Player Preview - The Mean Greens: Plastic Warfare

Title: The Mean Greens: Plastic Warfare
Developer: Virtual Basement
Release Date: 9/DEC/2015

Official Site: http://bit.ly/1RJEfA2
Steam Page: http://bit.ly/1IL31xI

Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a look at the multiplayer third person shooter, The Mean Greens: Plastic Warfare, developed by Virtual Basement who helped out Wild Card Develop Ark: Survival Evolved. Plastic Warfare has you playing as toy soldiers from the green and tan opposing factions, fighting it out on school desks, on a birthday cake and even in the freezer.

As a soldier of both the green and tan factions you have multiple different weapons available with no class system or load out restrictions in place. These weapons consist of an assault rifle, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a rocket launcher and finally a flame thrower all available to you on your quick bar. Obviously there are a couple of weapons like the rocket launcher and sniper rifle that would be overpowered in the right hands if they had a lot of ammo to use so instead Plastic Warfare limits these weapons with the rocket launcher only having 1 shot and the sniper rifle only having 6 shots before they go on cool down, the cool down of which will probably last longer then you will survive in the game. The same kind of cool down system applies to grenades, avoiding any kind of grenade spam however the grenade and the rocket launcher both are almost always used first after respawning before players fall back to the other weapons. The actual gunplay of the different weapons is fairly average heavily leaning on the arcade style of shooting with no real impact or force behind them however it’s adequate enough to still be fun especially when you consider the game to be more of a party game third person shooter then something that tries to be super realistic.

As for your soldiers movement there are a couple of interesting mechanics implemented all of which are tied to your stamina bar or what is more of a battery level for this game that can be seen at the bottom left of the screen next to your health. Performing any kind of movement except just walking will eat into your battery level. Depleting your battery won’t make you unable to jump, jog or dodge rather it will prevent you from being able to sprint, something that makes it extremely hard for your enemies to hit you as you speed across the map but will only last a couple of seconds when held down. To help you cross large expanses without dying or just to confuse your enemy during combat you can also dodge roll, making you almost un-hittable while in the action but makes it easy for the enemy to predict where you will end up for a finishing shotgun blast while you recover. Jumping in the game is an interesting point to take note of as well as while jumping you won’t be able to fire any of your weapons, something that does take some time to get used to. It is a little bit of a weird design decision that they’ve said was there for balance reasons, but they are currently working on reverting that decision to allow for jumping and shooting.

The games biggest feature and one that has a very good possibility of being expanded upon in the future is the amount of different game modes it has and while most of the game modes aren’t entirely unique, they are made unique via map design that shakes things up a bit. While there is your standard capture the flag mode, albeit underwater, there is also an alternative mode with 2 flags in the centre of the map surrounded by water and you have to board floating rubber ducks, successfully grab one of the flags and make it back safely to your base to score a point creating extremely tense moments as you try to hide on your rubber duck with the flag as you pass the enemies base hoping not to get detected. All the usual game modes that you expect from the shooter genre are available including team death match, free for all, king of the hill, capture and hold and capture the flag. There are a couple of unique game modes as well, namely this freezer map that has you trying to melt an ice cube in the middle of the map, dropping down a level and then trying to set your frozen dinosaur free. Unfortunately though, this is probably the worst mode in the game with the objectives almost pulling players apart to prevent conflict but the rest of the modes are pretty good with 10 different modes available to play, on 10 different maps. All the game modes are balanced around a 5v5 format which may seem small but on a majority of the maps especially ones like Kitchen Run and Toybox war you wouldn’t really want more players however it would have been nice to some larger maps and modes that allowed for say 10v10 games. They are currently looking into increasing player caps but significant changes may need to be made so that the game is still balanced.

Plastic Warfares art and sounds are fantastic with the environments being made up of various kids’ toys and other colourful props making the game extremely vibrant. Each level is incredibly unique too with very little to no asset re-use that makes each map exciting to play on and explore. From traveling on a moving train trying to capture points or traversing an underwater bridge in capture the flag, the game isn’t afraid to go a little crazy with their environment designs either. Looking outside of the playable area really shows the scale at which the toy soldiers are at compared to the “real world”, with a fish tank turning into a battlefield with a massive lounge room just outside. As for the games soundtrack it’s super up beat and extremely catchy, finding myself humming or tapping along with the music that just puts you in a good mood. It even includes remixes of happy birthday and jingle bells that will get stuck in your head. Some of the sounds for the weapons though could do with some work, specifically the sniper rifle, not so much the actual shooting of the weapon but being hit by it. You only really get a red flash instead of any audio ques that feels vacant when you silently die from a sniper half way across the room. The shotgun also lacks that powerful bang sound when firing, sounding more like it is an air powered shotgun or something of the sort. Hitting enemies with any of the weapons could have done with some sort of audio feedback as well to go along with the visual red x that pops up to make the gunplay just a little more satisfying.

