In 2022, after a short early access period, Joy Way launched STRIDE. It was a parkour-themed game where you could run and leap across rooftops, shooting bad guys and setting speed runs. At the time, a campaign story mode was on the cards yet never seemed to materialise. Now it has, sort of. Joy Way has announced the sequel STRIDE: Fates, a “full-fledged separate game.”
Taking the freerunning nature of STRIDE, this sequel upgrades the original with new gameplay and a story-driven campaign. “Step into the shoes of Nick Young – a parkour spec-ops officer. Traverse and shoot your way through the rooftops and basements of dystopian Airon City, from slums to affluent skyscrapers,” the synopsis reveals. “Deal with power shifts in gangs, dirty family feuds, corporate secrets, forbidden tech and other obstacles to understand your past.”
STRIDE 2.0
Joy Way has said that STRIDE: Fates will feature 5-8 hours of ‘action-packed gameplay’. It certainly seems a more fleshed-out experience rather than some mere DLC add-on.
Other features include:
- Blockbuster-level narrative.
- Climb buildings, vault through windows, and slide down cables with lightning speed.
- Explore open-world locations under the watch of snipers and drones.
- Feel the thrill of close-quarters combat with tactical shooter mechanics.
- Use your gadgets and hacking skills to outwit thugs and corporates.
- Meet a motley cast of characters to shape your Fate.
- Puzzles, collectibles and more cool stuff that will be announced later.
The fate of STRIDE
However, there are going to be plenty of players annoyed by the announcement – as seen by recent review-bombing on STRIDE’s Steam store. Addressing those concerns on its Discord, the studio states: “Instead of an hour of gameplay, we made a separate game, better in every aspect, with new content, mechanics and 5-8 hours of story campaign (depending on side quests and time spent in open world locations).
“When we started developing Fates as an update / DLC, we encountered the limitations of the original STRIDE, as the new project contains a lot of content that is very different from the original,” the studio continues. “The new content required significant changes to the game engine and other technical aspects. At some point, after fruitless attempts to upgrade the existing engine, we had to restart the project and basically re-do almost all the code from scratch, and now the new engine is incompatible with the original STRIDE.”
STRIDE: Fates doesn’t have a confirmed release date at the moment. Joy Way aims to launch the game for Meta Quest headsets in November 2023, with a SteamVR launch taking place in 2024. The studio’s most recent game is Dead Hook, similarly action-packed but with a roguelike angle.
Are you interested in STRIDE: Fates? Or are you annoyed it is a separate game? Let us know in the comments below.