Core Is Like Fortnite Mashed-Up With Dreams; It's Now In Open Alpha

Core, the new game/creation tool hybrid coming from Manticore Games, allows players to craft, share, and play within custom worlds designed around different experiences. Core is well situated within an already growing space populated by other games like Fortnite, Dreams, and Minecraft. However, as a free-to-play game on PC, Core does things differently by focusing more on the experience of exploring different player worlds, tying into a more extensive network that is essentially a multiverse of unique player-created landscapes.

Out now in open alpha on PC, newcomers will be able to join the online community that the game has already formed during its closed alpha period, and take many of the player-creations for a test run, or dive into the mechanics head-on to push the limits of the system themselves. But what sets Core apart from games like Fortnite and Dreams is the level of flexibility to explore and experiment with the various constructs. When players dive into the game, they can just stick with one player's level, such as a standard multiplayer deathmatch with other players set in custom created locales. However, if you want to switch things up without leaving the game, you can seamlessly hop over to different levels via an in-game portal, no matter how different they are.

Much like in games such as Dreams and LittleBigPlanet, you'll be able to work within a robust level and map editor to design a variety of different spaces and retool various aspects of the core gameplay. In addition to using other player creations as a base, letting you get a grasp of the systems and go from there, you can also make a world from scratch and mold it into any type of experience you see fit. On a mechanic-level, Core feels most accustomed to the mechanics of a shooter, like Fortnite, but players will be able to reshape the game into something else entirely. Instead of being locked into one type of experience until you exit the game, you can portal hop over into a drastically different game and setting--akin to switching over to a different channel.

During a live demonstration with the developers, we got to see this multiverse system in action. The developers at Manticore opened up with a colorful, large-scale map intended for the battle royale game type--which many players in the closed alpha took the time to make. During our time with this map, we saw a few battles that will make players familiar with shooters like Fortnite feel right at home, but then the devs opened a portal leading to a new world, which brought players to a pirate ship battle game, complete with a top-down camera view. These worlds were different from one another, but being able to seamlessly dive into different worlds, without going back to a menu system, is a of the experience of journeying across a vast network of worlds, which is a lot of fun to watch unfold.

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Furthermore, players will be able to craft unique hub spaces to feature a set of custom worlds that are tied together, such as a theme park-inspired space that leads to various themed zones. Core carries a lot of the same energy that's inspired by player-creation centric games like Fornite and Dreams. Still, it puts a surprisingly focus on unifying all the bizarre and unique levels together within its multiverse network. In a lot of ways, Core has the makings of a game that's tailor-made for the streaming, YouTube, and TikTok era of online entertainment. If you want to find a new game or world to play in a while checking out Core, then you can just hop over to a new level and try it out.

While it's always fun to see the familiar re-created in unfamiliar games, like a custom-built battle royale game with arcade-style ship-combat interludes, the real excitement comes when crafty players introduce creations that recontextualize many of the systems to make something new. In Core's case, some players were already at work with more out-of-the-box creations, such as refitting the colorful and cartoony game into a horror experience where players have to use flashlights to avoid knife-wielding killers. With the open alpha open now, it'll be interesting to see how far players can push the mechanics, and where it can go from here.

To join the Core's open alpha, you can visit the official website to register and jump in.