Free Reign Entertainment has announced their latest project, "Shattered Skies." In their newest open world survival game, a meteor has collided with the moon, sending shards of both the moon and the meteor down to Earth. Substances from the meteor have seeped into our planet and the reaction has caused crystals to emerge from the surface. The energy from these crystals has been changing not only the nearby environment but people, too.

Design Lead of "Shattered Skies," Adam Skidmore, recently released a 26 minute video of game play footage and discussed many of the features that gamers can look forward to in Free Reign Entertainment's newest post-apocalyptic massively multiplayer online (MMO) survival game.

First of all, "Shattered Skies" looks beautiful. Free Reign has added a dynamic lighting system that makes the world look more realistic than in their previous games. Inside dusty, decrepit building or outside in the mist, the sun's light refracts off atmospheric variables, producing blades of light that elicit a mood that can't be achieved any other way.

In the video, Skidmore ran through the stunning landscape at 60 frames per second with all of the visual elements maxed out. Surprisingly, the hardware he was running was less than the minimum requirements for running an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Though the video card was the same, NVidia GTX 970, the processor was lesser. VR headsets require an i5-4590, Skidmore was running a 3770.

In previous titles, crafting was a pain in the backpack. Picking up items that had the potential to be useful later had players weighing the value of every item they came across. Now crafting supplies no longer take up backpack space. If an item can be used on a crafting table, it automatically gets added to a dedicated menu, earmarked for crafting supplies. Not being in the players backpack, crafting supplies are preserved after an untimely death, not dropped. This saves backpack space for what Skidmore calls "fun items in the game like guns and attachments."

Weapons are, of course, a huge part of "Shattered Skies." When customizing guns by adding attachments under the weapons menu, all compatible attachments for a gun will be displayed, whether you own them or not. Knowing what kinds of optics, muzzles, magazines, ammunition and side and bottom rail attachments are a available for a favorite gun will help with the decision-making process of what accessories players really want to hold on to. When firing weapons, an accuracy system has been added to the game as well. While firing from the hip is the least accurate method, aiming down-sights greatly decreases bullet spread and weapon kickback while crouching and going prone increase accuracy even more. Other highlights of weapons include bullet drop and travel time. Long distance firefights will be won by players that can learn how to adjust to the real-world physics that have been integrated into the system.

When players find themselves in a firefight they will be able to take some comfort in knowing that nearly every building's interior will be accessible. Though Skidmore isn't guaranteeing 100%, he hopes that will be the case at launch. Part of this idea of accessibility is providing multiple entrances for rooms and allowing access to nearly every rooftop. This is to help keep players from becoming trolls, demanding that other payers give up their weapons of even their lives in order to pass through a stairwell. Having every building accessible will also allow players that need to run from a fight a variety of options to maneuver. a quick turn can provided more than a 50/50 chance of losing a pursuer, or create an opportunity to gain the element of surprise and survive.

Player customization is also something Skidmore stressed in the video. Hair, face, masks, hats, jackets, pants and shoes can all be equipped for players to achieve that feeling of individuality. Thanks to a universal armor system, no matter what a player chooses to wear, it won't affect their defense rating. Each category has multiple pages of options. Though all habiliments can be unlocked through level progression, finding blueprints or purchasing items from vendors can allow players to achieve their look faster. However, Skidmore stressed several times in the video that "Shattered Skies" will not have a system in place for micro transactions. "The game has no monetization, no micro transactions, no way of spending any real money to gain any sort of advantage--not even cosmetically... you've got to grind all your own stuff... We've got a nice trade economy that's going to work for guns and things like that but resources will, will be an individual progression."

Free Reign Entertainment is planning on hosting an open beta this summer with a full launch in the fall. It looks like the developer has found a new direction to the open world survival genre that they are so familiar with. Whether it is epiphany or the reaction to poor reception in the past, "Shattered Skies" has breath taking environments, an interesting concept and a system that is inviting to both newcomers and veterans of the genre. to watch Skidmore's presentation and hear more about the benefits of campfires, the multi-layered backpack system and the simplified crafting system, head here.