In the past two years, if you were to ask which sector is more likely to produce AAA games amidst the global wave of layoffs in the gaming industry, many would likely answer shooters.
A quick count reveals that since 2024, numerous new AAA shooters have been released globally, including Delta Force, Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders, Borderlands 4, and Marathon. The majority of these are shooters, demonstrating that once a specific gameplay style within the shooter genre is validated, the global market for shooter games exhibits considerable potential.
Recently, another new shooter has been revealed: Fragmentary Order, a hardcore sci-fi multiplayer FPS developed by Rant Gaming and published by Cor3, released a 7-minute trailer.
The production quality of this promotional video is visibly high, with almost no trace of AIGC (AI-generated content). A single promotional video could easily cost millions of dollars, highlighting the high production standards of Fragmentary Order. This is precisely why, when the outside world discovered that the game developer, Rant Gaming, was a mysterious new team with almost no public information, everyone speculated about the project’s origins.
And today, someone has finally come forward to claim responsibility. Escape from Tarkov producer Nikita Buyanov confirmed on his personal social media account that Fragmentary Order is being developed by his new company, Rant Gaming. He also stated that the original Escape from Tarkov developer, Battlestate Games, remains unaffected, and he will continue to lead Battlestate Games in developing Escape from Tarkov.
“Tarkov is my life, and I want to continue working with BSG no matter what, and Fragmentary Order is a new journey I want to share with you.”
Based on the specific content of the promotional video and related information disclosed by Rant Gaming, Fragmentary Order is likely a hard science fiction space-themed search, attack, and withdrawal game. The game is currently only available on PC and is expected to be tested later this year.
A near-future sci-fi story based on reality?
Undoubtedly, judging from the official trailer released by Fragmentary Order, the game looks quite promising, and the subject matter is very captivating. The game is set in 2251, where a mysterious organization called “CORE” reassembled humanity’s crumbling civilization 200 years ago and embarked on the exploration of the solar system. Under CORE’s leadership, humanity not only colonized the solar system and mastered advanced biotechnology, but also created a framework called “CORIE” to control global operations. In CORIE, everything, including war, is structured, monetized, and precisely controlled.
The trailer begins with a very futuristic display of the “CORE” logo.
The trailer opens with a classic sci-fi apocalypse scene: during the Cold War (1986), an experimental accident occurred at a Soviet test site, and the entire site was transported to the lunar surface.
Following this, human civilization entered a long period of turmoil, known as the “Age of Conflict,” during which global civilization began to fragment and collapse. This continued until the emergence of CORE, who successfully persuaded governments to reunite the forces of human civilization and ushered in a new “CORE Era” through advanced technology.
The promotional video depicts the global upheaval following the end of the Cold War.
Under CORE’s leadership, robotics and biotechnology developed rapidly, and humanity began exploring the universe and colonizing space. However, numerous fragmented scenes in the promotional video suggest that CORE’s rule may no longer be secure, and human civilization may once again face fragmentation.
An attack on Mars.
According to official descriptions, in the future, people will operate robots called “Replica Entities” to explore various parts of the solar system through remote deployment. This essentially defines the game’s combat setting: players take on the role of a “replica” robot, “traveling to high-risk combat zones throughout the solar system to complete mission objectives, search for resources, and engage in firefights.”
The remote-controlled robot combat mechanic is somewhat similar to Bungie’s Marathon. Judging from the official description, the game will likely include elements of loot-attack-retreat gameplay. However, it’s unclear whether it will focus primarily on PvP like Escape from Tarkov and Delta Force, or on PvPvE (or even PvE-dominated) like Arc Raiders.
While it’s currently unclear how much of the trailer features actual gameplay, it’s certain that the main combat areas will be other planets in space, with Mars likely being one of the maps. The trailer also clearly demonstrates the impact of gravity on combat, which could be one of the game’s selling points.
Interestingly, although Fragmentary Order is set in 2251, a relatively distant future, many of its storylines and elements, in GameLook’s view, carry strong metaphorical undertones of reality, even addressing themes frequently discussed in 20th-century science fiction.
For example, the story’s ending of the Cold War and the global fragmentation caused by an accident at a former Soviet experimental facility clearly reflects an “IF” scenario from that era, where the Cold War plunged the world into war. Since the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian conflict, global geopolitical conflicts have indeed intensified, and the trend of deglobalization has become increasingly apparent.
Another example is CORE, a massive corporation that effectively dominates the world. Through technological prowess, they have integrated global civilization, possessing greater credibility than national governments, and have even invented a framework called “CORIE” to firmly control everything globally. This, to some extent, reflects a common concern in cyberpunk science fiction: the potential for technological monopolies by large multinational corporations in the future.
The trailer shows government representatives signing agreements with heavily armed soldiers standing behind them, perhaps alluding to the authoritarian control of CORE.
