Marauders Beta Kicks Off Next Week

Marauders, the upcoming PvPvE loot-and-raid sci-fi first-person shooter that combines on-foot FPS gameplay and spaceship dogfighting, is heading into a closed beta session next week.

From July 20-25, anyone who preorders Marauders will be able to participate in the closed beta on Steam. Developer Small Impact Games and publisher Team17 say that the closed beta will add two new Raid locations since the closed alpha a couple months ago: Merchant Ship, which they describe as "an expansive, breach-able frigate perfect for intimate and long-range firefights" and Terraformer, a "newly abandoned agricultural hub built on top of an asteroid shard."

We previewed Marauders during the closed alpha recently and came away impressed with the core gameplay loop. The closed beta will add a number of improvements made since the alpha, including the addition of the Heavy Thompson and the Klobb Machine Pistol weapons, as well as the ‘Scrap Bomb’ heavy explosive and "numerous quality-of-life improvements such a ‘Quick Loot’ option and foldable bags for economic inventory management."

Marauders will launch into Steam Early Access and Game Preview via PC Game Pass later in 2022.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.