Other features of the game include a server browser to find populated servers rather than relying on the games matchmaking system. You can also party up with friends so that you’re all guaranteed to play in the same game rather than trying to time when you all hit the join button, hoping to all get in the same game let alone the same team. There’s also a short storybook style tutorial to teach you all the mechanics and controls of the game most of which are re-bindable. Being a game developed for multiple platforms you have gamepad support, although why you would use one for a shooter I’m not quite sure. VOIP is also available but honestly with the game type not being super competitive it is very rare that you will ever use it. 

Altogether The Mean Greens: Plastic Warfare is just a really good time that can really put you in a good mood with its upbeat aesthetic. The various maps and game modes provide an excellent amount of content and variety that the game doesn’t get too repetitive. The gunplay is a little lackluster but provided the party game type feel that Plastic Warfare exudes the gunplay didn’t need to be fantastic. If you’re looking for a good time with friends or just a relaxed and upbeat third person shooter taking place in the tiny world of toy soldiers then The Mean Greens: Plastic Warfare is definitely worth a look.

Anyway, that’s been my player preview for The Mean Green: Plastic Warfare. The game officially released on the 9^th of December for Steam and is currently available for $9.89 or you regional equivalent till the 16^th of December before reverting to its standard price of $14.99. The game will also be releasing on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at a later date. If you want to find out more about the game check out the links above. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you guys next time.

Player Preview - Blood Bowl 2

  

Title: Blood Bowl 2
Developer: Cyanide Studios
Release Date: 22/September/2015

Official Site: http://bit.ly/1QOvRg3
Steam Page: http://bit.ly/1ZTt4bk

Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a look at the turn based strategy game, Blood Bowl 2, developed by Cyanide Studios, the same guys behind Styx: Master of Shadows and Aarklash Legacy. Blood Bowl 2 has you managing and playing as your very own Blood Bowl team, Blood Bowl being like gridiron or American football but just a little bit rougher and set in the Warhammer universe.

The game plays player by player for one team and then switching over to the other team. Everything you do in Blood Bowl is tied to a dice roll weather you’re blocking an opponent, performing a throw or even just trying to pick up the ball which for some teams can actually be surprisingly hard to do. Most teams are made up of 3 different types of players with their own specific uses. You have your frontline that are your strongest players aimed at preventing any of the opposition players from breaking through to your ball carrier while attacking or to break through your enemies frontline to get to their ball carrier while defending. Blitzers that are aimed towards supporting other players due to their high mobility and finally backline players that are great at using the ball and scoring but are extremely fragile and need to be protected. 

For most of the game you will be attempting blocks on opponents, an aggressive action that can have 5 different results. On the low end you can push an opponent backwards, selecting 1 of the three possible locations for them to end up which is important when trying to clear a pathway for your ball carriers to get through unscathed. Then you have the 2 different successful tackles were your opponent will be downed, these two tackles work very much the same however there are player traits that can dodge the push tackle. Finally there are the failed tackles, the sides of the die you never really want to get. For both down your tackle will be successful against your opponent however in the process of the tackle you will also be downed. The worst result you can get though is attacker down. Your tackle will fail on the opponent and instead they will knock you down. Failing a block will result in a turnover so it’s best to leave 1 die blocks till last and get all your movement and double die blocks out of the way first. 

Having one of your players knocked down is bad for multiple reasons, the worst being that you have to roll on that players Armour Value to see if they receive an injury. If you fail the best outcome is to be stunned, the player will remain on the field but be unable to make an action for one turn. Being knocked out the player will be removed from the field but can make it back after a touchdown or halftime if they roll successfully on a 50% chance roll. Getting an actual injury starts off by having a player missing a game but can have players stats decrease or be out for multiple games and of course then there is the absolute failure state where the player can actually die which can be devastating if you have levelled up the player multiple times. You can purchase an Apothecary outside of the game that basically acts as a reroll on any injury a player may receive, you can only ever have 1 of these so it’s best to save it for the major stuff like deaths or stat decreases. If there are no injuries, knock outs or deaths then you just have the downside of the player having to spend some of its movement getting back up while it also counts as an action so you won’t be able to block with that player unless you blitz for a second action. Each turn you will only be able to blitz one player allowing them to move and block rather than just one or the other. Removing a player from play on your opponent’s side is a massive advantage especially if they have no players in reserve as now you have a numbers advantage. While you can perform blocks in the hope of knocking out a player or injuring them you can also push them off the field and into the crowd to remove them from play. This also has the same chance of injury as being knocked down.

Every player on the field has stats in four different categories that will help or hinder them in certain actions. These 4 categories consist of Movement Action, representing how many tiles on the field you are able to move in one turn. Strength, the number used in any blocks a player is involved in. Agility, used for dodging out of enemy players tackle zones and finally armour value that is used to determine if a player is injured when knocked down. It is possible to increase these stats during a level up however you will need to roll extremely high. To level up a player they must gain star player points by performing certain actions during a game including touchdowns, knock outs, injuring a player or performing skill based actions like passes. Once they reach the level up requirement you roll two die to determine whether or not you get an additional skill or statistic. Most of the time you will only be able to unlock another skill for your player in their specialisation like strength, agility and passing. Skills are an extremely important part of the game and can give your players significant bonuses like a re-roll on a failed dodge roll or if you roll a both down during a block you can get a skill that negates the knock down effect on your player. Reading through all of these skills and picking the right one is extremely important as players don’t level up all that fast especially some of the more specialized players that require up to 5 times the Star Player Points as normal players to level up.

