Netflix announces Rebel Moon: Blood Line, a surprisingly fun mobile spinoff game

The world of Rebel Moon is about to get a little bigger. Not with another movie just yet, unfortunately, but with a new mobile game from Netflix Games. The new game is called Rebel Moon: Blood Line, and while Netflix announced that the game was in development over a year ago, it wasn’t until Thursday’s Geeked Week presentation that we got our first look at the squad-based action game. 

Netflix’s Geeked Week presentation showed off a little bit of gameplay from Blood Line, along with a few words from the developers at Super Evil Megacorp. The trailer also showed off some footage, including the top-down shooting that makes up most of the core gameplay loop. 

Ahead of the Netflix event, Polygon had the opportunity to play some of Rebel Moon: Blood Line, and chat with the developers about what it was like to take on a video game project in this original sci-fi world. 

The game is set within the universe of Rebel Moon, but is largely separate from the plot of Zack Snyder’s movies. The idea for the game started shortly after development of the film, the team says, with Snyder and crew handing over scripts and other world-building materials to Super Evil Megacorp and letting the team run wild with their ideas for how to expand the world. The track they chose involved diving into a new segment of the universe and expanding on some of the factions of the Imperium and the rebellion that we see briefly in the movies, but don’t get much backstory on. The game takes place on a planet called Krypt, where you help the rebel faction fight back against the overwhelming might of the Imperium.

While its status as a mobile tie-in game to a blockbuster movie franchise may still carry some baggage, Rebel Moon: Blood Line’s gameplay is surprisingly deep and fun. Similar to other short mission-style games like Helldivers (which the team noted as a definite inspiration), the game starts players (up to four in a squad) in the rebels’ home base, where you can run around and edit your loadout, customize your appearance, glean a few details about the story and the larger Rebel Moon universe, or select missions.

The missions we played were quick, small-scale skirmishes that lasted about 5-15 minutes each. They were fast-paced and tasked us with completing a variety of unique objectives while wave after wave of enemies rushed us from all sides. While the easiest level we played didn’t feel too tough, ramping up the difficulty increased the enemy numbers until it became a bit of a challenge (and a whole lot more entertaining). All of this was made significantly better by the game’s unique classes.

The game can be played single player, but playing with a full squad is where it really shines, especially if each of you takes on a different class. The game includes four unique classes, but it’s easier to think of them in the traditional roles they might occupy in other games: Bannerguard is the tank, Evoker is the healer, Kindred is the bow-wielding ranged DPS, and Forsaken is the stealthy quick melee DPS option. Each class has a variety of unique abilities that pair well with each other, including crowd control for the Kindred, a taunt for the Bannerguard, and a few high-damage and quick repositioning abilities for the Forsaken. It’s easy to see how the higher difficulty levels could make these abilities really shine — for example, making it even more important for the Bannerguard to take aggro from the many enemies on screen and get heals from the Evoker — to let the rest of the squad do damage without worrying about taking damage. 

Each of these classes also has a massive litany of upgrades available to earn, either through in-game currency you gain from missions or by leveling up each individual class. These upgrades seemed interesting, and appear to be Super Evil Megacorp’s primary incentive for people to stick with the game, but in our short demo we didn’t have a chance to really dive into the details, or learn how much they really change the core gameplay loop. 

Another thing we didn’t get a great sense of in the demo was just how much this game digs into the larger world of Rebel Moon. While the original release versions of the movie don’t do a great job of showing it, the director’s cuts revealed that Rebel Moon’s world (best described as a mashup of Warhammer 40K and Star Wars) is fascinating and filled with weird, cool-as-hell lore. An action RPG like Rebel Moon: Blood Line seems like the perfect place to show off all the sick details that make this world tick, but they were tough to notice in the snippet of gameplay we experienced. 

Super Evil Megacorp was clear the game was only in alpha at the moment and that the classes and gameplay were what was most locked down. That part felt great. Of course, only time will tell how sticky the game will prove with players, or if its mobile platform will hold it back as the levels get harder, but for now it seems to be off to a pretty promising start — and it might at least be a great holdover until the conclusion of the movie trilogy arrives.

Rebel Moon: Blood Line doesn’t have a release date just yet, but it will have a beta in the near future. When it’s released, the game will be available to download for anyone with a Netflix subscription and a supported device to play it on.