TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

By Anna "Morvelaira" Dotson, News Editor

Oh, be still my Gundam heart!

Exteel is a purely pvp based game, built around the concept of you as a sci-fi shooter Mechanaught pilot. Not only is your machine fully customizable, but you can go around and battle other pilots as well, usually in a team setting. Let's break this down, shall we?

Story

Well, there really isn't one. Aside from the lovely tutorial that I'll get to in a minute, this is the idea. You are a Mechanaught pilot. Go. Get better weapons. Wtfnoobpwn people (as it was described to me by a fellow player).

Tutorial

One of the things I loved most about this game was actually the tutorial. Let me just say that I am -not- a PvP player. I'm horrible at it. Always have been, probably always will be. The tutorial was great because it did a great job of teaching basic maneuvers at a good learning curve. Not too steep, not too tedious. It taught basic and advanced movement techniques such as using your jet pack, as well as the basics of using your weapon.

Overheating is a major issue in this game. Pay attention to your weapons so this doesn't happen. If your weapons overheat, you'll basically be defenseless for the few minutes it takes to either switch weapons or let your current ones cool down. The missions did a good job of teaching your how to use weapons in general, and a few specific types as well. It even gave you a few initial gear upgrades so you didn't get murdered out of the gate. As a side note, I still got wtfnoobpwned on a regular basis, but that's my fault, not the game's.

The tutorial is divided into “missions” lead by Operator Sarah, your com leader. She remains your com leader throughout the game, but is mostly relegated to telling you when you joined or left a chat server. All of the missions revolve around a simple task that requires you to learn the new ability they've just explained to you. For example, the first mission is to occupy an area a little ways away from you. This mission teaches you basic movement, and capturing points (important for some battle types.)

Battle Types

There are several different battle types, the most popular seeming to be CTF (Capture the Flag) and Territory Control. While there is of course differences because different games, I'd liken these to the Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin pvp instances in World of Warcraft, respectively. The goal in CTF is obvious, and territory control is a team fight to see how dominant a team can be over certain control points in a given amount of time. The battles, all player created, can hold anywhere from 2v2 fights to 8v8 fights, depending on the battle type, and can also be filtered according to level, ranking, etc.

Customization

This section is completely overwhelming to me. In addition to many different categories of items that you can change, there are also many options within each category. You can literally change every part of your Mechanaught if you want to, but mostly in terms of practicality than appearance. I know, I'm being such a girl by worrying about appearance, but I think it would be a good next step for the game. It doesn't have to be very fancy, but I have to admit if my camera view wasn't oriented on my character, I wouldn't be able to tell it from the others, and it's even difficult to do that across teams sometimes. Adding in some customization to appearances, as well as better identifiers of teams would go a long way towards making this game more playable for me.

As for what is currently available in the game, new options in armor and weapons are available for purchase with in game currency, which comes from microtransaction purchases. You should have seen that coming! No MMO is completely, 100% free to play in every respect.

In-game Advertising

Yes, some of you just hissed and held up the holy symbol of your choice. But I have to say, it's relatively well done in this game. One thing that helps is that the ads are for other NCSoft games – particularly Tabula Rasa. There's a small add up in the corner of the battle select screen, and on billboards throughout some of the arenas. And since the most popular arena that I've seen is a downtown cityscape they blend in very well and are very unobtrusive. So unobtrusive, in fact, that I almost forgot to mention them!

Final Recommendation

Overall, Exteel seems to be a very solid game, built to the core around pvp and dressing up in awesome looking mechanical suits that can make things go BOOM! It's not something for everyone, especially the types like me who take more pleasure in the fantasy worlds as opposed to sci-fi worlds. But, if a game so far out of my genre can make me squeal with glee as I take down opponent after opponent (it was only one battle, but I was on FIRE), then those people the game is aimed at are going to absolutely love it. If PvP in Warcraft and even AoC isn't enough for you, come on down to Exteel, and we'll make real mechanized men out of you!