Blacklight 2 announced

The sequel to one of the most underrated shooters of 2010— Blacklight: Tango Down —is officially in development. Plus, Blacklight 2 is going be free-to-play, and it'll add an enormous ED-209 -like Hardsuit to your arsenal.

Blacklight 1 was pretty damn awesome (it had a visor that let you see enemies anywhere on the map and a grenade that blue-screened your HUD), but at launch it suffered from GfWL limitations, a lack of dedicated servers and long waiting times in the multiplayer lobbies. Zombie Studies appears to be tackling all of these issues with Blacklight 2, while also pursuing the free-to-play arena in an effort to hook Asian, US and European players all at once.

Like other free-to-play games, Blacklight 2 will include certain bits of content for small doses of cash (cosmetic gear and trinkets, as well as premium upgrades). Blacklight 1 built its formula off successful games such as Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield 2: Bad Company, with staples such as unlockable weapons (earned from an XP leveling system), customizable armaments and stat-enhancing gadgets, but all with a futuristic twist.

The sequel looks to do the same, adding even more options to the players' toolboxes. Zombie revealed there'll be all new guns, new maps and, from Lead Designer Jared Gerritzen, "brand new systems based off of feedback from fans and press reviews." There'll also be more complexity in tweaking your character's design and combat tactics, so you can choose to play as a lumbering tank or a nimble scout-sniper (or anything in-between).

So let's see: it's free, it's got a giant suit of mechanized armor and it's taking the TF2 approach of incremental updates and improvements? So far, so good. Keep your eyes glued to PC Gamer for more Blacklight 2 info as soon as it unfolds!