Ethos, a free-to-play 3rd-person hero shooter. It’s entering a crowded and fraught marketplace, but the publisher says this is an “exciting evolution” of the genre. That evolution seems to take the form of some light roguelike mechanics.

2K Games has unveiled its first-ever free-to-play live-service shooter, Project Ethos, via an announcement trailer and a community playtest that anyone can take part in.

It's not really a roguelike: You just get to pick from randomized sets of buffs throughout a match. Otherwise, it's a third-person shooter that resembles Fortnite, but with hero characters who come with unique guns and abilities, and a low-stakes PvPvE extraction mode as its main attraction.

K and 31st Union have announced Project Ethos, a new hero shooter roguelike that you could get a chance to playtest this weekend.