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224 people found this review helpful
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Recommended

17.3 hrs on record (5.8 hrs at review time)

Intro:

I like this game.

For people who enjoy arcade shooters like Battlefield or Call of Duty, this game is absolutely worth trying out.
The negative reviews mostly stem from people who cannot enter the game at all, or who are angry about the Launcher this game uses. They barely reflect the actual state of the game, and while it is far from great or even done, its a solid foundation.

Below I'll list a few things I enjoyed, and stuff that I don't.

Good:

Gunplay

For fans of Arcade Shooters, if you want extremely realistic gun-handling like in tactical shooters, this isn't for you.

Gamemodes

There are only two Gamemodes at the moment. The first is the famous "Conquest" mode where you have hold objectives and take the enemies' ones to bleed their tickets.
The second one is Team Deathmatch.

Graphics

They're not the most amazing textures, but they're really solid for an indie title. Explosions feel impactful, Fragmentation grenades don't explode in a burst of fire, but are instead proper shrapnel explosions, which many game don't get right.

Unlocks

If you are the kind of person that needs a carrot on the stick to motivate you to play, then this game will keep you entertained for a few dozen hours at least.

Tactics

The game offers a wide variety of utility options like UAV-drones, Jammer-Drones, Artillery/Strafing runs/Guided Missiles and even drop-in vehicles that you can use by spending points unlocked through shooting enemies, taking out vehicles, supplying teammates and particularly by taking objectives with your Squad. Playing the objective is therefore really rewarding and encourages even the most kill-greedy players to play the objective because it is there where they can gain the points for the upper-edge upon the opponent.

Flawed and bad:

Balance of Weapons

TTK is fast and I feel like every weapon in this game serves a particular purpose, but with the dynamic battlefield in this game some weapons are just more consistently useful overall. You will generally notice that weapons you unlock further down the level-tree are better in pure stats. Paired with the limited unlocks on most weapons, to me it felt like there's always a "meta" or superior way to customize a weapon.

Balance of Vehicles

Tanks in this game are very mobile. That is generally faithful because real modern tanks are fast too, but in terms of intertia and handling these tanks drive like some of the Jeeps in Battlefield. Combining this with the incredibly fast turret-rotation/angling speed makes tanks an incredibly dangerous enemy that you need to fear on the battlefield.
Taking out tanks in this game is quite difficult regardless of the abundance of AT-Rockets, because they're driving fast, have smokescreens and can take you out with precision. Maybe increasing the damage of AT rockets during rear-hits (say that two rockets into the rear of the tank are sufficient) would help to make positioning more important for both the Tank-crew and the Squads trying to take it out. There are support helicopters in this game as well, and they're arguably even harder to take out until you unlock the AA-Rocket which requires you to play for quite some time. One could adress this by adding AA-Rockets as pickups on the map (maybe 1 per side), so that these can be dealt with after some time.

Netcode/Performance

I won't sugarcoat it, its really not good. Sometimes it feels like hits get registered very late, so people die after ducking into cover. Sometimes people are rubberbanding severely and its difficult to both hit and get hit with such people. I know that Server performance has been an issue, and while I do work in this field and know of the challenges that are hidden behind a working server-infrastructure, I do think that if you sell microtransactions for a game, then it should be in a decent and playable state. Right now it feels like a bit of a coin-toss if the server works in your favour or not.

Bipods

As an avid Support player in BF, the great part about having a Light Machine Gun with a Bipod was that you could actually supress enemies from long ranges. Combat range in this game tends to be between 1-50 meters most of the time, and ARs and SMGs are superior in all aspects except magazine capacity.
The problem with LMGs is that the Bipod cannot be deployed manually, so the recoil reduction only kicks in if you are prone on the floor. That becomes a problem when you want to mount your weapon onto a windowpane to shoot out of windows, or whenever you're having an obstacle in front of you which is slightly higher than a pavestone. On top of that, the recoil reduction doesn't work when you aren't in ADS either despite being prone, so you can't hold a tight corner without being in ADS either, having to rely on RNG to get your bullets in.

Third-Party Launcher

I assume that their launcher choice has to do with their management of player profiles, verification/download of the game and the payment functionality. Thankfully you don't need an own account per se (only after you purchase something to transfer the purchase to your Steam Account).Personally I think they should rework this so that everything can be done without this launcher running, but I believe it is here to stay.
Its not a big problem in my opinion.

Summary:

Back when it launched, I had such severe bugs within the game that I could barely play it. All of the really dire ones I remember (like skating on the floor like on an ice-field or weapons randomly stopping to work) have been fixed, and I haven't noticed any significant ones this time around.
There's a few strange animation errors sometimes, but that's just something they'll probably fix once the game gets a bit of polish.

