Player Preview - Nosgoth

Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a look at the multiplayer shooter, Nosgoth, developed by Psyonix, who have actually assisted in quite a lot of games creation like Xcom: Enemy Uknown, Mass Effect 3 and Gears of War as Unreal Engine experts. Games that they have solely developed include Rocket League and Arc Squadron. Nosgoth is set in the Legacy of Kain universe and has the two factions, humans and vampires, battling it out during the human rebellion.

The two factions available play very differently with humans relying on ranged weapons against the vampires up close and personal combat style. Each character in the separate factions also play differently and almost fit into certain roles, for example the scout acts as a long range sniper class while the prophet acts as a short range mage. Similarly on the vampire side, the Tyrant acts as the tank and the Deciever acts as a stealth backstabbing class. There are currently 4 differnet characters for each faction with 1 more character being worked on for each faction, the shield bearer for humans and the Summoner for Vampires. With all these different play styles it’ll hard not to find a character that you like playing and once you do find your favourite character you can start customizing them with new weapons and ability sets.

Each character in the game has 3 attacks or abilities with humans having one of the 3 slots taken up with their weapon as their default attack. These abilities and weapons can be changed with alternatives that can cater to different play styles for example if you don’t want to get up close as the glass cannon sentinel you can change out your aerial dive for a throw able bomb that deals a little bit less damage. As for weapon alternatives, they usually have 1 stat boosted in exchange for another lowered, so say this particular weapon has more damage but it also fires slower than this other weapon. While you can purchase these abilities and weapons you can also receive mysterious weapons and abilities as random drops while playing. These mysterious items have added bonus stats like faster move speed and shorter reload times. They come in 3 different rarities with each higher tier adding one more set of bonuses.

Character movement is fairly typical but does have some oddities. Instead of being able to jump you instead dodge roll as both classes. Crouch is also disabled and for a game like this is somewhat odd as sometimes you need to get slightly lower to get of your shot or to hide behind something to get away from enemy fire. Sprint is still in there though and for vampires it also acts as a way to climb walls. With the climbable walls does come sticky walls though and by that I mean you can be sprinting down an alley and suddenly jump up onto one of the side walls, a minor annoyance that can be somewhat avoided if your careful enough or by just not sprinting.

The game currently has 2 game modes with one being an experimental mode. The main game mode is a simple Team Death Match were each team takes turns playing as humans and vampires with each halfs scores tallied together to determine the winners. The game mode currently in testing, called FlashPoint, is basically a capture the point mode with a couple of slight changes. Only humans can capture points with only 2 points being capturable of the 6 at any given time. The 2 game modes play fairly similarly and is probably the largest part of the game that needs some work. Game mode alternatives are going to be hard to come by however due to humans having to stick together to be any competition to vampires. The maps currently in the game are all vastly different going from sea docks to inner city palaces with very little asset re-use and all maps having memorable landmarks, the art in the game is fantastic too especially for a free to play game.

Speaking of free to play, let’s now take a look at the free to play model behind the game. Starting on a brand new account you will only have access to 2 characters from each faction, you’ll be able to unlock the others by receiving special gems from reaching milestone account levels. As for character skins, they are only unlocked via the premium currency and cost around $7 to $12. Thay havn’t gone too crazy with skins either sticking close to the games lore. For weapons and abilities, they can both be bought with the in-game currency and the premium currency. It takes about 12 games to be able to unlock something permanently or only 2 games to unlock something for a day with the in-game currency accumulation. Due to the small line-up of characters, pysonix has also made character packs available to buy that contain 4 skins, all of that characters abilities and weapons and a special banner used while in the lobby all for $50, which is a little pricey considering you will probably only be using your favourite abilities, weapons and skin but it’s nice to have none the less.

Nosgoth is a fun melee verse ranged combat game that caters to a range of different play styles with its line-up of unique characters and abilities. The game does still need an alternate game mode with the Flashpoint mode not being that different from the Team Death match mode but the maps however are all unique and high quality keeping things fresh. I would also like to see some sort of competitive match-making or leader boards for those of us that like to be a little bit more competitive in these types of games. There are still some issues with servers synching data and connecting to your Steam account but hopefully that sorts itself out before the games official release.

That’s been my player preview for Nosgoth, the game is currently in open beta and available to play now via Steam. If you want to find out more about the game check out the links below and if you want to SEE more the game check out twitch.tv/serpentine19 this weekend. Thanks for watching, I’ll see you guys next time.

