Battle Royale Shooter ‘Grit’ plays like a Wild West PUBG—with NFTs

Battle royale fans rejoice – a Web3 Wild West shooter is coming.

The history about Graveldevelopment is somewhat long and storied, which for better or worse is common in the multi-year trenches of video game development. After previously launching on PC gaming marketplace Steam for $20, Web3 publisher Gala Games picked it up with plans to expand development and make it free-to-play with optional NFTs.

Before Gala, Grit’s original announcement trailer received mixed feedback. While some players were excited, others complained about “crappy graphics” that, to them, looked more like a mobile game than an immersive PC title.

But Grit has come a long way since then – and it’s expected to launch in May on the Epic Games Store. I played an early access version of Gala’s Grit, and while my playtest version didn’t have NFTs in the mix, did offers horse riding, cannon throwing and heart-rending battles in the middle of a sonically appealing old west landscape.

Gunslingin’ gameplay

Grit is easy to pick up and play. It’s a player-versus-player (BR PVP) battle royale, so matches can be quick – about 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the mix of an ever-tightening ring of environmental toxins (like in PUBG, Fortnite or Apex Legends) pulling players together plus intense gameplay makes things feel fast and fun.

While Red Dead Redemption fans may write off Grit as a low-res copy, it’s far from it – and there is other great western games out there (like Weird vest). But Grit is for battle royale junkies who may not necessarily have the attention span for a single-player role-playing game (RPG) or simply prefer shorter bursts of PVP action.

A screenshot from my Grit playtest. Image: Decrypt.

Although it’s easy to jump into, since the focus of the game is lootin’ n’ shootin’, the game strategy is actually quite intricate. In Grit, not only are there different tiers of weapons like in Fortnite or PUBG (i.e. common, rare, epic or legendary), but there are also associated different card “suits”.

For example, a gun with the Diamonds suit attached allows players to track enemies for a limited time after first landing a shot, while the Hearts suit grants players health benefits while the weapon is equipped with one of the four tracks.

Image: Decrypt.

The Spades outfit provides perks to armor and reloading, and the Clubs outfit gives buffs (or boosters) to any horse a player can ride during the match. There are also a selection of other items, such as medkits for healing and armor for shields.

The matches I played felt fun and impactful. I had quite a few choices; for example, I could choose to drop in early and play aggressively, or ride around looking for the best loot and strategically aim to survive until the intense playoffs. Either way, Grit feels flexible to several different BR playstyles. And just like any other BR it makes a world of difference to use tires and take the high ground.

The revolvers, rifles and shotguns feel accurate and authentic, and while they are ultimately reminiscent of Fortnite weapons, the sound paired with the weapons makes each shot all the more satisfying. The ambient sound and ambient noise are also very high quality and feel like they are coming from a AAA game.

One thing about the Grit that is atypical for shooters, however, is that each gun must be reloaded upon pickup before firing. It makes it difficult to grab weapons when attacked, as the reload animation takes some time.

Despite early graphical gripes by some players, Grit is visually appealing. Granted, the character graphics could be clearer and sharper for those with high-end machines – I played on the highest settings, but still found some models a bit blurry – it’s not GPU intensive for those without. Either way, Grit’s map offers a healthy mix of forests, red stone deserts, and abandoned saloon towns to keep things lively.

Screenshot from the Grit game. Image: Decrypt.

However, the fact that Grit is not hugely graphically demanding can be a strength. Not every gamer has a thousand dollar graphics card or the latest PC build. Also, given that the version I played wasn’t the launch version, there’s also a chance that things could continue to be tweaked and polished in the coming weeks and months.

NFT stolen property

Gala plans to launch Grit in May with its Gunslinger boxes as its origin NFTs. Each NFT will reveal one of 10,000 generative playable characters, and they currently cost about 0.72 ETH each on Gala’s site – about $1,360.

While that is certainly a high price tag, you will find a better deal from another holder on secondary marketplaces such as Open seawhere they currently start at 0.14 ETH—about $265 apiece.

Gala told Decrypt that much of the in-game benefits associated with NFTs are still under wraps, but revealed that the NFTs will eventually grant characters unique in-game abilities.

For those looking to spend less, Grit will also offer Seasonal Battle Passes that can be purchased with crypto or fiat currency, unlocking new in-game cosmetics (like skins) and loot when players log hours into the game.

Gala Games also told Decrypt that it plans to release more Grit NFTs at a later date, but will only offer the Gunslinger boxes at launch.

As an early example of a robust, AAA-style Web3 game, Grit shows a lot of promise. The gameplay – the most important part of any game – for this battle royale affair is already solid, fun and perhaps endlessly replayable in this pre-release. And overall, it feels very friendly to casual gamers, making it an ideal choice for a fun night out with friends.