Insurgency: Sandstorm on console is "still just as lethal"

Insurgency was a decent shooter for PC that, thanks to extended support over a number of years, thrived on the platform. Now the series is coming to consoles in the form of Insurgency: Sandstorm, a sequel where the game has been rebuilt from the ground up, with new visuals and bullet physics possible thanks to a switch from Source to UE4.

During What's Next in Paris, an event where Focus Home Interactive shows off its latest wares, we caught up with lead game designer Michael Tsarouhas, who talked us through the changes they're making for this follow-up.

Despite the move to console, "we're not changing the experience, the gameplay is the same," Tsarouhas told us. "It's still just as lethal, it's still just as hardcore or tactical or whatever adjective you want to use. The gameplay is the same, the only thing that's going to change and make it work for consoles; obviously the input, the control, and the UI, we wanna make sure people can navigate it. But other than that, it's just really about like, we have this experience that we like, and why wouldn't people on consoles enjoy playing it."

During the interview, Tsarouhas tries to give newcomers a firmer idea as to where Insurgency sits on the spectrum of shooters, with Battlefield comparisons inevitable given the addition of vehicles in Sandstorm.

"It's still Insurgency, the vehicles we're adding are light vehicles - they're like trucks with guns on them - but it's purely supplemental. Our game is still absolutely about combat at like close to medium, sometimes long range. It's not like Battlefield which is obviously more large-scale and, you know, more arcadier. It's still Insurgency, we just have bigger maps, but we're maintaining the scale of the combat."

One thing that we didn't know going into the interview was that the single-player campaign promised last year has been cut loose. Tsarouhas explained that decision thus:

"We recently had to make the decision to announce that we had to cancel the single-player for release. We're not sure if we're going to explore it again, we're going to figure that out after release. Right now we're committed to delivering to our fans in 2018 a multiplayer experience that includes co-op, versus, and competitive."

Insurgency: Sandstorm is heading to PC, PS4, and Xbox One at some point in 2018.