With many people around the world mostly staying in and hungering for connections, team-based multiplayer game Bleeding Edge has come out at a good time.

In the latest game from British developers Ninja Theory for the Xbox One, players are grouped in teams of four to go head to head with another team to complete objectives, all the while hitting each other as hard and fast as they can.

But while the game does initially impress with its flashy design, it loses its edge against competitors in the same genre, such as Overwatch and Apex Legends, given its frustrating camera and how it lacks the balance and variety they offer.

Bleeding Edge is focused on tight battles. Many might call it a hero-shooter, but I think its focus on close-quarter combat makes it more of a team-based brawler.

The 12 characters across the three classes of tank, healer and damage-dealer have abilities that work best when you are as near to your enemy as possible.

It is worth mentioning that style is overflowing in this game and that the steampunk-influenced character design is very polished and intriguing.

The first time I scrolled through the roster, I wanted to know more about Maeve, the cackling grandma who rides a robot; Mekko, the dolphin that pilots a death machine; and Kulev, the voodoo doctor who wields robotic snakes as his weapon of choice.

But while fun to look at, the same cannot be said about controlling these characters, as the camera makes it hard to do so.

While there is a lock-on mechanic to allow your fighter to focus on a particular target, the fights are hectic and characters move around quickly - meaning that the camera also moves around quickly.

The result is almost headacheinducing, as the point of view sometimes goes haywire, leaving me disoriented and unable to feel like I am fully in control of my character.

Not locking on is an option, but then the accuracy of my character suffers greatly.

The camera is also not intuitive enough to allow me to look at the peripheral space around my character, meaning that there are many times when I took hits I could not have seen coming.

There are two modes to Bleeding Edge - power collection and objective control.

Power collection sees the two teams racing to collect power canisters that spawn randomly throughout the map, and then rushing to drop-off spots to score points. If you defeat an enemy, all the canisters it has get dropped, allowing you to take them for yourself.

This mode is the superior one and I find myself enjoying it as I negotiate the balance between deciding if I should stay away to protect my canisters and hunt for more.

In the objective control mode, the two teams battle to capture three chosen areas in a map that activate in phases. To win, teams need to control these areas longer than their opponents within a time limit.

While the two modes are quite distinct, they do not have enough variety to keep me interested for very long. Even with the various heroes across the different classes, the games start to feel similar and I lose the motivation to finish trying all 12 of them.

The game does try to incentivise players to continue playing, by offering character customisation that goes deeper than just cosmetic changes.

Play the game enough and you can earn modifiers that affect things such as a character's attack strength, the cool-down time of his special abilities and how many hits he can take.

But personally, this kind of progression system does not appeal if the game is not fundamentally very fun, which unfortunately describes Bleeding Edge.

FOR

•Eye-catching sense of style

•Some unique character design

AGAINST

•Frustrating camera

•Not much variety in matches

SPECS

PRICE: From $39.90 (Xbox One only)

GENRE: Online brawler

RATING: 6/10