So, despite the negative response and troubled history of the game with its catastrophal launch and take-over by another company, I do believe that this game is fun to play and that it will eventually be fun.

Even within its current state I believe it is more fun than Battlefield 2042, and I gave that game a genuine chance as well.
For a Free2Play title this game is pretty solid and even if you don't really stick around for long, it will entertain you for quite some time.

I hope that the Developers will continue work on this, and bring it into a state where it can truly showcase its strengths. The foundation is there, and I'm looking forward to its future patches.

Thanks for reading.

Posted 7 October, 2022. Last edited 19 October, 2022.

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Recommended

8.3 hrs on record (7.8 hrs at review time)

I´ve had the possibility to talk to the Developer a lot and I´ve been keeping an eye on this game since it was put on Greenlight. So far, this game has been one of the best Indie-Releases I´ve played to date, but let me start from the beginning.

The Developer is a great guy who already developed a few other games, JAC being the first one who was put on Steam Greenlight. I don´t know where I met him anymore (I think it was somewhere in the Off-Topic-Hell here in the Steam-Community), but he told me about JAC and after I saw the Greenlight Trailer I immediately knew that this game had potential. After two or three weeks he uploaded a Demo for everyone to try. This Demo was the moment I was really convinced to buy this game. The humor in this game is so awesome, almost every NPC is admireable and throws out one gag after another. Situational Humor, funny Tooltips... The Demo alone already entertained me more than most games in terms of humor.

Gameplay-wise this game reminds me of the old Castlevania Games, mixed with a weird blend of different games. The Cleric Class from the Old-School-RPG´s (take Baldur´s Gate from BioWare as an example), the deadly traps you know from Dungeon Crawlers and Side-Scrollers (like Castlevania), a lovely Pixel-Art-Graphicstyle (which only adds to the charme of the game, I couldn´t imagine this game being 3D or whatever), everything in this game kinda matches.

AND the soundtrack was selfmade. It´s so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome, I´d recommend this game solely for the soundtrack already, but that´s not the point here.

You start off as a Cleric who never gets to do something (yes, you´ve read it correct, you never get to do something).
His Party-Members are so strong, he just stands somewhere in the back, drinking Milk, while his Party Members have been bringing wrecking carnage upon the enemies. One day though, he has to take a piss after a fight (because he drank too much Milk) and while he is gone, his friends are being attacked by a Dragon. Once the Cleric returns, all of his friends are dead. The Cleric swears to take revenge for his fallen comrades and pillages the dead bodies for loot. (Oh yes, that is macabre, isn´t it?). Actually, this is the first important step in the game. You are able to get the entire Gear during the game anyways, but this choice will influence your early game. You better not ♥♥♥♥ this up. Choose wisely.

The game itself is simple but challenging. Don´t expect a game that will change the entire RPG-Genre.
Most of the time your objective is to reach a certain spot of the map, collect a certain item, destroy a certain item, find a certain NPC or protect a certain NPC. Every few missions though, a mighty boss appears and you have to figure out how to beat him. Memorize the attack patterns and exploit the weak spots. The game itself really is challenging sometimes, you will definetly find yourself repeating some stages over and over again, but the Developer really listens to Feedback, he even decreased the challenge in the first playthrough, so that the game doesn´t get too tough.

Once you´ve beat it for the first time, you´re going to find yourself in the New Game +, where the enemies have been reworked completely, delivering a harder challenge now, spitting at the poor Cleric with lots of debuffs, new attack patterns etc. Especially the Bosses are a REAL challenge now. And as if this wasn´t enough, there´s even a Super Boss to beat. (But I haven´t reached him yet, so I can´t really say much about him).

Summa Summarum: If you´re searching for a game that is able to entertain you, this game will definetly be able to fit your needs. Challenging Gameplay, the best Humor in a game I´ve seen for a long time and the charming Pixel-Graphic make this game what it is. The Developer is really listening to the Feedback, looking for opinions and ideas on how to improve his game. Hardly I´ve seen a Dev that has been so passionate (might have something to do with the fact that he´s been working on this game in his free time during the last two years. You can see the Heartblood he pumped into this title). I´ve spent 4€ on it, and that´s far less than what I´ve spent on some "AAA-Games" who have been disappointing, to say the least. If you´re even slightly interested in such games, consider to pick this up. You won´t regret it.

EDIT: The Developer added an expansion. A noteable thing among many others is the "grind" level that allows you to increase your cleric´s powers in order to make the whole game a tad easier. It´s still challenging.

The whole expansion turned out awesome, so... if you have some spare money and search for great entertainment, consider to grab this game.
I also recommend looking at his other work released on Steam as they both get frequently updated.

Posted 22 May, 2016. Last edited 26 November, 2017.

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