I will say, however, that it is refreshing to have an unlimited-ammo shotgun as a starting weapon. Yes, I’m picking the most boring representatives of the arsenals to make a point, but trust me, the other guns really aren’t worth writing about. A sniper rifle (with –shocker - a scope zoom!). A rocket launcher (whose rockets you can detonate early). A machine gun (which can shoot more slowly and more accurately with secondary fire). They’re almost all forgettable, and their alt-fires show little creativity. I wasn’t sure whom I was more mad at: the guys who didn’t take it easy on me or the guys who left me to my fate.įor all the effort the developers put into creating Mutators, they seemed to have forgotten about the weapons themselves. I most certainly did not enjoy the time I ended up playing CTF by myself vs. And if one or two people drop out, the shorthanded teams are simply screwed. On the bigger levels, that leads to a lot of running around with no one to shoot. You only get to play team deathmatch or team capture the flag, so it’s almost always three vs. Six-player matches (the most common) can be problematic, too. Four minutes is an awful long time to wait for a round to start. Some of that comes from the game looking for the minimum number of players (six), and some of that is just the actual loading of the stage. I was curious how long it took from choosing a Quick Match (with no other search restrictions) to actually playing one, and I’ve been clocking them from two to literally over four minutes. To start with, someone’s gotta work on optimizing load times and matchmaking. But some of Nexuiz’s troubles are a bit more universal and may even turn off the most hardcore of players.
This one will only appeal to a specific subset of (probably old-school) shooter fans. Maybe you’re more tortoise than hare, and Nexuiz is entirely too speedy for you. But that’s all optional - and for the crazies - so it’s nothing most gamers would have to worry about. You’d have to be awfully dedicated if you want to do any customization at all. It took seven matches before I could even start with one fraction of a singe level-one power, and they get progressively more expensive through the five tiers. The problem is - and this goes back to that “crazy people” remark - you’ll have to play an unreasonable amount of online sessions to earn enough points to customize this system (to make certain Dynamic Mutators appear more often in your ranked bouts). Though this feature doesn’t necessarily make this a must-download winner, it does add a lot of unpredictability and variety to what would otherwise be fairly standard shooter fare. Nexuiz has a huge arsenal of these game-modifying Mutators. And some are just plain goofy (turn everyone’s heads into that of one of the designers). Some mess the game up for everyone (slick surfaces, light gravity, retro or black and white graphics). Some are defensive (extra health regeneration, protection from head shots, heavy home flags). Some are purely offensive in nature (faster firing, infinite ammo, double damage). These can come from pickups, when capturing a flag, or via killstreak rewards, and they come in many different forms. Then you reach another plateau in your connection with this game when you learn to take advantage of its Dynamic Mutators. Random variables and all-around weirdness All of a sudden, you’re pretty good at Nexuiz. You will dart through the labyrinthine stages, rocket jumping (which the game has a dedicated button for) and hitting launch pads with streamlined efficiency. You will find optimal routes to bring enemy flags home. But as you adjust to the speed and learn the weapons’ nuances (and their secondary, alternative firing modes), you will start appreciating the game. The zippy gameplay harks back to the days of the aforementioned Quake and Unreal Tournament, when instant-twitch action and reaction were perhaps more important than the actual weapons you were firing.Īt first, playing Nexuiz involves a lot of circle-strafing, desperately firing at targets who can move faster than you can track them, missing more than hitting. Halo is one of the slower paced representatives in the shooter genre, but its Spartan combatants might as well be running around in giant sumo fat suits compared to the speedsters in Nexuiz.
The bad news? Only crazy people will be playing Nexuiz months from now…. Join gaming leaders live this October 25-26 in San Francisco to examine the next big opportunities within the gaming industry.
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