SHOOTMANIA STORM :Review

Most young people may not be aware, but there have been gold online FPS another age. Today, toddlers brighten on militaristic titles with distinguished strangers and take their time to aim, move slowly, or even longer in the bush to stay hidden. Before, stand still, it was to be dead, and adjust its really not the shooting mode. Moreover, the iron sight does not exist.

This was the era of fast FPS, which saw the birth Unreal Tournament, Tribes and gave the Quake series the third subtitled "Arena" album, still very active today with Quake Live.

It is the latter that is inspired with Nadeo Shootmania now available after months of beta and reports which should allow the studio to perfect his title in order to make a new standard for e-sports meter. Remains whether it will appeal to the common man.

NEW SOFTWARE OPPOSITION IN SUBJECTIVE PERSPECTIVE

Shootmania in the first obstacles that stand in the way of the player are the different interface layers that separate the office of a frag properly. To start the game, it is first necessary to go through ManiaPlanet the series dedicated to the transgender Nadeo platform. After going through a launcher recalling the finest moments in Windows 95, we are propelled on a starry above which fit together various tiles blue background, more or less in the manner of the recent Windows 8 Metro interface. Some fill the entire screen and the games are: TrackMania ² Canyon, Stadium, beta recently and ShootMania Storm so. Other smaller ones are less explicit in the first first and are in fact various modes of previous games. After all, what could be more natural than to separate the free for all or capture the main points of the content offered by the giant tile Storm? To top it off, the menu options, symbolized by a gear stitched the web browsers, is filled with unwanted settings tab the text of which is partially invisible, the fault of the boxes too small for the content to display. It will therefore set the anisotropic filtering of textures haphazardly leaving our intuition guide us into the "faster" extreme and "prettier."

Once past this initial disappointment and also after clicking several times on the screen interesting us, the lack of responsiveness of the menu and feedback buttons leaving us free to guess if our application was considered at the first attempt we enter the heart of the matter. Right, new tiles inform us of fresh news about the game, its events, its broadcasts, and below a newsfeed arranged as a twitter page is. A little strange, but not annoying, unlike dedicated navigation buttons, a rather unsettling for a few minutes brevity. After several hours, you get used to the interface with no frills, but the impression of being faced with a brief video editing software, music, anything but a video game, never happens really disappear. Things even worse with the server browser or creating some that are a true way of the cross and stick to many headaches before they get to share a few rockets between gentlemen. Again, everything is better after an adjustment period, but counting the need to reconfigure the firewall by hand, and the lack of explanation really give the impression of arriving in an unknown universe hostile - quite similar to what was done in this area 15 years ago, finally. Tribute ...


THE MAGIC BUTTON

Behind the bitterness is yet hides the simplicity only six buttons are required to play Shootmania. Four are of course dedicated to travel, another shooting, no one left, the right mouse button, the most interesting of the lot. Its function is purely contextual. It is primarily used to jump, because that would be a fast shooter without his cohort kangaroos killers? Once in the air, however, hold reveals a new facet of gameplay: the glide, or sprint depending on the height at which our character is at the time of activation. The first accelerates the horizontal movement during a fall, transforming the parabolic trajectory slide. But as long as this function is activated a few inches off the ground, it will only affect the low down. Instead, our character will run like hell before getting out of breath. The stamina gauge is short and empty fast enough. In the manner of Tribes, the whole point is to alternate jump, acceleration and inertia play the avatar to go the distance as soon as possible. That's the basic usage.

The intricacies of the plot are changing interest. Some metal plates disable the example simply, along with the ability to shoot elsewhere. On others, when they constitute a path, it is impossible to jump but acceleration sprint and much more important. And when the road is paved with wood, right click makes us grow roller skates while releasing trigger a jump in the Jet Set Radio. Some hang high points can occasionally activate a grapple, very useful to cross large areas while building up speed. The railgun finally plaques dedicated to transforming the easy zoom button. The shooter is then more accurate but also more vulnerable because exposure to light and unable to leave in a hurry or even play leapfrog with projectiles pouncing on him. The range of movement is complemented by wall jumps, which inherit the initial speed of the character and consume stamina, and rocket jumps that save a few centimeters from a classic jump, without losing a life. Nevertheless, it still remains far from the possibilities they could offer in Quake.

HIKING IN marked trails

Knowing how to move optimally therefore requires a long learning period. To be sure, there is enough to go on a "Barrier" server and try to see the end of a map. In the first attempts, needless to say that we sometimes take ten minutes to reach the first checkpoint just a few dozen meters from the starting point. Unlike other types of game, here it is impossible to draw on its congeners and collisions between characters are disabled. Shooting game, the title becomes the first platformer uncompromising person. It is also here that the motion system suggests its complexity but also its limits. Most of the time, there is only one way to pass each obstacle course requiring precision timing and intrinsically linked to the nature of the terrain. If Shootmania requires a good deal of control, however it leaves little room for improvisation, and it is ultimately the developers and designers of maps that determine the moments of grace in architecture levels. The dramatic figures are for the most part agreed in advance and are therefore less likely to be admired.

