Marcus Lehto has served for more than a decade at Halo‘s original studio Bungie before assuming the mantle of creative director for Disintegration. This V1 Interactive developed sci-fi shooter had an underwhelming critical and commercial reception, following which servers for the game were shut down last year. Not long afterward, V1 Interactive itself also closed its doors.

What Lehto is currently working on remains a mystery for now. Given his penchant for continually dabbling into sci-fi shooters, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he takes another crack at developing a game using a similar setting. However, it would certainly be interesting to see what challenges await Lehto in his journey, and hopefully, fans get something great out of it.

Making some pretty big decisions with my career this week. Some of you will support it, some will not. I just ask that you all join me on this next leg of journey. It’s going to be big!

— Marcus Lehto (@game_fabricator) September 22, 2021

The gaming industry right now is in one of its biggest boom periods, but unfortunately it doesn’t mean anyone and everyone is getting a piece of that pie. Smaller studios still very much struggle to get into the market share and today we got an announcement of one such example.

V1 Interactive announced today via their official Twitter that they would be closing down. They gave a big thank you out to fans and the talented people at the studio. While there is not that many full details, most likely it stems from the apparently failure of the studios’ debut game, Disintegration.

The studio was formed roughly five years ago. They released the shooter, RTS hybrid title Disintegration with publisher Private Division. The game had some promise, but apparently could not muster an audience. It’s multiplayer element was shut down less than a year after the game released. It’s unclear what the future holds for that game, though its single player portion is still being sold.

We are sad to inform you that V1 Interactive is officially closing.
We want to thank all the talented people at V1, both past and present, who helped make the last 5 years wonderful.
And a heartfelt thanks to the amazing community that supported us. pic.twitter.com/XX6Sxtc32o

— V1 Interactive (@V1Interactive) March 8, 2021

Disintegration came in with a lot of hype, being billed as from one of the original Creators of Halo and a bold new take on the shooter genre. It was a mix of both shooter and strategy game, and was rather unique. It was a solid enough experience, even if quite rough around the edges. Unfortunately, it seems that it just couldn’t find the audience it needed, and now the multiplayer is gone.

In the most recent update, 1.06, it was confirmed in the patch notes that the multiplayer has now been removed. It isn’t a surprise by any mean, it was announced in September that the multiplayer would be axed sometime this month. The game only released in June of this year, making the whole thing a very short affair. The game is still fully playable single player, however, if you’re curious.

Disintegration is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC as a single player only title.

Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto and his team at indie studio V1 Interactive launched Disintegration halfway through June, bringing a unique mix of shooters and strategy titles. Met with mixed reception from players and critics, Disintegration wasn’t the success that its developers would have been hoping it would be, and it seems it hasn’t managed to retain a very strong player base in the months since its release.

V1 Interactive and publisher Private Division recently announced in a joint statement that the multiplayer servers of Disintegration will be shut down soon, with all multiplayer modes being removed from the game, owing to a lack of enough players being actively engaged with it. The game’s in-game store has been removed already, and multiplayer features will continue to be deactivated over the next couple of months. By November 17, Disintegration will have become a single player-only experience.

“We have made the difficult decision to remove Disintegration’s multiplayer modes from the game across all platforms,” the statement reads. “This will be done in phases over the coming months, starting today with the removal of the in-game store, and will conclude on November 17th with the full removal of multiplayer. The single player campaign will remain fully playable moving forward.”

Private Division and V1 went on to assert in its statement that they stand by the creative risks taken by the development team. Though the game “struggled to build a significant audience necessary for a compelling multiplayer experience”, the developer and publisher firmly state that “the video game industry needs constant innovation”.

“From both the development team at V1 Interactive and publishing group at Private Division, we stand by the creative risks taken to launch such a unique, genre-bending game created by this small but talented and passionate team,” the statement reads. “While our player base showed interest in the single player campaign, the game unfortunately struggled to build a significant audience necessary for a compelling multiplayer experience. After weighing options, we have collectively made the decision to sunset the multiplayer support.

