[GameSpot] - Core Is A Roblox-Style Sandbox Game, And It's Out Now On The Epic Games Store

[343iBot]

Manticore Games has just launched Core, a new sandbox game powered by user-generated content, allowing players to explore a multiverse full of different activities and stories to uncover. In 2020, Core launched in open alpha for PC players, allowing them to dive into the game's many portals. But now, the game is out on the Epic Games Store in early access.

To celebrate the launch, Manticore Games has also released a brand-new cinematic trailer, showcasing the game's many locales--all of which are player-made--along with some scenes that tease what's to come with the future of the game. Coinciding with the early access launch of Core, Manticore Games and Epic have a set of exclusives for new players who download the game. These store-exclusive downloads include new hero characters to play as and player mounts to ride while exploring the Core's Multiverse.

For the uninitiated, Core is an expansive sandbox that hinges on the conceit of exploring a massive multiverse of worlds that have their own unique experiences, gameplay modes, and narratives to see play out. Think of it as a blend of Fortnite's colorful and cartoon-like style, the complex creation tools from Media Molecule's Dreams, and the scope of Minecraft and Roblox. Core is interesting because it manages to tie each of its worlds together, which can be accessed from the game's hub world where players can meet and venture off together. These worlds include familiar stages shooter levels and racing worlds but can also include more inventive concepts where players can meet up to explore cities and alien planets, or socialize with other explorers.

In a press release following the game's launch, Manticore Games chief creative officer Jordan Maynard stated the following: "Core's games showcase what’s possible when the power of creation is made accessible to anyone," he said. "We built Core to open gaming to a new wave of creators from all backgrounds. That new generation is already publishing amazing experiences that rival those of big studios or that big studios wouldn't even think of making.”

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Last year, I got to see an early build of the game in action, and even then, it showed great promise for its potential as a platform for creativity within a growing community of players looking to make a game of their own. This similar conceit has seen a lot of popularity in recent years due to the growing success of games like Fortnite and Minecraft, along with films like Ready Player One, all of which give context to its meeting of different worlds coming together in a new medium. With Core's launch, there's now another game on the block looking to experiment with the multiverse concept, and it'll be interesting to see where Manticore Games, along with the community of players taking advantage of the creative engine, can take the game from here now that it's in everyone's hands.

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