesome games. It’s exciting to bring Blacklight to the PlayStation 4, where a new audience will get the see it and our existing fans can enjoy the game they already know they love.

Rashid Sayed: Furthermore, from a tech perspective what are your thoughts on Sony’s decision to include 8GB of fast memory in the PS4 and how is that helped you guys in the development process?

Jared Gerritzen: Zombie Studios has been wanting to bring Blacklight to the console for a long time, and it wasn’t until we had the opportunity to work on the PlayStation 4 that console hardware was up to the task of running the game without making serious cuts.

"As Blacklight evolves out of Beta, we plan to use as many of the PlayStation 4 peripherals as possible, but we are very happy to hear that the PlayStation will not only be using on-board streaming functions but capture cards will be able to get game footage via the HDMI cables themselves."

Rashid Sayed: Warframe developer, Digital Extremes, recently stated that it took them only a mere 3 months to port their game from the PC to the PS4. How long did you guys took to do the same with Blacklight Retribution?

Jared Gerritzen: Zombie Studios not only ported our game, but we ported the Unreal 3 Engine as well. We can’t really speak to timelines other developers have had, but every game is different.

Rashid Sayed: The PS4 version looks absolutely gorgeous. But does it hold up against a high end PC running Blacklight Retribution?

Jared Gerritzen: We have all the PC settings cranked up to their highest setting on the PlayStation 4, so it holds up great! We are really happy how the transition between high end PC and PlayStation 4 works for us.

Rashid Sayed: As you must be aware that several well known developers have claimed that the PS4’s GPU is 40-50% more powerful than the Xbox One. What are your thoughts on this and did this played any role in your decision of not bringing the game over to the Xbox One?

Jared Gerritzen: We spoke with both Xbox and PlayStation, and our decision is something we cannot talk about, but we are very happy to join with the PlayStation group with Blacklight. As for the Xbox one technology, we cannot speak about that, because we currently have no Xbox One projects underway.

Rashid Sayed: You guys must be excited by some of the community and streaming features that the PS4 provides. How will Blacklight Retribution take advanatge of those?

Jared Gerritzen: We really love watching the Blacklight streams that our fans are always making, and we look forward to seeing more once the PlayStation 4 launches! As Blacklight evolves out of Beta, we plan to use as many of the PlayStation 4 peripherals as possible, but we are very happy to hear that the PlayStation will not only be using on-board streaming functions but capture cards will be able to get game footage via the HDMI cables themselves.

"The DualShock 4 controller really helps us rise to the challenge of mapping keyboard commands to the controller. We can get really creative with the touchpad and come up with great ways for the players to give input."

Rashid Sayed: I know for a fact that you guys absolutely love the DualShock 4 controller. Besides being comfortable to play with, how do you think it will enhance the gameplay in Blacklight Retribution?

Jared Gerritzen: One of the challenges of porting a PC game to a console is that you lose out on having a keyboard that gives you a lot of options for input. The DualShock 4 controller really helps us rise to the challenge of mapping keyboard commands to the controller. We can get really creative with the touchpad and come up with great ways for the players to give input.

Rashid Sayed: What are you plans post launch?

Jared Gerritzen: A real drive to get everything we need to fix in our Beta to go full launch, as well as more content. And we are really excited to be playing all the great games that are coming out on new systems as well, Xbox and PlayStation 4.

Rashid Sayed: Okay, time for a tricky question. From a gamer’s perspective, what version of the game will you suggest and why?

Jared Gerritzen: Gaming and specifically ‘how you game’ is a personal preference for everyone, so we suggest playing where you have the most fun! We’ll be playing on the PS4 on day one though, so we hope to see you there!

“Since we are our own publisher for Blacklight on the PlayStation 4, we are in control of our own pricing, so we can offer our players benefits and deals unique to the PlayStation 4. We also changed the pricing drastically to allow true micro-transactions.” This indicates a cheaper formula when compared to the PC.

We also asked if changes were made to the customization options available. Gerritzen responded that, “We remade the menu system to allow controller players to easily customize and easily interact with the game, and we utilized the touchscreen to bring some of our systems to the controller because the keyboard just has more keys. We also redid the pricing and monetization for the game.”

Blacklight: Retribution will launch on November 15th for the PlayStation 4.

We asked Gerritzen how the PS4 version holds up to a high-end PC running the game, to which he replied, “We have all the PC settings cranked up to their highest setting on the PlayStation 4, so it holds up great! We are really happy how the transition between high end PC and PlayStation 4 works for us.”

Gerritzen also confirmed that the game is “currently at 1080p, and as the game evolves” they are “targeting the highest frame rates possible.”

Blacklight: Retribution launches on November 15th worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and won’t require PlayStation Plus to enjoy.