Pokemon GO has been shrouded in mystery since its reveal, aside from a leaked video that may or may not be legit – all we really know is that we’ll use our phones to find and catch Pokemon in real world locations.
That’s been enough for most people – it’s a pretty straightforward pitch that sounds fucking awesome.
Still, we’ve been hungry for more, and developer Niantic have now shared some more details on their website, including some tasty new screenshots.
Take a look below.
Players will explore their surroundings to find and catch wild Pokémon.
Certain wild Pokémon only appear in their native environments; for example, Water-type Pokémon may only appear near lakes and oceans.
How many small children will drown as they attempt to catch a Magikarp down near their local canal? Who can say.
Presumably we’ll be encouraged to head out into forests to catch bug Pokemon, search fields for grass Pokemon, and crawl inside our ovens for fire Pokemon. Probably not that last one.
Niantic also revealed a little more about additional game features. Players can find Pokemon eggs which will hatch after you’ve walked a certain number of steps (like in the main games).
Eggs and other special items can be found at places called Pokestops, which will be located at interesting places such as public art installations, historical markers, museums and monuments.
Oh, and there will indeed be battles. Of course there will.
Niantic explain:
Players will be encouraged to join one of three teams in order to compete over the ownership and prestige of Gyms.
They will do this by placing their captured Pokémon in a friendly Gym or by battling with an opponent’s Pokémon in another team’s Gym. Gyms – just like PokéStops – are also found at real world locations.
No release date yet, but Japan are getting their hands on a beta test soon so it shouldn’t be too long now.
I’ve never wanted anything more.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.