This is a new F2P shooter from SOE. Tried it out because it’s free. Was pleasantly surprised. It’s a pretty competent shooter and the controls feel very responsive.
It has an interesting mechanic where you build up style points then can cash them in by taunting.
Any way, it’s free, it’s worth checking out imo. Also nice is that it doesnt’ look like there is anything other than a custom taunt that is solely for paying customers.
I gave it a try a few days ago. I really like the weapon sounds. I really hate the announcers but you can turn those off so no big deal. Overall I thought it was kind of a decent generic shooter. The pay wall hits way too early and hard, though. You get almost nothing for free and it feels like it takes forever to earn enough in game points to get anything at all. I understand holding stuff back, but let me have a couple of free things to choose from. If nothing else, getting a bit of a start for free has more chance of hooking people in the long run.
I found it wasn’t nearly as bad on the Dominion mode. It’s a fun mode as well which also helps. It’s also definitely built for more of a long term time investment. Progress is slow, but I’m fine with that.
There is definitely a pay barrier in the sense that progress is slow enough that you can feel like you have to pay to get something more quickly. However so far I don’t really see anything that you simply can’t compete for free because of.
Also when it comes down to it, paying isn’t a bad thing. If you like a game, you should pay anyway.
Oh, hey. This is my game - I’m the senior designer. Glad you are all liking it.
Active Reload is one of the best things ever. Since Gears, I wish more games would use it.
For us PC hippies that don’t play Gears, what is Active Reload?
When you hit reload you have two choices, you either let the animation play (takes a medium amount of time) you you try to hit reload again when a bar hits a sweet spot on a meter. Get it right and you reload much faster, get it wrong and you fucked up and have to take a lot longer.
I’ve played a lot more and can definitely see some potential problems as far as the F2P part. It feels like I can barely keep up with repairs to keep my gun doing full damage. I make barely more than repairs after each round which means the gain of money to buy actual upgrades is even slower than I initially thought.
That and I was a bit bummed to see that the mods for the DLC gun I bought require a high level and even higher amounts of in game cash to get.
Taunt often. This is the key to maximising your rewards even if you’re not the strongest player on the server.
Seems like this game represents everything I hate about F2P games:
http://www.eurogamer.net/forum/thread/239575
I’ll stick with Tribes for now.
If you hate games where someone can compete for free with people who pay, then I can see your point. Otherwise, I’m a bit confused. Tribes is far more pay to win than Bullet Run imo.
Over a 2 match duration, I earned about 2000 and repairs cost me about 1200. So I earned 400 per match. That seems fine to me.
Furthermore there isn’t anything that I can’t get for free other than a taunt.
edit: short version is, if you are REALLY BAD at the game, it can probably feel like an uphill battle to play for free. If you are at least average, you make progress just fine.
As much as I like the integration of Active Reload, and the basic gunplay, I have to pass on playing this any longer than the initial try as well. Apologies to Iain, but the need to repair weapons is an awful mechanic. Spending BP to repair weapons is supremely frustrating - and not in a good way.
There are a lot of factual inaccuracies in that opening post, enough that I wonder if he really did play it. I have no idea for example what ‘battle points’ are.
Played a bunch more and am generally very pleased. I do wish money earning was a tad faster though. It really feels like the later levels where things cost 50k+ are impossible to get to. (and I’m pretty good if I say so myself ;) )
I love Dominion. It’s a very fun and refreshing game mode that even PUG’s can figure out and cooperate on. I do find it funny how many people bitch about campers though. Had some guy going on and on about how campers were going to ruin the game. (for those not familiar, Dominion is an attack/defend mode. One team is supposed to defend)