'Oh look, it's Spleeni'
"What's he done now Billy Joe?"
'He's done got into a one of them there MMO's
"What an idiot!"
...
Okay, at least a SEMBLANCE of fairness is alright. If I don't know I'm being screwed over, then I'm fine with it.
Exteel, a third-person shooter, is published by our fine friends at NCsoft. This game is a great example of what not to do...although, that's not to say that they didn't have a few interesting ideas along the way. Please, don't herd your part children-part cows away from me, I have tales of woe and awesome to preach.
Many good ideas have failed due to bad implementation, and this is the crux of all their problems.
...
Yes, I just said that they have problems with everything, got a problem with it?
Since they have a depressingly large amount of bad ideas, and bad ways that they put good ideas into effect, I'm still going to try to stay positive.
For one thing, they have giant robots with huge weapons! Isn't that kickass?
Yeah, except that the giant weapons make you hideously slow, and the weapon switching system leaves you weak and vulnerable...which means that if you want to tow around that shiny new cannon, or rocket launcher, you need to rely on your teammates to protect you from the super speedy melee guys.
Or the plethora of people who abuse the broken SMG's
Yes, I'm sad to say that the game is about as balanced as I am ugly, which is, not very. I shall now list the weapons which, after months of playing, you might be able to test drive for a couple days...after I tell you the important bits!
What important bits?
That every weapon (excluding the mighty rocket launcher and melee weapons) requires a gimmicky 'lockon' for you to be able to deal damage to ANYTHING. You can unload your weapons all you like at point blank range, and not do A DAMN THING.
SMG's: Essentially the base weapon, it has decent range, and can fire at near point blank ranges. It also has a steady stream of fire, and a VERY nice DPS. Ease of use, and their over-damaging nature tends to make SMG'S the weapon of choice for...most...people.
Shotguns: A weaker SMG, it has it's uses, but fewer, and worse ones.
Rifles: A tricky mix of a bolt action semi automatic, and molasses. I've found it to be very finicky in just how short of range it has, and in how far your reticule has to be on the enemy. Powerful if mastered, meh if not. But slower in just about every regard than it really should be.
Rocket Launchers: The apology for a terrible combat system; this weapon can hit anything it hits directly. Although, since it's so BIG(powerful though), your twenty ton mech moves slower than a piece of gum on my athletic shoes.
Cannons: Since these guns must be fired while being stationary and from long range, it's no surprise that these are essentially sniper rifles. Add in that you really CAN'T MISS with the lock-on system, and you have a game breaker. It's only horrifying on team vs. team battles though, it's so unwieldy that it's the second worst deathmatch weapon possible.
Rectifiers: Essentially a terrible healing-gun, that can only heal others, these take so long to heal a partner, require precision to use in hectic battle, make you a gigantic target, don't give you nearly enough credit when used properly, AND since noone else uses these, makes team oriented games a hard decision. Do you take one for the team, or try to kill faster than you think you could heal? Don't get me wrong, the weapons do save lives. They are the difference between victory and defeat in team deathmatches....
But noone gives the healers any heals.
Swords: Difficult to use against smart enemies, these are useful in either ninja moments, or in tight hallways.
Spears: Similar to swords, they're a bit stronger, but a bit slower
Shields: Protection! These give a large boost to the side they're on, or directly in front if they're raised. Useful if using short ranged weap- ah hell, they're really only good with swords or spears. Trading a SMG for a shield is never worth it.
Skills: Oh ho ho! These are the truly bad ideas come to fruition. Okay, these were good ideas, made bad. This is WORSE than just plain bad ideas. Let me break it down.
1. They are not preventable in any form other than RUNNING YOUR ASS AWAY.
2. You have no idea who has what skill, aside from their weapons visible in their hands, and they can easily have another set of awesome rape in their other slot.
3. They unleash an awesome scene of horror. Yes, it's cool, but you it's bad for you.
4. You become invulnerable while unleashing them. For a good 4-5 seconds or so, you not only piss off your opponent, but both of you get to recharge your energy and your weapons!
I have to give NCsoft credit, they did have a decent idea of what weapons they should've put in. THEY JUST DIDN'T ADJUST THE NUMBERS FROM TESTING THEM.