Unfortunately, these restrictions also affect the use of arms, and many players may be put off by the inability to choose as they see fit between the three key weapons, four if you count the arrows available on the cards " Combo ". Except in this game mode, which for once is like a watered down version of the titles released in the late 90s until the appearance of boxes to pick up, probably inspired by the unstoppable Quake is again the game decides for us to use projectiles. In tunnels, the nucleus is de rigueur, which launches extremely slow stickies. Metallic platforms give way to railgun, the only hitscan weapon in the universe, and the rocket launcher reign everywhere. Each toy finds its balance in the damage it inflicts, number of ammunition and reloading time. It is not a matter of picking up balls on the ground, but the time it takes for the energy bar corresponding to arms to fill. It is sectioned into four rifle base, two for the nucleus, and in the case of full laser sniper. The rate of fire is much higher for the former than the latter, but it does not lose a point of armor when the third removes two without requiring anticipate the trajectories of the opponent.


THE MOD FROM U.S.

ShootMania Storm is crippled with sometimes unpleasant limits governing the balance between the parties, but no or almost no final. The real wealth of the title is not so much the degree of requirement of gameplay and the possibility to define oneself rules every battle. By itself, it means the competent modders that are activated from the beta to provide new and interesting concepts to users. As often happens in such situations, it is to drink and eat, although the appreciation of each mode is highly subjective. Elite is probably the one that was most shown so far, the one that best reflects the ambition of Nadeo teasing electronic sports. Two teams of three compete in an asymmetric game between an attacker with a railgun and three armor three defenders ragged equipped with rocket launchers. The attacker has fifteen seconds to capture a totem by touching a brief moment. But before the post is active, the defenders have a minute to remove the intruder. The role of each team changes each round, and the confrontation ends when one team reaches a specified number of points in advance.

The demo of the game offers free as well as the "Royal" mode, a last man standing in the arena which is gradually victim of a hurricane whose eye is at the center of the map. Players will now join the As to the center and reducing the playground amplifies the intensity and frequency of games. Also talk mode "Joust", probably one of the most interesting for the uninitiated, right next to the already mentioned "Obstacle". It is simply a duel between two snipers on small arenas. The weapon will no longer charge over time, but asked to go touch one of the poles of the card when it is dry. No offense to the campers, said post then off, forcing the soldier to get his food elsewhere next time. Here, ammunition and armor points are more numerous so that the sleeves are longer than thirty seconds, and all offer good slices of fun, stress and of course in bad faith. The "Battle", especially in its variant "waves" as is widely being practiced for anyone who takes the time to understand the ins and outs.


INNER BEAUTY IS ... IT SEEMS

Both teams are just trying to capture the stakes located in the opposing camp by close enough. The time required to conquer is relatively long, and if a defender moves to the capture area, it prevents the entry. In the variant, only a camp attack at once, and the defenders must prevent any approach for fifteen seconds to start the assault. The collective work is absolutely essential to hope for success, but the defense is much more complicated than the attack, trends can be reversed completely following a learning organization, and the red out of a commitment to winning 90% against zero part against them if they stick together and risk everything to never lose the benefit of aggression. In such cases, we really like living a moment of grace, or redo Waterloo as the incarnate camp, despite the gameplay, the graphics on poverty draws or questionable interface.

For we must be honest: wanting to offer a competitive and stripped software, Nadeo has also managed to bring about a complete lack of visual identity. The characters are pumped back unsightly models Unreal Tournament repainted neon and stand beautifully decorated without a personality to dull colors. The hud is clear but unsightly and ugly crosshairs and bulky bases. Or the primacy of efficiency on aesthetics, pushing a unusual degree of extremism. Except when the crash bugs are invited to the party or the lag adds a grain of teleportation.

Despite these relatively boring for a title for the competition defects, it is difficult to really want to Shootmania, for various reasons. On the one hand, his game modes are so varied that it is difficult not to find something to suit him. In addition to those already mentioned here, it would still include "Heroes", "Speedball", "Instagib", "Jailbreak" ... not to mention future possibilities! Icing on the cake, it offers a simple local mode (or rather arcane) to understand than its connected, and simple mechanisms to grasp but hard to master make an ideal ambassador to resurrect the good old LAN with friends, of course accompanied by their cold pizza and warm soda stale. As well as appealing to traditional values ​​...