“We believe the video game industry needs constant innovation, and we will continue to take risks, follow creative visions, and support new ideas. To everyone who has played Disintegration: we thank you.”

Disintegration is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. In our review of the game, we called it “a straightforward experiment that offers an intriguing if derivative world to explore and characters to like.” You can read our full review through here.

Among many companies sharing their financial results for the quarter ending June 30th 2020 was Take Two Interactive. The publisher revealed that its main breadwinner, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5, had sold over 135 million units till date. As GamesIndustry.biz notes, the free giveaway on the Epic Games Store helped bolster sales with Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stating that the initiative was about “increasing the size of the audience.”

Red Dead Redemption 2 has also performed very well with 32 million units sold but it seems that NBA 2K20 was the biggest winner. Along with selling 14 million units since launch, recurrent consumer spending year-over-year was up by 126 percent in the first quarter. Net bookings are the highest ever for a title in the franchise.

Gearbox’s Borderlands 3 sales crossed 10.5 million while Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds managed to hit 2.8 million units sold. No sales numbers were provided on V1 Interactive’s Disintegration, which Take Two’s indie label Private Division had published, but Zelnick noted that its performance was a “bit disappointing.”

V1 Interactive’s Disintegration didn’t perform all that well at launch, and the average critical reception didn’t help (check out our review here). The developer is committed to support though with future updates still in the works. In the meantime, it’s hosting a free weekend for the game on Xbox One, PS4 and PC starting June 30th to allow more players to try it out.

Check out the timings for the free weekend on each platform below:

• PS4 – July 30 at 9 AM PST until August 3 at 9 AM PST
• Xbox One – July 30 at 12 AM PST until August 2 at 11:59 PM PST
• PC – July 30 at 12 AM PST until August 3 at 10 AM PST

Along with multiplayer, the single-player campaign will also be available with all progress from the free weekend transferring over when buying the full version. It tells the story of Rohmer as he teams up with a band of other Integrated and Outlaws to stop the Rayonne. The main hook of the game is its mix of first person shooter action and real-time tactics.

While commanding a Gravcycle in the air and raining down death on foes, Rohmer will also command friendly units to take cover, flank enemies and unleash different abilities. There are a variety of different Gravcycles, which makes multiplayer interesting with its different Crews and playstyles. Stay tuned for future updates on the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGREyQtNiF8

"Despite how typical the story can be, the overall worldbuilding can be pleasant."

The story is set in the near future with the Earth ruined by natural disasters, economic downturns and the eventual collapse of society. To help cope with the sheer downfall of the planet, humanity invented “Integration”, the practice of transferring one’s mind into a robot body. The robots could survive the harsh conditions and even thrive with limited sources. Though meant to be temporary, it wasn’t long before the fanatical Reyonne decided that Integration was humanity’s next big evolutionary step. Thus it set about capturing humans, turning them into soldiers aka “red eyes” and generally being mean.

You play as Romer Shoal, an Integrated human held captive on the Reyonne’s Iron Cloud. After being set free by other Integrated, Romer and his new allies work together with various outlaws to stop the Reyonne (and perhaps get their human forms back). Each squadmate has a fairly defined character type – Cocqui is the light-hearted one, Seguin is the stern type, Agnes is warm but defiant, and Doyle is the bruiser. There’s also Wagoner, a mysterious old man that assists the rebellion and lends you a base and Gravcycle. And wouldn’t you know it but Romer happens to be quite the Gravcycle pilot.

You and your crew are sent on lengthy missions to scavenge for scrap, assist the outlaws or stop the Reyonne from destroying a dam (with challenges that can be acquired between each mission). Despite how typical the story can be, the overall worldbuilding can be pleasant. Your squadmates will talk about various happenings, the fate of humans who resisted Integration, the state of the world and even their own desires and ambitions. There’s some entertainment to be had but not every clever bit of banter lands or feels appropriate for each mission. The atmosphere of a ruined world, an almost desolate kind of beauty pervading the air is solid, if nothing else.