The elements featured in the trailer, such as lunar space stations, robots, and short video livestreams, are familiar to people in real life. Clearly, Fragmentary Order aims to use these relatable elements to highlight the game’s apocalyptic nature as a science fiction story, thereby enhancing player immersion.
(The trailer features a short video livestream.)
Nikita and his “Post-Tarkov Era”
Interestingly, back in February when Fragmentary Order released its first teaser trailer, many speculated that Rant Gaming was connected to Battlestate Games, the developer of Escape from Tarkov. At the time, Nikita himself clarified on Twitter that the project had no connection to Battlestate Games or Escape from Tarkov.
In retrospect, Nikita did intend to keep the new project under wraps, but to some extent, you can’t say he completely “deceived everyone.” After all, his February statement was that the new project was “unrelated to Battlestate Games and Escape from Tarkov,” without emphasizing its “personal connection.”
Now, Nikita has indeed established a new startup under his own name to work on Fragmentary Order. Strictly speaking, aside from the same producer, Fragmentary Order has little connection to Battlestate Games and Escape from Tarkov.
This seemingly minor wordplay raises another question—why didn’t Nikita develop the “Escape from Tarkov sequel” under the Battlestate Games name, instead of establishing a separate company? After all, the “original Tarkov team” gimmick would obviously have a greater advantage in marketing.
This may still be related to international geopolitical factors. Nikita’s new company, Rant Gaming, emphasizes that it is an “international team distributed globally,” which is clearly an attempt to de-Russify its image. It is reported that Rant Gaming currently has over 100 developers, all of whom are seasoned professionals in the game and film industries.
According to Rant Gaming’s official recruitment information, they are currently hiring scene artists and UX engine programmers. The work location is listed as Dubai/Global. This suggests that Rant Gaming’s headquarters may be in Dubai, a common choice for many international companies.
It is noteworthy that Nikita, outside of gaming, was forced to establish a new, de-Russified team due to international geopolitical factors. This aligns perfectly with the theme of Fragmentary Order, which explores the gradual fragmentation of humanity under the influence of technological revolutions and geopolitical conflicts—as mentioned earlier, Fragmentary Order uses current events as a realistic footnote to its science fiction apocalyptic story.
This mode of expression is naturally closely related to Nikita’s personal aesthetic preferences. In a tweet today, Nikita stated, “I’ve always dreamed of creating a truly hard science fiction game. For years, this idea has lingered in my mind—to bring a whole new universe to life through a science fiction apocalypse.”
Nikita also stated that he wants to inject more new elements into the genre, just like he did with Escape from Tarkov. As the “father of the raid-and-retreat genre,” Nikita previously discussed his creative process for developing the raid-and-retreat gameplay in an interview. He said his initial inspiration came from the death penalty design of EVE Online, and elements from several tactical survival games like DayZ. From the initial inspiration to the final product of Escape from Tarkov, about 65% to 70% was “pure innovation, without being inspired by anything else.”
Nikita also mentioned that they know many players can’t handle overly hardcore content, and Escape from Tarkov has made some compromises. “In my mind, Tarkov should be much more difficult than it is now,” he said, but they believe there are limits to pleasing players, and they still want to stick to their vision of a hardcore experience. According to Nikita, he has found a niche approach that suits him and will continue to explore and try new things.
Regarding his new project, Fragmentary Order, Nikita also mentioned expanding into new content and bringing something new to the genre. In the comments section of his tweet, a player asked him why he was developing another raid-and-escape game in a new studio, to which Nikita replied, “Why do you think this will be a raid-and-escape game?”
However, this doesn’t mean that Fragmentary Order is completely unrelated to the raid-and-escape genre. After all, based on the information released by the developers, keywords such as “infiltration, completing missions, finding extraction methods, and death penalties” are classic elements of raid-and-escape gameplay.
Therefore, Nikita’s reply is more likely an indication that Fragmentary Order will have more innovative gameplay compared to Escape from Tarkov. Just as Escape from Tarkov broke through the existing shooting game genre and developed a completely new raid-and-escape gameplay, Fragmentary Order will also make some breakthroughs in the raid-and-escape genre.
Of course, since no gameplay trailers have been released yet to showcase the game’s detailed mechanics, further information from the official team and the first test later this year are still pending. What is confirmed is that Fragmentary Order is developed using UE5, featuring a realistic art style and a sci-fi theme, indicating a significant investment. Compared to Escape from Tarkov, which progressed from a small team through numerous setbacks, Fragmentary Order represents a major gamble for Nikita.
Nikita’s decision to create such a project clearly reflects considerable determination. His social media posts even carried a touch of melancholy: “My life has become more difficult, but I’ve decided not to wait any longer. Because I can’t help but ask myself: if I continue to wait, will I still have the ability or willingness to explore new things in the future?”
For such a determined game developer with a strong independent game team spirit, who has created what is arguably the hottest genre in the global commercial game market in the past two years, global shooter game enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting his answer.
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