--------------------------------------------

Title: Nosgoth
Developer: Psyonix
Status: Open Beta

Official Site: http://bit.ly/1yYkkV7
Steam Page: http://bit.ly/15Oz1in

Player Preview - Evolve

Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a look at the multiplayer shooter, Evolve, developed by Turtle Rock Studios, the same guys behind the left 4 dead franchise. Evolve offers 2 unique play styles with Hunters providing a first person shooter element and the Monsters providing a third person brawling element all in a highly competitive atmosphere that is just as enjoyable to watch as it is to play.

Evolves is one of if the not the first times we have ever seen a multiplayer game with 1 person versing a team of other players in the triple a market. This new kind of gameplay has caused quite a lot of interest to the game and rightfully so. Pitting 4 human hunters against a massive monster is fantastic fun and requires skilful play from both sides to be successful.  

With only the one game mode available during the beta on PC and what I imagine to be the main competitive game mode, Skirmish, has 4 hunters trying to track down and stop the monster before it reaches level 3 and starts whaling on the power core. The cat and mouse gameplay creates tense situations with global arenas only just missing, monsters employing misdirection tactics and more. The hunters are composed of 4 classes, an Assualt, Trapper, Support and Medic. Each bringing their own unique equipment to suit their roles. During the beta weekend 3 variants of these classes were available to play and will be available as defaults for when the game releases. While these variants are still tasked with the same job of trapping the monster or healing teammates, they actually do play quite differently. Comparing 2 of the medics, Val and Lazarus, they both have the task of keeping their team mates alive however Val plays with the team providing constant heals that slowly bring characters health back to full while Lazarus players will always be hiding in the background waiting to quick revive fallen team mates, boosting them to full health almost instantly. These different types of play are most noticeable with the medic and support classes were as the trappers and assaults are more cemented into their roles and only have some small mechanical changes. While the game could have completely ditched roles it does create more balance in the game in exchange for hunter uniqueness.

On the monster side of things, well this is where the developer’s creativity really shines, no longer tied down by human capabilities and their roles. While the first available monster, the Goliath, is somewhat standard with its physical attacks, it’s the others like Kraken and Wraith that really shine. Whether it be lining up that perfect Kraken lightning strike or abducting the hunters healer as Wraith, these unique abilities look awesome and make you feel like a bad-ass when they hit. Unsurprisingly some hunters work better against certain monsters and some monsters work better on certain maps. A good example is the wraith, this monster excels on open area maps due to the fact it can fly and due to the same fact it makes land based utilities like ground harpoons, mines and turrets almost useless. What will be interesting is how the game deals with competitive games. Will the monster be selected first and shown to the hunters to counter pick? Or will it remain a total blind pick?

Having a vast selection of monsters and hunters will keep evolve interesting to play for a very long time however I think there are some ways the business model could be improved. The game will cost 60 to 70 dollars on release and will contain the first monster DLC, behemoth, free at least for the pre-orders. Additional content for the game will be priced around the $20+ mark for hunter packs and single monster packs, a price tag that is quite off putting when you combine the original games cost. Turtle Rock has been wise enough to offer additional maps free of charge so as to prevent community splitting that is evident in other games like Battlefield and Call of Duty were map DLC is prevalent, but perhaps not wise enough or perhaps not confident enough in their product to see it’s potential as a growing E-Sports title. This could also be a problem with 2K games involvement with the company and if it is, it begs the question why Turtle Rock studios abandoned Valve as their publisher especially considering Valves success in the E-Sports market with Dota 2.

 While these expensive price tags will earn the company a profit in a much shorter time it will also cut out quite a chunk of potential players, as is already evident on social media with people deciding to turn away from the game until it receives a considerable price drop or all of the games DLC is available in one purchase. I also think more of the development teams time should be spent on creating more monsters because at the moment you have 12 hunters to 3 monsters and due to hunters only being able to deviate from their roles ever so slightly, monsters provide a place to be unique and can change how hunters play without having to add more hunters. But that might just be the Moba player in me expressing itself.

As for extra features in the game there are worldwide leader boards available divided into the separate characters and roles so you can compete with others for the top spot as Bucket or as the Kraken if you want and compare multiple different statistics. As you play more games you will start gaining achievements, or accolades as their called in this game, that will in turn unlock new badge icons for you to use and customize yourself with. These badges are only shown in the lobby at the moment however I wouldn’t be surprised if you could place them on your hunters armour or embed them in your monsters skin later on. 

Evolve is incredibly fun with almost every game coming down to the wire. This sort of nature to the game makes it just as fun to watch as to play. Unfortunately there is a massive wall to the entrance of the game in the form of a $70 price tag and $20+ DLC costs. Even with this wall in place I think the game will do great early on but the future of the game, say 6 months to a year after release is still up in the air and will come down to future decisions from Turtle Rock Studios and 2K Games.

That’s been my player preview for Evolve, the game will be officially releasing February 10th. If you want to find out more about the game check out the links below. Thanks for watching, I’ll see you guys next time.