Being a sequel let’s take a look at what’s new in the game. A campaign mode has been introduced that will have you leading the human Reikland Reavers team from the ground up to potential champions. The mode starts off as a tutorial to the game so any newcomers may want to start there as jumping straight into a multiplayer game may be a little overwhelming if you don’t understand the mechanics. Later on though the mode will start adding scripted events that are only available in the campaign mode like the referee taking out your players because he has a grudge against your team or one of the commentators joining your team for a game. The commentators also play a bigger part in blood bowl 2 delivering most of your team’s backstory and sideline drama between and during games in a comedic fashion that some will love but others may find it a bit corny. Stadium Customization is now a thing with 5 unique stadiums that can obtain upto 10 possible addons and will be used when playing at your home stadium. A player Marketplace has been added for online play where you can sell and buy players to create better teams however this feature doesn’t seem to be fully implemented yet. Lastly there is the cabalvision or replay feature that saves replays of your games that you can go back to and watch if you ever want or you can also watch current top tier games live.

Online play is definitely where BloodBowl 2 excels, however it’s not your typical matchmaking system. You will have to register your team as part of a league and then register that team as part of a competition within that league. Open ladders act as your main play anytime matchmaking ques but it’s the actual tournament structured competitions that will have you playing simulated rounds each week against smaller groups of players. Unfortunately you do have to go looking for these types of competitions and it’s not easy to find one that is currently taking new teams, something that could be improved by showcasing new competitions on the league front page. The official Blood Bowl league also seems to be the only league that offers Cyans after every game, the in game currency. Currently there is no use for these Cyans but customizable items for your team are planned to be purchasable with these later this year as well as being obtainable as rare random drops after a game.

Due to the aggressive nature of the game I do feel that some of the physically stronger teams like the Orcs or Chaos have somewhat of an advantage in getting players levelled up and just winning games by eliminating as many of the opponents players as possible. The more fragile skilled based teams like the High Elves and dark elves can perform some really great plays but there will almost always be a bunch of injuries during a game that will eventually cripple the team in the long run. Playing one of these more fragile skill based teams will require a lot of strategy and luck to be successful. It’s extremely obvious as well when you take a look at the top teams in any of the ladders usually consisting of Chaos, Dwarven and Lizardmen teams in the top rankings. Unfortunately due to this players will concede games if they are up against certain races so as not to lose any of their important players. Doing this though does have some negatives including that you don’t earn any star player points for your players to be able to level up, while the game still counts towards your players aging which will eventually lead to them gaining age injuries and eventually retiring. 

Outside of the main game you can purchase staff members for your team for added benefits, re-rolls being arguably the most important allowing you to re-roll a failed roll or block. The apothecary is on equal footing when it comes to importance especially later on when you have skilled players as it allows you to reroll injuries and deaths, you’re only allowed to have one of these so use it wisely. The next few staff members will help you on the random kick-off events, increasing your chances at good events for you through cheerleaders, assistant coaches and team fans. Right before you go into a match you will also be given the opportunity to buy other bonuses like another apothecary if you are playing against a strong team, a star player if you have the spare cash to purchase one for the game and a wizard spell which out of all the available purchasable bonuses can be extremely powerful, able to knockdown large groups of players in one shot leaving many injured if a 50% chance roll is successful. The wizard spell, more specifically the fireball spell is the only bonus that probably shouldn’t be in the game due to how powerful it is however it is quite expensive to purchase and it does only work half of the time. 

Other features of the game include a bunch of statistics regarding your overall performance as well as team specific statistics so you can find what your team is lacking and try to improve it via skill selection on player level-ups or just changing your play style. I would like to see player specific statistics as well though to keep track of certain player careers. If you want to play some friendly matches either against your friends online or locally you can, for online play you will have to have the person on your steam friends list.

Altogether Blood Bowl 2 brings fantasy and football together quite nicely having you sitting on the edge of your seat for every block and roll. You can become incredibly invested in your players and team with each match adding to their own unique narrative and if they get injured or die, it can be devastating. The almost complete randomness of the game may not be to everyone’s liking but the randomness can create amazing moments in the game. To get the most out of the game you will have to go looking for a good, consistent league that runs competitions in your time zone or get together with a bunch of friends and create your own league competitions. If you enjoy turn based strategy and the competitive nature of American Football or any sports in general then Blood Bowl 2 is definitely worth a look. If you’re sitting on the fence maybe wait for the patch due for the end of this year as some more features will be added to the game that may sway you on whether or not to get it. 

Anyway, that’s been my player preview for Blood Bowl 2. The game officially released on the 22^nd of September on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One and is available on steam for $45 or your regional equivalent. If you want to find out more about the game check out the links below. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you guys next time.