Mann Vs Machine

Gentlemen, it’s time to Mann up! Team Fortress 2 has expanded again with even more free content. With surprisingly little fanfare, Valve have added a new horde mode; Mann Vs Machine. The gravel pits RED and BLU have tirelessly battled over and now being invaded by machines. And a new Mann brother is revealed in the latest of the fantastically silly comics that document the crazy backstory of TF2.

The new game mode plays as a cross between a standard horde mode, and a tower defence game. Your robot opponents have a bomb to carry along set paths to your base. The closer they get, the more powerful they become. But if you stop the bomb advancing for long enough, it will reset and have to be carried through your onslaught once again.

It’s easy to jump into a game. Just follow the new menu options and you’ll join the queue. However it can be confusing the first time as there are separate set of premium servers. If you’re willing to spend a little, you get access to the Mann servers where you earn themed aesthetic rewards to show off your wealth. With the current queues, it’s quicker to find a server manually.  

So what devious creations are you and up to five teammates pitted against? Robotic versions of yourselves of course! Each of the nine TF2 characters is represented in the enemy hordes with different equipment set-ups. To mix things up, Tanks and giant robots can be unleashed with devastating results on an uncoordinated team.

Tanks are exactly what the name suggests. Lumbering vehicles with an immense health bar. If they reach you base, their armour retracts to reveal a hidden bomb which is promptly detonated on your front door. Giant robots are equipped with extra powerful weaponry such as Soldier’s multi-shot rocket launchers and Demoknight’s swords that have giant cleavage.

And just to keep you on your toes, they have ways of dealing with your engineer’s turret. If the AI detects a turret doing particularly well, it deploys a Sentry Buster. A bomb that can run, and run fast! As soon as it gets in range, it arms itself and detonates in large blast, wiping out everything in range. If you have a Pyro, you can keep them at bay with airblasts. Alternatively, a clever Engineer can pick up his prized turret at the last second and make an escape.

To counter the robotic horde you can upgrade your equipment with the cash dropped from defeated enemies. The upgrades range from standard damage increases to providing whole new mechanics. The Engineer can create portals that teleport in both directions. The Spy can upgrade his sapper to destroy groups of bots. There’s also a whole set of upgrades just for your character to improve personal defences. However you’ll need to choose wisely as you only get enough cash to max out a few bonuses, so it’s important to pick up everything dropped. This often requires heroic dives into groups of Pyros to rescue the money from the previous wave. A smart design choice by Valve is that all cash pick-ups are shared evenly amongst the team.

To help balance the poor Scout who is about as strong as the milk he drinks. A few extra buffs were added. He’s the only character that heals when picking up cash and has no respawn time. Everyone else has to wait a few agonizing second before they can get back into the fight unless they sacrifice earned cashed.

The quality of the content is excellent as expected. Although I did have some UI bugs which meant I had no idea what to expect in the next wave. There’s a whole new range of voice clips for the characters and the announcer and the robot models are simply fantastic. Sadly I can’t say the same for the three levels available so far. They are simpler in layout than a standard map to accommodate the hordes of enemies running on a set path. But the designs are bland in comparison to the standard multiplayer maps. The biggest criticism I have is that it’s clearly balanced around six players. Any less makes the game a lot harder as there appears to be no scaling of the enemies.

All things considered, it is an excellent piece of free content. It’s good to see a modern classic such as TF2 get another breath of new life. Maybe Valve might bring new mechanics and games modes in future? Who knows, this was unexpected delight.

Blacklight: Retribution

Blacklight: Retribution is an interesting free-to-play (F2P) FPS that has recently made its way to Steam. Developed by Zombie Studios and released in April this year; it adds to the growing library of excellent F2P games available on PC.

As an entirely multiplayer game, there is no story. Set in the near future, two teams of up to eight players fight over various locations in different game modes. Currently the game includes a standard set of objectives such as Team Deathmatch and King of the Hill. But also has other modes such as Netwar, which requires players to hold set locations whilst capturing a randomly spawning flag. The server filters in the lobby are extensive, allowing you to quickly find a server running your preferred map or game mode.

When you log in for the first time, the game prompts you run through the tutorial. It covers the basic controls as well as being a handy point to fine tune various control settings. At the end it introduces the equipment you will be able to use in battle.

As you kill your opponents and take objectives you earn Combat Points which you can spend on the equipment. Using the Hard Suit mini-mech is a lot of fun. It’s armed with both a minigun and a rail gun making it extremely powerful. But with its poor manoeuvrability, the pilot is vulnerable to enemies using hit and run attacks. The flamethrower is an excellent counter-weapon; able to cook the pilot inside without causing too much damage, leaving behind the Hard Suit for you to steal.

The Hyper Reality Visor (HRV) is a key feature of the game, which combined with the equipment, makes the game stand out in the crowded FPS market. It allows a quick glimpse of the battlefield, highlighting all players and objectives. After each use there’s a long recharge, but it really alters the dynamic of the genre.

I often find myself using it to flank opponents, calculating a safe route to my target. It also highlights players using stealth, allowing you a chance to counter before their surprise assault. It’s easy to become dependent on HRV, using it to check every corner before sticking your head out. But it does lead to some awkward situations, as it takes a frantic second to swap back to normal vision. On many occasions I used HRV only to discover someone just round the corner, leaving me hopping around like a madman trying to dodge incoming fire whilst fumbling for a gun.