"Extensive cooldowns for some of the crazier abilities means you’ll be using concussive grenades to stagger enemies and then taking them down with gunfire more often than not."

As you embark on missions, you’ll be hovering over the battlefield, providing fire support and issuing commands. The controls in this sense can take some getting used to, especially when switching between healing and shooting, but they’re intuitive enough with time (at least on PC). Your crewmates have their own AI but will still require some direction when things get hectic. Which abilities to use, targets to focus and when to fall back are all up to you.

Each crewmate has their own unique class so soldiers like Agnes and Cocqui are good for stunning foes with their concussive grenades while Doyle can launch a destructive salvo of missiles. Combining abilities, like Seguin’s slowing field with Doyle’s mortar strike, can lead to devastating results. However, extensive cooldowns for some of the crazier abilities means you’ll be using concussive grenades to stagger enemies and then taking them down with gunfire more often than not.

This can become repetitive especially when every mission boils down to rushing to the next objective and taking down squads of foes again and again (with some waiting in a protective field, as is the cae in on mission). Enemies on the ground doing their best to avoid your flanks and reinforcements swarming from different directions keeps things tense especially when snipers and heavy Rhino units come into play. However, the AI for both allies and enemies can be a little uneven. On the one hand, your units will follow closely, take cover and execute commands with little hindrance. On the other, they’ll run outside healing fields to pursue enemies while damaged or ignore foes that are right up in their literal grills.

"Disintegration, in a nutshell, can be fun when chaos reigns and the orchestral score is kicked up a notch."

Spamming the indicator is key in some situations but your squad will often get caught by those annoying mines (which are ominpotent, I swear) and other hazards. It’s not a game-breaking occurrence so much as an annoyance that crops up again and again. At least upgrading them increases their damage and survivability. As for the enemy AI, for every intelligent move they make, there are the obligatory hiccups like charging into your backline without a care in the world.

Disintegration, in a nutshell, can be fun when chaos reigns and the orchestral score is kicked up a notch. It can be pretty dull when you realize that levels only really have one linear path despite their openness, with huge skirmishes only being tackled head-on. Its shooting is responsive, even if its time-to-kill in PvE reinforces the need to stagger enemies and focus fire (especially when enemy health and damage is bumped up at Maverick difficulty and beyond). The story isn’t incredible but it’s entertaining enough and gets the job done while acquainting you with the world and the appealing cast. The hub areas are nice but simplistic with very little to actually see as you run from one green speech bubble to the next.

Nothing really drags the experience down but nothing really stands out as amazing either. This is all the more apparent in multiplayer when two teams of five Crews battle it out. You’ll partake in three modes – Collector, Retrieval and Zone Control – with each player having their own Gravcycle and squadmates. The maps offer enough cover for Gravcycles and room for maneuverbility along with a decent amount of flanking routes and paths. The long time-to-kill is all the more reinforced here, with special weapons like the Warhead and Shotguns mixing things up. Regardless, engagements are meant to be more drawn out – your units fight on the ground, their abilities feeling somewhat superfluous. Sometimes, it can feel weird just hovering around and boosting every now and again when you take too much damage.

"All in all, despite all the strategy inherent, multiplayer amounts to some dumb arcade-like action at the end of the day."

Collector is your standard Kill Confirmed mode and the overall crew abilities don’t stand out much. By comparison, there’s more strategy involved in Zone Control since you can control choke points, lobbing Concussion Grenades and slow fields to gain an advantage. Fights are often determined by who gets the drop on who, whether your teammates are around to assist in kills or if you’re caught on the unlucky end of a Warhead. The skill floor in multiplayer is relatively low, allowing for easy entry but there’s not a whole lot to master.

It is fun to experiment with the different crews, each with their own tailor-made Gravcycles and compositions that cater to different play-styles. You can go full durability with The Militia or sacrifice that for speed with Neon Dreams. Each crew has their own assigned unit types as well – some like The Business will only offer two squadmates while others provide three. They even have their own challenges to complete and cosmetics to unlock.

