The folks behind Cyntopia: The Future is Now have given us an awesome preview of what's coming for this Cyberpunk co-operative board game before it's launch in the next few weeks! Check out some of the characters, miniature renders and more!

The game boasts...

• Play co-operative with your friends, alone or team up and play against the gamemaster. The game is designed to be playable with 1-7 players.
• Dynamic level of difficulty based on the number of players.
• Easy to learn system, so you can start right out of the box within minutes.
• Fact-paced combat system with simple rules for beginners and tactics for tabletop veterans
• AI-System to determine how the NPCs act.
• Improve your character with loot during the mission or use earned credits from previous successes to buy items upfront.
• Modular gameboard which can be put together out of 40 floor tiles, no Edgewalk will be the same.
• The campaign book will guide you through your first Edgewalks, let the system show you the way into the future or use mission and corporation cards to create a great variety of random missions every time.
• Advanced and optional rule suggestions for deeper gameplay mechanics are already included

...and comes with a whole host of awesome components. Not only do you get the various hero characters but also a bunch of awesome NPC miniatures and those neat floor tiles you can see above that have been given a Cyberpunk overhaul.

Above are the characters that you're going to be playing as, some of which we've seen before, others that are totally new to this preview! From left to right (top image) we have the Deadeye, Psionic, Ronin, Cyborg, Fielddoc and Gunslinger each with their own specialisations and cool options in-game.

It's quite the eclectic mix with the Psionic influencing the minds of your enemies, Deadeye ambushing from range and then of course characters like the Cyborg just going in gung-ho!

I'm really liking the design of the characters that is somewhere between the clean and ultra new view of something like the Corporations in Netrunner clashed together with the grim nature of the worlds of Blade Runner and even Deus Ex. You can't have too many trench coats!

Each of your characters will be outfitted with items that they've found in the various missions or 'Edgewalks' as well as the ones they buy with credits that they have earned by completing objectives and such. The game is meant to played with a campaign element giving you access to a cool narrative.

As well as the actual base characters there are some Kickstarter Exclusives that you can see above (as well as one that's still top secret!). These are Rogue, Knight and...well, the last one we will wait for you to check out when the Kickstarter launches! The main focus of these characters has been to invoke those old school fantasy classes you might have played in other dungeon crawlers. With a Rogue and a Knight sorted I think you might be able to guess as to the other one.

Clearly you're going to need some enemies to face however otherwise it wouldn't be much of a challenge! These NPC security guards will be alerted over time and slowly but steadily the armaments and tactics they bring to bear will grow in difficulty as you trip more alarms. Maybe you can avoid that all together however and be perfect Edgewalkers? These guards will also be using equipment so you might get a few surprises!

As mentioned above the game comes with those snazzy looking futuristic floor tiles (and some very awesome Cyberpunk Dice! Look at them!) which means that the game is modular lending itself to plenty of cool combinations. I like the artwork on the tiles which carries over that clean look I was talking about before but almost has a cold clinical feeling to it making it all the more eerie.

The game is touted to be fast paced, easy to learn, has a great in-built campaign mechanic, works with 1-7 people and plenty more to get you excited. I have been following this game for a while now and I can't wait to see gameplay videos showing how it all plays out. Rest assured that the mind behind the project, Sebastian Baeur has put a lot of passion into this project and it's a fully independent endeavour too with no big company backing them up.

Right now we're certainly taking the co-operative 'dungeon crawler' into our hearts once more and I think (from what I've seen) Cyntopia provides you with enough to make it stand out. It's certainly no fantasy adventure quest and tapping into that current Netrunner vibe makes things all the more enticing.

A gameplay video, print & play version of the game and more is coming soon!

Watch for more on the campaign as it launches soon!