Spellbreak beta stands out from the copycat battle royale crowd

Spellbreak battles are full of splashy elemental explosions and floaty acrobatic dodges.

It feels like just yesterday that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite: Battle Royale were introducing the world to the fun and excitement of the battle royale genre. But in the three years since their relatively sudden rise, we've seen countless copycats big and small remix the same basic "many enter, only one survives" shooter gameplay.

At this point, it takes something pretty different to stand out from the crowd, and Spellbreak might just be one of those special battle royale standouts. Ahead of the game's relaunched and expanded closed beta today (which includes PS4 support for the first time), we got an advance look at some serious updates to this unique take on the genre.

Spell-ing bee

As the title implies, Spellbreak tries to set itself apart from the pack by replacing gun-toting battlers with spellslingers in a genericized fantasy setting. The class-based setup gives different players control of various elemental powers through the use of upgradable gauntlets, and the differences between each set of powers are far from cosmetic. The fire gauntlet sends out slow but powerful flying fireballs, while the stone gauntlet can send a directional earthquake attack, for instance. Each gauntlet features its own charged attack as well, such as letting a pyromancer lay down a mighty wall of fire for area-based protection.

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