All in all, despite all the strategy inherent, multiplayer amounts to some dumb arcade-like action at the end of the day. Though I didn’t spend too much time with it, PvP didn’t strike me as anything particularly noteworthy or having a long shelf-life. Whether new modes or quality of life changes can fix that remains to be seen.

"There just isn’t much to this tactical strategy-meets-sci-fi-FPS style of gameplay, leading to an enjoyable but quickly forgettable experience."

Even if Disintegration isn’t the most graphically intense title out there, it does have a nice aesthetic to it (even if its influences are almost too obvious, especially in the level design). Performance is similarly solid with no slowdown and only one or two crashes to speak of. Despite how much the signature Halo theme is evoked in the soundtrack, I still got a kick out of Disintegration‘s music.

At the end of the day, Disintegration feels like it could have done more. The gameplay isn’t mind-blowing but it’s fun enough that you can play through the campaign without many hang-ups. More polish for the AI, tighter pacing for the story and more varied mission objectives would definitely help its cause. But there just isn’t much to this tactical strategy-meets-sci-fi-FPS style of gameplay, leading to an enjoyable but quickly forgettable experience.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Story and Setting

Disintegration takes place on a near future Earth. A good chunk of humanity has opted to place their brains inside robotic bodies via a process called Integration. This is all well and good, especially since it helped people survive against the literal collapse of society via climate changes, overpopulation, etc. However, many Integrated humans have decided to permanently stay Integrated and have formed the Rayonne. They seek to hunt down any humans still left and forcing them to integrate while also eliminating those opposed to their views.

The protagonist is Romer Shoal, an Integrated who fights against the Rayonne with his band of Outlaws. Their ultimate goal is to return to being human. Along the way, we’ll learn about Romer’s past and what led him to this point.

FPS Meets RTS

Despite Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto at the helm, the gameplay is actually a lot more akin to Battlezone (it in fact began life as a real-time strategy game, as per Lehto). As Romer, you control a Gravcycle that flies in the air and can rain down down fire on foes while utilizing different abilities. You can also issue commands to the Outlaws, AI units who will fight on the ground against enemies. Along with enemy troops, you’ll also face opposing Gravcycles throughout the campaign.

Designed With Controller in Mind

Perhaps one of the bigger concerns about Disintegration is the controls, especially on consoles. It’s something that many strategy titles have to worry about when catering to PC and console players. But Disintegration was actually built with controllers in mind. According to Marcus Lehto when speaking to VG247, this meant streamlining things “down to the core essentials”. There’s no band-selecting for units or micromanagement to be had. You fire a command pulse which guides units to that location and use the D-Pad for different unit abilities. As Lehto states, “You always feel like you’re throwing a punch with your own weapons or an off-hand punch with your unit weapons. It’s a really cool kind of symbiotic relationship between you and your units.”

Different Biomes and Objectives

The setting in Disintegration makes for a variety of different locations, from farmlands with dilapidated barns to sprawling cities. There are several different biomes to explore overall, which further ups the variety. Contrary to initial belief, there are different objectives to complete during missions and you won’t just be plowing through enemy soldiers en route to the next waypoint.

Pinging

Pinging is used to lead units around, pick up items and so on. However, one nice little touch about is the ability to ping things in the campaign and bring up lore. This provides more context on the areas you’re exploring, their current state and so on. It’s a small thing but helps to familiarize you with the setting more while keeping the pace moving.

Gravcycles

Despite there being three different Gravcycles – Heavy, Medium and Light – the campaign doesn’t give you a choice between them. Instead, you’re given a preset Gravcycle in each mission. It may seem restrictive but there are other paths to upgrading. It is possible to customize your Gravcycles in multiplayer though, and each will have their own benefits. You can even make use of some pretty cool weapons, like sticky grenades that can be remotely detonated. Fire them into a narrow chokepoint and then detonate them as enemies get too close for maximum effectiveness.

