Loading... CrimeCraft Review

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Posted Wed, Sep 02, 2009 by Ethec

Welcome to the 1,157th edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

CrimeCraft has been out a week now, and after playing for a while, Ethec offers his opinion on the game. CrimeCraft might be the first genuine persistent world shooter that the gaming community has ever seen. In a market that tends to punish innovators, how does CrimeCraft stack up? We'll review the game on its own terms in today's Loading... CrimeCraft Review.

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

Biggest Movers in the past week :

Mabinogi (UP 6 to #17)
Lineage 2 (down 5 to #19)
EverQuest (UP 4 to #15)

Recent MMO Releases

8/4 - World of Warcraft Update 3.2 (content patch)
8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date)
9/1 - Champions Online (NA release date)

Important Dates

9/4 - 9/6 - Penny Arcade Expo (PAX)
9/15 - 9/18 - GDC Austin
10/1 - 10/3 - EVE FanFest

Upcoming Releases

9/9 - Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited (release date)
9/15 - Fallen Earth (release date)
9/22 - Aion (release date)
10/9 - Cities XL (release date)
Early 2010 - APB

Loading... Daily

We all have our guilty pleasures. For the past week or so, mine's been CrimeCraft. Last night I finished up the requisite 20 hours we try and play before giving you our first impressions of a game, and despite the poor reviews the game has been getting (both outside and inside the game - the chat channel gets pretty rowdy), I found a surprising amount to like about the game. I know many of you have already made your mind up about the game, which is fine. We aren't running any CrimeCraft advertising, my impressions haven't been bought and paid for (none of our opinions ever are, it's just rare to have an opportunity to prove it). I couldn't even get a review copy of the game. So here it is, my totally and certifiably unbiased look at CrimeCraft.

First, some disclaimers. Other "persistent world shooters" straddle the fence between multiplayer shooter and MMO. CrimeCraft has some MMO attributes - crafting, an auctionhouse, customizable weapons and clothes (and styles that range from cowboy to ninja to rainbow pride hoodlum, no joke). But the core gameplay of CrimeCraft is 100% PvP shooter, with two PvE-only formats (Stockpile, a race to gather supplies from enemy bots, and Safeguard, defending a weapons cache from waves of NPC attackers) and a mission arc designed as a concession to co-op only gamers.

While you can stick to co-op for the bulk of the game, the real fun is in PvP. But make no mistake: if you go PvP, you will die often at the hands of other, better players. If your ego can't handle it; if you're prone to justify your lack of skill with long general chat tirades about the injustices of lag, hacks, cheats, and griefs (I haven't really encountered any evidence of these personally), you'll find an audience but probably not a lot of fun in CrimeCraft. Like any shooter, you have to do your time to develop your character and your playing skills to get better.

The good: This is a lobby-and-instance shooter, but the lobby is a fairly fleshed-out and interactive city environment where combat is prohibited. The pace for the first 15 levels is just about perfect - you breeze through your first seven levels with tutorial missions (heavy on the fed-ex tasks) that are a nice break from the craziness of your first few instances. Assuming you've saved up your money and skill points, you can then select a specialized weapon (light machine gun (lots of magazine capacity), sniper rifle, rocket launcher, and grenade launcher), which takes your game to a whole other level. The "jobs" system, which allows you to select 25 achievements from hundreds and customize your rewards to the kind of game you want to play, is fairly brilliant. My only quarrel with it is that too many of the newbish jobs and one of the missions are team-dependent (e.g. winning Safeguard three times in a row while ungrouped requires the kind of teamwork you typically don't find in a pickup group). The skill system is pretty cheap to roll back too, should you find you made some bad choices.

Customizing weapons, specialized ammo (you don't have to buy regular ammo, but the specialized ammo / magazine size that you purchase makes a significant difference in combat), and crafting is easy to get into and offers the same tweak-happy experience of the skill system and jobs system. Do you toss a new scope and stock onto your sniper rifle to improve accuracy and reduce recoil (making the second shot more accurate), or attach a new module and trigger to improve damage and reload time? It depends on how trial and error. Unfortunately you can't remove a modification you out-level or dislike once it's been attached; you'll have to buy a new weapon (we've got to keep the crafters employed, I suppose).

The relative lack of matchmaking was another pleasant surprise. Even though a level 40 is more likely to take out your level 20 than the other way around (while you both have the same number of ability slots to take into the instance, he or she's got more abilities to choose from and can select slightly better weapons and armor), I've facerolled my share of much higher level characters in the short time I've been playing.

Of the various game modes / formats, I'd have to say I enjoy Turf War (where two teams sequentially capture one to five points on soem very well-balanced maps) and Robbery (each team has a safe - you have to fight your way to the other team's safe, steal their money, and return it to your safe) the most. Shootout (team deathmatch) maps have a lot of wide-open spaces and seem to inordinately favor snipers and rocket / grenade launchers. That's not a problem if you're a high level player and can easily switch out weapon types to suit the match format, but at the lower levels you're probably stuck with one specialized weapon type. That can put you at a disadvantage on some maps, but you can carry three weapons into every match (specialized weapon, a shotgun / assault rifle, and a pistol / submachine gun).

The bad: Right off the bat you'll find that the process of joining a match is extremely unintuitive. You talk to a match NPC or pull up the screen on your UI (granted, CC does get you into the action quickly) and join the match, then have to hit tab to close the screen and "u" to join the match when it goes active. That's two too many steps. Sometimes it does take a moment for the instance to spin up, but it would be nice to be able to use that time on a "gear up" screen. Too often I find myself with the wrong weapons, gear, and abilities for the instance, and a quick loadout screen in place of the "Preparing..." message at the top of the screen would be helpful.