Official Website: http://bit.ly/1BNYPs9
Steam Page: http://bit.ly/1E8el30

Player Preview - Dirty Bomb

Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a look at the multiplayer first person shooter, Dirty bomb, developed by Splash Damage games, the same studio behind games like Brink, Arkham Origins and most notably the Enemy Territory franchise. Dirty Bomb will be their first attempt at a free to play game but they are well versed in the multiplayer shooter genre which becomes apparent as soon as you start playing.

The game uses a semi class based character system with healers, tanks and assaults being very noticeable between the current line-up of 15 characters. Each character has their own unique set of abilities from airstrikes to turrets and heartbeat sensors and have their personalities tied to them as well. Characters abilities also work on a really nice cool down system rather than an ammunition system which allows for easier balancing of each characters abilities and reduces the amount of item spam.

 Even with these unique character abilities there are some characters that feel the same as another with one just being flat out better and is confined to characters that only have 1 available ability. Each character in the game needs at least 2 special abilities so as to define their role and make them different from others. Character weapon load outs aren’t locked to characters but are restricted to what load outs you have unlocked via crates which is part of the free to play model. These unlockable load outs aren’t necessarily stronger than the defaults rather they are just different however unlockable load outs are currently the only way to receive guns with scopes apart from the default sniper rifle. So far though these scopes have been fairly basic holographic dot sights, so no 8x zoom or anything crazy like that.

The game plays extremely fast were if not for the character abilities the game would fall into just zerging the objective with your team but with the abilities add a strategic element that was definitely needed and prevents such things like that from happening as long as your team has the right squad selection. While you’re in the pre-game lobby you will be able to select 3 different characters that once locked-in won’t be able to change for the duration of the game. This is where you will also be able to choose which load out you want to use and you will also be able to see what your team-mates squad is made up of so as to pick your own squad to fit in with the team composition. The gun play leans further towards arcade style then realistic but not too far. The actual guns are based of real-world guns and there is quite a range in the game especially with all the different load-out unlocks, I do feel though at the time of this preview that the machine guns in the game just don’t perform as well as they should and have me picking characters or load outs that don’t have machine guns in them, but that’s the great thing about the load out system is that you can find and use a gun you like with any of the characters.

Dirty Bomb is currently focusing on a highly competitive objective based game mode called StopWatch were 2 teams take turns defending and attacking a 3 tier objective were the objectives change depending on the map you’re currently playing. These map specific objectives while not entirely unique from each other does make each map feel different to play with capture the flag, plant the bomb and escorting a tank being the main types of differences you will see. The maps themselves are well designed with multiple routes to take to get around the map without being a confusing mess and they also contain certain map changing elements like forklift ramps and protective gates that all take time to activate or build but can be extremely beneficial to your team. The game is still heavily experimenting with new game mechanics however so there may be some changes from now to the final release and even the open beta. One of the most apparent experimentations at the moment is the addition of wall jumping to the game and this could be a game mechanic that changes the current map designs quite significantly if they decide to move forward with it. The current implementation though is a little shoe horned in and is probably the sort of mechanic you want to design your game around rather than fit it into your game. But again this is an experimental feature and may not even make into the final release.

At the current stage of the games development it looks like all characters will be unlocked for free for everybody with the games business model relying on unlockable load outs and character skins. The unlockable load outs work similar to the Counter Strike crate system were crates drop from playing games and are unlocked with keys. The pricing on these keys and skins is currently unknown mainly due to the fact that there is currently no in-game store and for testing purposes players are currently being given large stacks of keys so as to try out as many load outs as possible. Admittedly I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to only have a couple of unlocked characters to begin with and introduce an in-game currency that would be used to unlock the others but at the moment Splash Damage is being fairly relaxed with it all.

Dirty Bomb is looking to be a fun and fast multiplayer shooter that has set its sights on highly competitive gameplay. Some more work needs to be put into certain characters to make them more unique from others with a suggested standard of 2 abilities per character. Some additional lobby UI ease of use features would be nice to see and I imagine that they will be coming sooner rather than later. The map specific objectives is fantastic and hope that they continue implementing this with their future maps. If you like team fortress 2 but wanted the character to be able to do more and in a slightly more realistic setting then Dirty Bomb is definitely a game to keep your eye on.

That’s been my player preview for Dirty Bomb, the game is currently in closed beta with no word on any future testing phases or release dates. If you want to find out more about the game check out the links below and if you want to see more of the game check out the post preview show over on twitch.tc/serpentine this weekend. Thanks for watching, I’ll see you guys next time.

Official Website: http://bit.ly/17OlIPE
Steam Page: http://bit.ly/1IQ0Y5v