Chase Murderous Pursuits in its open beta this weekend

"This is what I’ve always wanted Assassin’s Creed multiplayer to be", said I in a preview of Murderous Pursuits. It's a game about hunting and being hunted by Ship: Remasted devs Blazing Griffin, and if you boot up the free open beta this weekend that'll be doubly true: the devs say they'll be lurking around, waiting to hit you in the back of the head with a piano leg.

The game comes out on April 26th, so you can treat this as a chance to check out if it contains murders worth pursuing. Or you could just listen to me telling you that it definitely does.

The open beta kicks of at midnight tonight, going by GM Tea time, and will wrap up at 5am on Monday morning. If you want to try and beat the devs at their own game, look to Twitter for upcoming updates on when they're playing.

As I said in my preview, Murderous Pursuits boils down to a much more sedate version of Ass Creed multiplayer...

"Blending in as an AI was always a part of The Ship, but in Murderous Pursuits it's central to success. A bar at the top shows you when you're near your target, but you're not told what they look like. Even once you've spotted them, if your quarry manages to slip out of sight they can stand near an identical NPC – leaving you flummoxed while your own hunter catches up with you."

...with abilities that add to the game rather than detract from it:

"One skill that I was particularly alarmed to see, for example, was the counter ability: if you activate it at the right time, then instead of being killed you'll stun your attacker. It only makes you invulnerable for a few seconds though, and once your hunter knows that you have it they can try to trick you into activating it early. Except once you know that your hunter knows that you have it, you know that’s exactly the sort of stunt they might pull... It's a mind game within a mind game, which is one of my favourite ways to get my multiplayer kicks."

Games that need me to think about what my opponents are thinking are good. Games that make me think about how my thinking about that will effect their thoughts can be fantastic. I'm excited for this one, and that's before I've had the chance to play on a server full of shrieking, backstabbing friends.

Once it's live, you can jump into the beta via Steam.

Murderous Pursuits will be out on Steam on April 26th, and will cost ya £17.99.