The overall balance of the game is excellent. There are various viable builds such as fast melee, close range SMG, through to that sniper who always manages to headshot you from the other side of the map. I find close range fire-fights to be especially satisfying. The fast move speed of characters leads to wild sprays of bullets, often ending in close knife fights with the victor scrambling to reload before their next encounter.

This is down to the well designed in-game economy. At the end of each match you earn GP based on your performance. This can be spent on weapon parts, body armour and gear; either to rent for a few days at a cheap price, or to unlock permanently. There are a lot of options. Each weapon is broken down into individual parts such as barrel, stock, sights and receiver. The receiver defines the weapon type: assault rifle, revolver, light machinegun which you then tailor to your preference. Detailed stats are provided allowing you to tweak everything ‘till you get a weapon Goldilocks would be proud of.

Unfortunately you don’t get access to all the options when you start. Some of the more exotic equipment is locked until you reach a high enough level. I’m not against including levelling systems, but they are over used in FPS games. Zombie Studios has used it as opportunity to give free rental equipment as you level; which is nice reward and sensible promotion tool.

All the aesthetic customisation except the emblem is bought with real money. Your emblem is used to distinguish yourself on the scoreboard as well as appearing as a snazzy badge on your character. You can purchase camouflage for both your character and weapons. Also there is a large range of taunt animations and voice packs.

The art direction is superb. Although the setting is the standard grey-brown future we have come to expect from this generation. It’s brought alive by the striking orange and teal colour scheme of the HRV view. There’s only one problem, headshots are ridiculously gratuitous. Despite the helmets appearing to be very sturdy pieces of armour, they are in fact balloons protecting your water melon of a head. A single shot can leave a bloody stump of neck with a nice bit of spine showing. Zombie Studious did develop the Saw games; but they didn’t need to bring the gore here.

The inclusion of female character models sees Blacklight taking a big stride ahead of the rest of the genre. A reflection of changing attitudes within the industry to the growth in the female gaming demographic.

Blacklight: Retribution is definitely a stand-out F2P title, worthy of downloading by anyone looking for an FPS. The real question is if Zombie Studios can keep adding content, and grow the player base as Planetside 2 moves closer to release.

Tally-ho WoT WoT!

With the recent reveal by Wargaming.net, British tanks will finally be making their way to the battlefields of World of Tanks. I thought it would be a good time to discuss why I have a love / hate relationship with one of the most interesting free-to-play games on the market.

Why, then, did this game grab my attention in the first place? It took WW2 in a new direction for gaming; most games for this time period are either pure strategy or FPS. WoT is a first / third person tank-driving-simulation-strategic-battle, and a welcome breath of fresh air.

It's not a graphic powerhouse such as Battlefield 3 and The Witcher 2, but it has great artistic direction. The tank models and textures are superb. The developers love this period, and it shows in the attention to detail. The armour plates have individual thicknesses according to the historical values with some changes for balancing. Top speeds change based on your engine power and your accuracy is based on the main gun you take to battle.

Currently the game only has 1 mode, which is a 15 side team deathmatch with capture points. Turning your opponents to piles of scrap metal, or capturing the enemy base without being hit, earns your team victory and an experience bonus. Battle tactics can range from quick and frantic skirmishes, too strategic flanking manoeuvres. This occurs naturally without team communication because of the well balanced asymmetric map designs.

The fundamental gameplay is solid. Driving around the battlefield and firing the weaponry feels exactly like how you would expect driving a tank to feel. It's satisfying crushing scenery beneath your tracks, and watching opponents go up in flames as you punch an armour piercing round through the hull.

WoT is the first game I can remember that provided me with tangential learning. The array of vehicles ranges from mass produced front line tanks to prototype, super heavy monstrosities. The game's well put together wiki drew me in, providing me with the specifications and history of what players could drive in game.

A final big plus point for the game is that Wargaming.net are dedicated to adding more content to the game in patches. This includes new maps and vehicles, as well as some new features like vehicle camouflage. They also run a lot of events for the game, such as bonus experience weekends and competitions.

So with those glowing paragraphs of praise, what could I dislike so much about a free to play game? The biggest problem which any new player will be faced with is the fact that the game is a massive grind. The technology trees for the nations are huge. You can quickly progress thorough the first few tiers of any tree, unlocking all the early starter vehicles and equipment, but beyond that point it takes a lot of time and effort.

That's how the game's economy is set up. It encourages players to pay for premium accounts and other bonuses to speed their levelling progress (the developers need to eat), but the balance for this is completely off. Even if you put money into the game, you have to dedicate yourself to a nation to get into the high tier tanks.

Matchmaking is also a frequent problem for certain tiers of vehicles. The game will often create matches were the low tiers in the game won't be able to actually damage their higher tier enemies, except for lucky shots hitting weak spots. I encountered this very often while driving tier 4 (highest tier is 10) tanks, finding myself in battles with tier 7 and 8 which I would just have to do my best to avoid, whilst hunting opponents at my level or making myself useful by capturing the enemy base.

The brackets for matchmaking should be tightened to provide more matches where you feel that you have the ability to really impact the game. It would increase queuing times, but it's definitely not fun being blown to pieces by a tank twice your size.

The game's power balance just isn't right, even with the constant tweaks that are made in the patches. In fairness to Wargaming.net, they have to balance an arms race that constantly pushed for better armour and bigger guns; that's not easy.

If you haven't played WoT yet I'd suggest you give it a go, it is free to play after all so there's nothing to lose, but if you get into it, be prepared to spend a lot of time reading the wiki due to the steep learning curve and grinding the experience for the next tier.