Why Rising Thunder deserves your attention
First teased at Evolution Championship Series 2015, Rising Thunder was a promising project from the get go due to the involvement of the one and only Seth Killian. For those of you who don't know, he was previously involved with Capcom during the heydays of Street Fighter 4 and later moved to Radiant Entertainment. So am I telling you to give attention to this game just based on the people behind it? Well its part of the reason but there are plenty of others as well, which you can check out below.
It's easier than hardcore fighting games such as Street Fighter or King of Fighters
Rising Thunder is a game that aims to refrain players from performing complicated motions and tough inputs to perform moves. Which given that fact that recent surveys have shown Fighting Games as one of the tougher genre to adapt to, is a great idea. Basically if your character has a fireball, then you simply press a button to perform it. Combos are linear and give you much leeway than other games in the genre.
It will sport robots and will be free
to play!
Seriously who does not like fighting robots? And the game has plenty of it. Also each of these mechanical warriors seem to have a lot of personality as well as a very unique fighting style, you have your traditional shotos, grapplers and even mix up characters that just rely on a guessing game more than anything.
It is probably one of the few Fighting Games that one can comfortably play on Keyboards
Have you ever tried hitting 1frame links on membrane keyboards? It hardly works, same goes for advanced techniques such as crouch teching and plinking. Long story short keyboard are rather inconsistent for competitive fighting games. But for Rising Thunder, that won't matter. In fact some of the developers have actually stated that they enjoy playing the game more on the keyboard than on arcade sticks. This will also mean that Rising Thunder might finally do what other games in the genre couldn't and that is to create a competitive fighting game scene in the world of PC Gaming.
It will be powered by UE4 and GGPO3
Netcode is one of the most important aspects of a fighting game, the guys behind Rising Thunder knows that all too well. Fortunately the game will be powered by GGP03, which is widely considered as one of the most advanced online codes out there. Also the game even its alpha stage looks good visually, thanks to the power UE4. Which is the same visual engine used by Capcom for their upcoming major fighting game Street Fighter 5.
It will continue to evolve
Radiant has stated multiple times that they plan to keep expanding the game after its release by adding characters, balance changes, visual updates and of course cosmetics. Especially cosmetics are something that CS:GO and Dota 2 have shown to be very popular and can easily be used as a currency that can fund the competitive scene. Which explains why they chose PC over consoles, not that there won't be a console version later on. But right now PC is the only platform with access to the Technical Beta.
Overall I think Rising Thunder has a lot of potential, especially as a stepping stone for fans of other genres. I don't expect it to have the same competitive satisfaction or hype as SF or MVC, but chances are that there is a large audience who would appreciate it for its simpler and more fun approach.