The basic premise of the game is that a mysterious Hollywood director with a dark past wants to shoot his next movie and you (the players) are the actors or actresses who will participate in his bloody show. You must follow his command in order to rise in fame.
The cast consists of 8 stereotypical teens and a sarcastic director.
How does it play?
The game at first glance plays like your typical first person shooter, but you quickly realize there are some things that change the whole thing a bit. To begin, each player has 3 main stats, speed, armor and strength these slowly deplete over time and your character will under perform if you don't keep a close look on them. In order to raise them, you need to sleep, go to the bathroom and eat this doesn't take long and adds an element of balance though Id recommend recovering these stats only after a round is complete.
Each match consists of a different number of rounds or scenes where the director tells you what to do. Players are tasked to complete each objective by any means possible as long as they do not deviate from the rules which could actually harm their score. Around each map there are Security Guards and cameras which constantly patrol the area in an effort to stop any player carrying a weapon or killing another player if their in close proximity. If they catch them, the guards will taze you and remove your currently selected weapon so watch out.
Refill your speed, armor and strength stats before a new scene starts, don't let the enemy catch you by surprise!
Weapons are set up in 2 types, there are damage weapons and then there are support, non-combat items. For damage weapons you have some classic ones like an assault rifle, shotgun, revolver, flame thrower and some other ones like a frying pan, a baseball bat and a remote controlled robo rat that explodes among others.
Support items consist of things like a dart gun, a glue gun, a holo gram decoy, pills for increased stats or invisibility among others. They help you gain an advantage on your enemies and they can be used even if security guards or cameras have you on their sights.
Matches are not scored by just kills, but rather how many stars you are able to acquire. Stars are awarded when you perform kills, steal them from opponents or complete objectives and there is one support item that lets you steal them easily, so remember this.
Weapons are not only deadly but they are also fun to use.
How does it look?
As you can see from the pictures, the game uses a very stylized, cartoon look which can be easily compared to Team Fortress 2. It does however has its own sense of sarcastic humor and dark comedy.
In terms of music there isn't much to talk about, besides the main theme song and a couple of audio cues on the different maps, but, the characters are a bit more vocal when jumping, attacking or performing other actions.
Perhaps the sound you will hear the most (and very often) is that of the director who tells you what to do in each round, it can get a bit annoying.
Besides standard weapons, you can perform assassinations and activate traps on each map.
Final verdict?
The game might feel like its short and could use a few extra modes or maps which I agree, however, you do get a very competent, fun and complete multiplayer experience for the small sum of $5. The price did impress me since these days a good number of XBLA titles are released at $10 or $15.
Please remember this is a multiplayer focused game, while it is really good don't look into it if your expecting any sort of single player story mode (although there is a practice match against bots).
To summarize I recommend the game for 2 reasons: its fun and its cheap.
Score: 4/5
I read your comment on another forum about creating a game that crosses between l4d and gta and think that this is a game that should be made. I thought about this before myself, but i thought your ideas were good about adding specific character traits such as fighting, technology and scavenging for food. I guess that is how a player could customize their character; strengthen one trait over others. I wonder if there is a way to pitch this idea to Xbox?
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading the post :)
ReplyDeleteI think the open world setting has a lot of ways to be done and to be engaging, but as we've seen with Fallout 3 and Oblivion both have been single player experiences and while their great in their own way, I think the dynamic of an open world where your fighting other players for resources to survive would be far more interesting and engaging.
For this idea to be pitched to any developer it would require quite a lot of thought and creativity behind it, certainly not everyone will buy into it, specially with how expensive game development has become.
I come up with game ideas quite frequently even if none of them will ever get made, but I think its great to discuss them and Im happy you took the time to do so here :)