Common loot drops seem frighteningly out of balance. I've looted scores of "ruined attachments" (you get random loot at the end of every mission, substantially more if you've picked up the "Looter" skill), but as an engineer, the core component of my newb recipes is "junk scraps," of which I've hardly found any. The trade channel is constantly scrolling with "WTB [component that sounds ridiculously common]" messages. On the bright side, you can sell just about any non-gray loot at the auctionhouse for highly inflated prices at the moment, meaning that as a new player you probably won't be broke if you can stay away from the NPC vendor except for grays and clothing components.

If you picked up the game at Best Buy, as I did, you got a $5 card in the box and maybe saw some cards in larger denomenations on the rack. This money buys gold bars or game time ($5 = 100 gold bars = 1/2 month of game time? I'm still confused on this one), but gold bars only buy you cosmetic upgrades (clothing and paint schemes for weapons). The clothing doesn't have stats, and even though you can "buy" the stats from a piece of clothing you don't like, it's expensive, and you're probably better off just buying something that looks decent and has the stats you want while you're leveling up. Being a cheapskate, I'm currently stuck with a teal, tight-fitting T-shirt, cargo capris, and hi-tops, complete with a forest green do-rag. Needless to say, even at level 17 I'm not wild about my look, but it gives me the best stats for what I can afford.

The ugly: The population indicator on the login screen has got to go. With one realm active and between 250 and 500 players active every time I've logged in, you might get the sense that CrimeCraft is an empty world. In truth, I've never not been able to get into a format that I've wanted to get into, and the world doesn't feel empty at all, especially if you stick around Oceanside (one of the three city / hub zones).

A lot of players openly question the monthly subscription model, and with the rampant advertising, I'm inclined to agree with them. I don't mind ads, but we've always been believers in the either / or approach - either you charge a monthly subscription or you show ads. That's the case with our network and we're sticking to it. If Vogster makes good on their promise to add ridiculous amounts of new content to the game on a monthly basis, maybe that's another story. Otherwise it might have been best for this style of game to go with the Guild Wars model on this one - just make your money on word of mouth and slow growth into the millions.

Many complained about the graphics during open beta. CC uses Unreal Engine 3, not the cheapest solution by any means, and it looks fine (to me) if not staggeringly next-gen stunning at the highest resolution. Just remember 1) that this is an online shooter and graphics should naturally come second to performance, and 2) to boost your resolution from the default 1024x768.

All in all, if the price point had been $39.99 (instead of $49.99) with more of a Guild Wars style or micro-transaction driven model rather than a confusing monthly subscription scheme, I'd say this is one you have to pick up if you have any interest in persistent world shooters. Even so, the jobs, skills, weapons, and levels / character development aspects of CrimeCraft are potently addictive. Personally, despite the low population numbers, I feel that the game has a lot of potential, particularly as a fun, distracting "game between games," and hope this one sticks. I liked Fury, though, and we all know what happened to that one.

Played it? Any interest? Any questions I might be able to answer? Should Ten Ton Hammer form a gang? Take your thoughts and quesitons to our Loading... forum.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our Articles, News and Events Discussion forum

Wedding Package Images from the Station Marketplace

With Champions Online fresh out of the gate and Aion heading into the home stretch another epic thread related to either of those two games would seem apropos today. But I couldn't resist going off the beaten path when I saw our news post about EverQuest's new Station Marketplace Wedding Package. Now, when your avatars want to get married in EQ, you can share your special day, complete with a pair of wedding rings and a cake, with all your friends in your own "personal wedding zone." You can choose a light or dark theme...and even select which flowers appear in vases around the zone. Don't believe me? We've got screenshots.

Is this a little over the top? Personally, I'd say it is. And yet, EverQuest is what it is primarily because it engendered an atmosphere of community. In fact, a couple of my guildmates met in EQ, married in the real world, and proceeded to spawn children. And it seems many of us know similar stories.

Is SOE's wedding package too much? Is it not what MMO gaming is about, or is it exactly what MMO gaming is about? Have your say!

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Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

"Anyone try to marry their avatar yet?"

- AngryBeaver
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Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

6 new MMOG home-grown articles today! 10 in September! 952 in 2009!

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EverQuest Wedding Package Images from the Station Marketplace
Fortune and fancy have knocked on the door, and the Ten Ton Hammer staff has been granted an inside look at some upcoming content for Everquest, specifically the Station Marketplace's Wedding Package. Ever since its launch in 1999, EverQuest has continued to explore the intricacies of social gaming. One of the most interesting aspects of this initial movement was the in-game weddings that sprouted up as couples, both virtual and real, tied the knot in the lands of Norrath. With ten years of experience under their belts, Sony now introduces a special wedding package that can purchased with Station Cash to further enhance your special moment.
Aion Images Detail Westernized Character Options
Aion open beta is less than a week away when players can finally experience Aion as a complete game. Along with addition of quite a bit more content included with the 1.5 version, players will also enjoy various features that have undergone westernization and these screenshots are a taste of what is to come! The screenshots show, in gorgeous detail, some of the new faces and hairstyle option that will be available during character creation. With so many customization options, fans will be pleased to see that now there are even more ways to create your toon in the way that you want!
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Giveaways:

(NEW) Earth Eternal Closed Beta Giveaway
Earth Eternal, the browser-based free to play MMO that features 22 unique animal races and novel features like customizable habitats called "groves," has just entered closed beta, and Sparkplay has kindly a number of closed keys for Ten Ton Hammer viewers. Plus, every person that is logged into the game at 5pm PDT (GMT+8) this Thursday will receive a limited edition “Beta Beast” banner for their character! For details and instructions on how to start testing out Earth Eternal, follow the link above.
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