Free-to-play open-world RPG NTE recently launched its Containment Test, a closed beta that showcases the upgrades developer Hotta Studio has made since the game’s last technical test. There are improvements across the board, including better visuals, new mechanics, racing content, reworked combat, and more.
NTE takes place in Hethereau, a sprawling metropolis that’s really more like two cities in one. On the surface, it’s a pristine urban center filled with people going about their daily lives. But the underworld is constantly warped by reality-defying anomalies, and you’re an unlicensed Anomaly Hunter tasked with investigating these strange occurrences and putting a stop to them.
Hethereau itself has always been one of the game’s focal points, a city built in Unreal Engine 5 to allow seamless travel across its massive size. But the latest updates have taken things to another level, giving the city a comprehensive visual overhaul. There’s richer detail, updated aesthetics, and improvements to lighting and environmental effects.
Light and shadows now show more contrast, which is especially apparent as you progress through the natural day/night cycle. You also can experience dynamic weather conditions — from fog to rain to snow — as you travel across the city, and snow effects in particular have been enhanced. Thanks to physically based rendering, snowflakes now look translucent and lifelike.
Characters have also gotten a graphical makeover. The materials of their clothes and strands of their hair are now much more detailed, making each character pop even more in the anime-inspired art style.
You’ll form a party of four characters during your anomaly-hunting missions, and each character has their own skills called Esper Abilities. You control one character at a time, but can switch between the four in your party on the fly to chain their Esper Abilities together and form combos that synergize well together.
That experience has also been refined in the latest update, with actions, skills, and the overall feel of combat reworked for smoother gameplay. There are also new mechanics, like parry attacks and critical dodge counterattacks, that have been introduced to add more variety to combat.
No matter which characters are in your party, you can make use of their Esper Abilities inside and outside of combat. Some help with traversal of the city, like allowing you to run up the sides of buildings and parkour to get around quickly. But that’s not the only way to travel through Hethereau. There are also ziplines that can help you find hidden corners of the city, and with the help of the character Mint from the Bureau of Anomaly Control, you can “requisition” cars.
Buying and modding cars has always been part of NTE. There are lots of customization options — including colors, tires, bumpers, and engines — and you can mix and match until you have your ride just how you want it. There are dozens of different custom cars, and you can drive in first-person or third-person.
Requisitioning cars is new in the latest update and can bring some consequences with it if you’re reckless. With Mint’s help, you can commandeer vehicles at any time across the city, which can help quickly get you from mission to mission if you don’t have an owned car easily at hand. However, be aware that if you damage the vehicle or disturb public safety, things can get out of hand fast. There’s a new multi-level wanted system with escalating consequences — police officers and bots will you pursue you and get increasingly aggressive the higher your wanted level rises. You can see this system in action in the video below.
However you end up with your car, you can take it online and team up with friends to take on street racing crews across different districts in multiplayer races, another new addition in the latest update. Racing also includes drifting, but be careful when it’s raining or snowing — the roads will be slippery and handling will be worse.
The Containment Test is running from now until July 16, after which Hotta Studio will take player feedback and address it in future updates. The full release of NTE will be available on PC, console, iOS, and Android, and it will be free-to-play with cross-progression across all platforms. Pre-registration is open now, and for the latest news and info, you can follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Discord.
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