By Michael A
The first picture of Blacklight had me interested. The words ‘free to play’ on Steam compelled me to give the game a shot. The overcharged music and stylish graphics grabbed me by the throat and headbutted me into submission. From Perfect World, a company mostly known for its MMORPGS, and its purchase of Runic Studios (the makers of torchlight) and Cryptic studios (Another MMO company: City of Heroes, Champions online, and Star Trek online), this shooter came as a surprise to me. A pleasant, dubstep filled, explosive surprise.
Graphics:
Blacklight is a sleek game, with immersive maps, impressive and realistic character designs, and solid weapon effects. The HUD for the player is useful without being overwhelming, but the minimalism of it can prove a bit frustrating: a lack of a literal bullet count in the magazine of your weapon can lead to confusion on if the correct loadout was selected unless the guns are drastically different. Beyond that, though, everything is excellent. Colors are lush and well placed without being overwhelming. As said before, the character designs are very cool, with an impersonal futuristic look to all the helmets and armor. Even better, heavy armor looks and feels heavy. Guns are fancy and suitably high tech, and many objects, both player model and otherwise, have small glowing effects that reinforce a futuristic appearance without crossing into ripping off Tron. One weak point is that some of the bullet effects and grenade effects are less than amazing... But I will say that firing a minigun at ANYTHING is friggen sweet, with the bullet effects on this weapon being phenomenal.
Story:
Being an MMO in nature, there isn’t much to be had in terms of story. It’s a dystopian future where elite groups of agents war over various assets, both physical and digital. They have the support of powerful governments and corporations, and these battles sometimes happen right amongst populated areas with no one being the wiser. It’s kind of like a mini war in a Shadowrun or cyberpunk style setting. Otherwise, there isn’t much to be said on story.
Gameplay:
The primary form of gameplay is simple: Pick a game to join, or hit quick play to be shuffled off to a random game. Games go up to sixteen players, with a deathmatch game mode, as well as team modes including deathmatch, king of the hill, capture the flag, kill confirmed and more, played in an 8 on 8 format. From here, you have a fairly typical, fast paced shooter: It’s pretty frag-fest-y, like Halo or Call of Duty. Fast reflexes will put you above the pack fast. The maps are big enough, though, and the metagame important enough that a smart player can use his weapons and gear to play smart as opposed to a complete run and gun twitch fest.
The metagame I mentioned? It’s an account based leveling system, in which you earn exp and cp. Exp levels you up, unlocking new equipment. The other currency, cp, is used to actually activate gear, either for a short time (sampling), or permanently at greater cost. As one expects with a free to play game model, there is another currency, zen, that allows you to access things early and permanently for money. The plus? Very, very few things are zen exclusive, if you are patient.
These unlocks let you customize your armor(from light to heavy, from well equipped to barebones), your equipment (a utility backpack and up to 4 side items, including grenades, jammers, melee weapons and the like), and your weapon. The guns are set into loadouts of a primary and secondary gun, and you build the gun yourself. Yes, that's right: build it yourself. Want an SMG with sniper barrel and scope? Do it. I, for example, like a light machine gun with parts to increase long range accuracy. BAM, I have a rapid fire sniper rifle that isn’t helpless at point blank. This system is so well balanced, with only a tiny amount of ‘paper rock scissors’ in it that I must admit, it’s very impressive.
The last two major features are the depot and HRV. The depot allows a player to call for more equipment, from health and ammo refills, to big guns (minigun, anyone?) and finally, the hardsuit. Yes, you can get a freaking mecha in this game, and yes, it lets you kick butt. HRV is short for Hyper Reality Visor. Long story short, it’s a built in wall hack. You activate it at will, and it lets you see friends, enemies, objectives, everything just about, anywhere. Downside? You can’t shoot your weapons. Best hope no one is looking at you.
Sound:
Oh boy, the music. Let me warn you now: This game has some next level beats. It’s easy to laugh at the music, but the pseudo dubstep soundtrack actually really suits the gameplay and visual style: It’s just intense enough to get you pumped, but if it was any more eccentric of heavy, it would be obnoxious. Plus, you only really hear the music in the between match intermissions. otherwise, the sound is well executed: a player can tell one gun type from another based on the sound of it firing, with most weapons having a nice, satisfying bark. SMG’s have a harsh chatter, LMG’s an intimidating rumble, bolt action rifles giving a player scattering shout, and the rail gun commands players with an explosive roar. Absolutely lovely gun sounds.
The player automatic voices are useful in game, and the computerized narrator is suitably cold and digital, but a bit quiet. Other sounds, such as footsteps, bullet ricochets, and hardsuits walking are crisp and clean, though some of them could be heard from a slightly larger distance, particularly hardsuits. Nothing sucks more than the realization that if you can hear a hardsuit, it’s probably close enough to give you a backrub.
Overall:
Blacklight Retribution has everything a PC shooter needs to be happy: Fast paced action, some serious customization, free to play without being pay to win, and dubstep’s famous wubs, which have me and my gamer buddies laughing hysterically as we try to sing to it. I have no regrets to getting this game through steam, though the community sometimes frustrates me with it’s refusal to participate in objective matches, but this behavior plagues many fast paced shooters and PC games alike. If you’re looking for a good shooting fix for a few days, or are in it for the long haul, give Blacklight a look: It’s hard to go wrong for a price tag of free!
Blacklight Retribution gets a 7.75/10
8/10... If you like wub wub wub, like me.
No comments:
Post a Comment