Unit Types

Your squad in the camapign, the Outlaws, is composed of different units each with their own class. The Mech is good for launching high-damaging mortars and serves as the default “heavy” on the field; the Sniper picks foes off from a distance but can also deploy a field that slows enemy units; Warriors function more like your standard foot soldiers and utilize stun grenades; and more. Once again, it seems that full squad customization is properly opened up in multiplayer, allowing you to deploy multiple types of the same unit and specialize in different tactics.

Salvage and Upgrading

While the development team hasn’t gone too deep into the upgrade trees for the campaign, it is possible to salvage resources during missions. You command units to gather these resources and then use them to upgrade both Romer and your squad. The obvious assumption is that new abilities, improvements and other enhancements can be had. But how Romer’s long-term progression is affected in the campaign remains to be fully revealed.

Campaign Length

Varying mission objectives, numerous biomes to explore, lore to collect and units to upgrade aside, Disintegration‘s campaign is about 12 to 15 hours long. How replayable it will be and whether we can expect other difficulty options is yet to be showcased. Regardless, after the campaign, there’s the multiplayer to keep players going.

Multiplayer Modes

Three different multiplayer modes will be available at launch pitting teams of five players against each other across six maps. The modes in question include Retrieval, Team Deathmatch and Zone Control. Retrieval functions like Capture the Flag; Team Deathmatch is about wiping out the enemy team; and then there’s a Zone Capture mode where you occupy areas on the map and hold them against enemies. Post-launch support for multiplayer is confirmed, which will likely mean new maps and modes. However, you should also expect customization items for the crews.

Crews

Unlike the single-player campaign, there are nine different squads to choose from in multiplayer. They’re referred to as Crews and each posses their own unique identities and cosmetics (including banners, badges, emotes and so on). Each Crew will have access to roughly the same kinds of abilities and units but it’s their distinctive looks that will draw you in. Will you go for the killer clowns in The Sideshow or opt for the medieval-esque King’s Guard? The choice is yours.

Microtransactions

Disintegration will ship with microtransactions but these are for cosmetics only. There are no loot boxes. You’ll still be able to earn other cosmetics by completing various in-game achievements. Whether players will be able to earn in-game currency to unlock premium cosmetics is yet to be confirmed.

V1 Interactive’s Disintegration will have a decently-sized single-player campaign when it launches. But for those who stick around after, multiplayer is going to be the main focus. To that end, there are three different modes to play – Zone Control, Retrieval and Collector.

Zone Control, as the name implies, is about capturing and holding zones. The twist is that Gravcycles can’t capture zones – only units can. Taking out enemy Gravcycles is important though since it earns more points. Retrieval is like Capture the Flag with Attacks gathering cores to drop them off at certain points while Defenders have to stop them.

Collector is like Kill Confirmed from Call of Duty. Collect Brain Cans, with some spawning on the map and other dropping from enemies (with those dropped by enemy Gravcycles worth more). You can also capture friendly Brain Cans to deny points for the enemy team. Overall, nothing too ground-breaking but the addition of Gravcycles and units should freshen things up.

Disintegration releases on June 16th for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAomDF2SmEs

VI Interactive, founded by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto, has a release date for its first game Disintegration. It launches on June 16th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC for $49.99. In addition, a new trailer has been released, outlining the story which seems to center on a gang of outlaws taking on the authoritarian Rayonne.

As pilot Romer Shoal, you’ll be in charge of a Gravcycle which overlooks the battlefield and can provide air support. The campaign will see players fighting different mechanized foes, combing first person shooting with light squad management. Multiplayer is also included with three game modes, six maps and nine Crews with different playstyles to choose from.

Multiplayer seems like it will have decent legs with cosmetic skins for the crew and pilot, Gravcycle and more. V1 Interactive will also have seasonal content as post-launch drops though whether this means new maps and modes remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more details on Disintegration as we near its release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPG9AGHwdFA