The lock-on system wasn't that bad of an idea; I've played GunZ, and it's refreshing to be able to just spray someone down without having to really bother to aim. The problem is that people can kill so quickly, that you have to quickly master their movement system, and juggle the weapon switching and your movement so you're not standing still like an idiot.
From spending a good eight hours as a low level player, I felt STRONGLY encouraged to spend money on the micro-transaction system. I felt so abused since all those high levels with lots of cash could afford twenty different sets of robots. Therefore, the law of not-so-awesome meant that I was forced to have shit, and could do approximately, shit.
Sound is meh, nothing bad, nothing great, I have Pandora running in the background, so I'm happy.
Visuals are pretty low, it's running on the Unreal 2 engine. It has lots of weapons firing, and flames going on, but it takes some sort of man to ignore the quality, and focus on the potential. This SHOULD be awesome, why is it not?
There is story, but it's just a bit cliched. Mercs vs. Mercs GO!
This is definitely an adrenaline junkie's game. Since I've had experience with GunZ, and with a couple shooters I can fully attest that I can take guys a couple ranks above me easily.
...
And then get my face smeared into the dirt by someone with what looks like a year or two of playing. Experience and money are the two ways to win.
Oh, and if you want to start a game, you're limited by absolutely everyone who joins. Unless everyone says that they're ready, the game can't start. The host can kick, but if the host is quietly waiting for the game to fill up, it quickly becomes obvious that being a low level with no friends is the worst place to be. "Oh, I'm sorry, but I was AFK, and we don't want NOOBS"
In such an action packed game, it's weird how much downtime there is between rushes.
Do you guys want to know my recommendation? But I haven't gotten to the good bits yet!
...
Actually, I think I already said them all!
This game is (finally, I've been looking awhile) about as close as I can get to an analogy of an old, ugly, AND inexperienced hooker. She offers a lot, but only delivers yearning and STD's.
Don't get me wrong, playing this game is fun. But you better have either a fat wallet, or hacks if you want to win from the get-go.
BUT!
The game IS free, the transactions are all optional, so give it a go if you like big things going BOOM, and don't mind losing. Often.
"What's he done now Billy Joe?"
'He's done got into a one of them there MMO's
"What an idiot!"
There are many things in this fine universe that I love. One of them is fairness.Robots Robots with guns? Sign me up!
...
Okay, at least a SEMBLANCE of fairness is alright. If I don't know I'm being screwed over, then I'm fine with it.
Exteel, a third-person shooter, is published by our fine friends at NCsoft. This game is a great example of what not to do...although, that's not to say that they didn't have a few interesting ideas along the way. Please, don't herd your part children-part cows away from me, I have tales of woe and awesome to preach.
Many good ideas have failed due to bad implementation, and this is the crux of all their problems.
...
Yes, I just said that they have problems with everything, got a problem with it?
Since they have a depressingly large amount of bad ideas, and bad ways that they put good ideas into effect, I'm still going to try to stay positive.
For one thing, they have giant robots with huge weapons! Isn't that kickass?
Yeah, except that the giant weapons make you hideously slow, and the weapon switching system leaves you weak and vulnerable...which means that if you want to tow around that shiny new cannon, or rocket launcher, you need to rely on your teammates to protect you from the super speedy melee guys.
Or the plethora of people who abuse the broken SMG's
Yes, I'm sad to say that the game is about as balanced as I am ugly, which is, not very. I shall now list the weapons which, after months of playing, you might be able to test drive for a couple days...after I tell you the important bits!
What important bits?
That every weapon (excluding the mighty rocket launcher and melee weapons) requires a gimmicky 'lockon' for you to be able to deal damage to ANYTHING. You can unload your weapons all you like at point blank range, and not do A DAMN THING.
SMG's: Essentially the base weapon, it has decent range, and can fire at near point blank ranges. It also has a steady stream of fire, and a VERY nice DPS. Ease of use, and their over-damaging nature tends to make SMG'S the weapon of choice for...most...people.
Shotguns: A weaker SMG, it has it's uses, but fewer, and worse ones.
Rifles: A tricky mix of a bolt action semi automatic, and molasses. I've found it to be very finicky in just how short of range it has, and in how far your reticule has to be on the enemy. Powerful if mastered, meh if not. But slower in just about every regard than it really should be.
