5^thCell, Creators of games such as Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life have just announced their new title… A 3^rd person shooter for XBLA. Yes, as strange as it seems, The studio has released gameplay footage of their innovative new multiplayer game, Hybrid, and all I can say is that I’m thoroughly impressed.

5^thCell have taken the much loved Source engine and put a futuristic Halo-esque asthetic to it, which looks wonderful at 69 fps. But the most interesting part of this game, is that you have very limited direct control over your character’s movement, making each decision a very important one.

Hybrid focuses on the chest-high wall mechanic that many shooters use today, but without the usual movement in-between. Instead you choose another piece of cover to move to, and your character flies to it using a jetpack. In fact, there is no actual ground movement in the game, and apart from choosing your destination, you can only swerve slightly mid-flight to avoid enemy fire. This seems like it would limit your ability to fight, but I think it’s just creating new possibilities, and narrowing the technique of moving around. It won’t change the basic shooting and ducking in and out of cover, but it will make moving a much more tactical choice. Hybrid will also be classless, instead, you may choose your weapons and abilities during your respawn countdown, this is a welcome change to shooters from the preset class system present in many games.

The other big feature of Hybrid is that once you choose a faction, you’re in it for the long haul. There will be a persistent war between the two powers, and each battle will affect the world as a whole. Exactly how these great changes affect the world is currently unknown, but I’m definitely interested in how it could change the fight, the environment, and maybe even the gear!

Hybrid looks like it’s well worth the money, it will be out this summer on Xbox live. Check out the trailer below!