New Details About 5TH Cell’s Hybrid Take to the Air

This is the year of shooter innovation. Battlefield 3 made battles bigger. Tribes Ascend made battles faster. And in a new press release, Developer 5TH Cell announced that its upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title, Hybrid, is going to literally bring battles into a new dimension.

5TH Cell kept details under lock during the title’s last year of extra development time, only occasionally releasing tidbits of information to tantalize fans. Apparently that time was well spent, as the game now looks much more polished, with a redesigned look, new characters, and an overall polish all while maintaining 60FPS at 720p.

“This extra year has been really useful in refining Hybrid to become a truly ‘5TH Cell’ game,” said CEO and Creative Director, Jeremiah Slaczka. “Everyone on the team has been working extremely hard and we’re all incredibly proud of what’s been accomplished.”

5TH Cell threw open the doors with screenshots located conveniently past the jump.

Set in the near future, Hybrid features a global conflict between two factions, the alien Variant and the rebel human Paladins. 5TH Cell has apparently abandoned the post-apocalyptic grit shown in trailers of last year, in favor of a clean, mechanized, futuristic look.

Combat features the use of gravity-defying jetpacks, which are activated when a player pushes a button to move to different cover. Mid-flight, players can move horizontally and vertically, speed up or slow down, and shoot at other players. In the previous build, jetpacks were present, but only served as a speedy way to move over obstacles. Now they are an essential part of movement, carrying players between platforms and through firefights.

Customization is also a large part of gameplay, and players can choose from different weapons, abilities, and stat-boosting specialties mid-fight to gain an advantage.

Given they don’t need yet another year to refine it, Hybrid is slated for release in Summer 2012.