Rocket Launchers: The apology for a terrible combat system; this weapon can hit anything it hits directly. Although, since it's so BIG(powerful though), your twenty ton mech moves slower than a piece of gum on my athletic shoes.
Cannons: Since these guns must be fired while being stationary and from long range, it's no surprise that these are essentially sniper rifles. Add in that you really CAN'T MISS with the lock-on system, and you have a game breaker. It's only horrifying on team vs. team battles though, it's so unwieldy that it's the second worst deathmatch weapon possible.
Rectifiers: Essentially a terrible healing-gun, that can only heal others, these take so long to heal a partner, require precision to use in hectic battle, make you a gigantic target, don't give you nearly enough credit when used properly, AND since noone else uses these, makes team oriented games a hard decision. Do you take one for the team, or try to kill faster than you think you could heal? Don't get me wrong, the weapons do save lives. They are the difference between victory and defeat in team deathmatches....
But noone gives the healers any heals.
Swords: Difficult to use against smart enemies, these are useful in either ninja moments, or in tight hallways.
Spears: Similar to swords, they're a bit stronger, but a bit slower
Shields: Protection! These give a large boost to the side they're on, or directly in front if they're raised. Useful if using short ranged weap- ah hell, they're really only good with swords or spears. Trading a SMG for a shield is never worth it.
Skills: Oh ho ho! These are the truly bad ideas come to fruition. Okay, these were good ideas, made bad. This is WORSE than just plain bad ideas. Let me break it down.
1. They are not preventable in any form other than RUNNING YOUR ASS AWAY.
2. You have no idea who has what skill, aside from their weapons visible in their hands, and they can easily have another set of awesome rape in their other slot.
3. They unleash an awesome scene of horror. Yes, it's cool, but you it's bad for you.
4. You become invulnerable while unleashing them. For a good 4-5 seconds or so, you not only piss off your opponent, but both of you get to recharge your energy and your weapons!
I have to give NCsoft credit, they did have a decent idea of what weapons they should've put in. THEY JUST DIDN'T ADJUST THE NUMBERS FROM TESTING THEM.
The lock-on system wasn't that bad of an idea; I've played GunZ, and it's refreshing to be able to just spray someone down without having to really bother to aim. The problem is that people can kill so quickly, that you have to quickly master their movement system, and juggle the weapon switching and your movement so you're not standing still like an idiot.
From spending a good eight hours as a low level player, I felt STRONGLY encouraged to spend money on the micro-transaction system. I felt so abused since all those high levels with lots of cash could afford twenty different sets of robots. Therefore, the law of not-so-awesome meant that I was forced to have shit, and could do approximately, shit.
Sound is meh, nothing bad, nothing great, I have Pandora running in the background, so I'm happy.
Visuals are pretty low, it's running on the Unreal 2 engine. It has lots of weapons firing, and flames going on, but it takes some sort of man to ignore the quality, and focus on the potential. This SHOULD be awesome, why is it not?
There is story, but it's just a bit cliched. Mercs vs. Mercs GO!
This is definitely an adrenaline junkie's game. Since I've had experience with GunZ, and with a couple shooters I can fully attest that I can take guys a couple ranks above me easily.
...
And then get my face smeared into the dirt by someone with what looks like a year or two of playing. Experience and money are the two ways to win.
Oh, and if you want to start a game, you're limited by absolutely everyone who joins. Unless everyone says that they're ready, the game can't start. The host can kick, but if the host is quietly waiting for the game to fill up, it quickly becomes obvious that being a low level with no friends is the worst place to be. "Oh, I'm sorry, but I was AFK, and we don't want NOOBS"
In such an action packed game, it's weird how much downtime there is between rushes.
Do you guys want to know my recommendation? But I haven't gotten to the good bits yet!
...
Actually, I think I already said them all!
This game is (finally, I've been looking awhile) about as close as I can get to an analogy of an old, ugly, AND inexperienced hooker. She offers a lot, but only delivers yearning and STD's.
Don't get me wrong, playing this game is fun. But you better have either a fat wallet, or hacks if you want to win from the get-go.
BUT!
The game IS free, the transactions are all optional, so give it a go if you like big things going BOOM, and don't mind losing. Often.