There has been no shortage of inventive and quirky online multiplayer games in recent times, and Bandit Trap seems to know this all too well. The upcoming title from developer PICOMY introduces three-versus-one matches where a group of bandits must sneak into a house and find treasure hidden inside furniture. All the while, a lone so-called trapper must booby trap their home to stop the invaders from getting away with it, improvising on the go to retaliate against all three players simultaneously.

The result is as chaotic as it is exhilarating. Bandit Trap isn't just a fun concept from the get-go, but based on a hands-on preview event hosted via Discord, it's already ticking the right boxes in terms of what to expect from a modern online game. Not only in terms of features in offer or share progression, but in how its elements come together when playing with others.

Before diving into details, matches go like this: first, you must pick which role you want to play. If you're going as a bandit, you'll be paired up with two other players, and there's an assortment of tools to pick before getting started. This includes the spawn location, as every house has multiple entrances, the type of scanner you want to use to look for treasure, from drones that you control remotely to a vacuum-style scanner that can be used to inspect multiple pieces of furniture at once, and then two perks per player. The latter can be anything from gaining immunity against flaming fire traps for a limited time, to being able to pass through hatches which are normally reserved for the trapper.

From that moment on, all you have to do is sneak into the house, which usually involves using an array of tools to break locks and destroy furniture to gather ten treasures. As you might have guessed by now, this isn't as easy as it sounds. As the trapper, you get a two-minute period of grace at the beginning of a match to set the scene. You can lock doors, set up slingshots across rooms, and most importantly, leave booby traps scattered around the main rooms.

Booby traps are placed by interacting with trapper towers, which allow you to select different pieces of furniture in their range and pick traps at your own leisure. These extend from flamethrowers and ice weapons to homing rockets and massive boxing gloves that can punch bandits off the map. Element synergy and physics are at the heart of Bandit Trap, which is immediately noticeable regardless of which side you're playing as.

As much planning as either party makes, all the matches I played were different, requiring tons of improvisation. As a bandit, you usually can take up to three hits before you're knocked out and a fellow bandit has to come to the rescue and lift you back up. The trapper's objective is to cause enough damage to all bandits to fill up a meter up to 100 percent, so trying to stay out of harm's way is key.

Scanning the environment for treasure is already a tense endeavor, as the trapper is constantly watching your every move. Spending too long inside a room that might have already been looted completely can cost you. This cost is represented in a myriad of ways—my character was incinerated, frozen in place, chased by a couch propelled by rockets, and punched off the map multiple times. The latter can really throw you off, as the homes don't have ceilings per se, meaning that you can literally end up in a different room. In one instance, the impact was so big that I ended up in the water, and had to swim my way back as my teammates tried to find treasure on their own.

But as a trapper, the danger is quite different. You can't just hide inside a tower indefinitely, as the bandits will be moving around the house. While it's possible to use the aforementioned hatches or roll on the ground to make haste, you'll eventually stumble upon a bandit. If they're quick, they'll be able to stun you. But you can also use the furniture in your favor, either by activating traps manually or by literally embodying furniture and moving around the house, which increases the damage caused by the trap attached. If you're clever about it, you might be able to surprise a distracted bandit, which is always satisfying.

Even within a fairly limited timeframe, I witnessed a vast array of synergies at display. This goes in tandem with the game's progression—matches grant you experience, and leveling up your bandit or trapper rank unlocks new perks and tools to use. One of these discoveries included the ability to combine traps, which already opened a new set of possibilities.

The current foundation of Bandit Trap presents all the right pillars to carve its own space into the ever increasing pool of multiplayer games. It's a different take on the three-versus-one concept seen in many other titles, and one that seemingly understands how valuable that can be nowadays.

Bandit Trap is coming soon to the Epic Games Store.