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Despite only three guns currently in the game, members of the development team hinted at more weapons to be introduced to the initial selection. A larger selection of guns would have been appreciated, especially a close quarters weapon. Perhaps a shotgun could make it into the game before it’s released? Choosing from the three weapons at hand, I selected the rocket launcher and waiting for the rest of the group to join the battle. I knew a thing or two about FPSes, and I figured I could hold my own in a deathmatch.  I was wrong.

The battlefield combat in Warmonger is absolutely terrifying. My initial rounds were spent in an abandoned subway complex that was a labyrinth of tunnels. I decided to be one of the Attackers, and I went traipsing across the battlefield, my rocket launcher in hand, I felt very safe initially, until the brick wall in front of me blew inwards and an enemy stepped through, chaingun at ready. I had no chance. Although the subway tunnel was not yet optimized – the developers noted that many of the walls weren’t collapsible yet – there was still an immense sense of fear in the entire escapade. Ceilings, walls, and other obstacles could be destroyed and dropped on an unsuspecting foe. It was madness.

The subway scenario had us fighting in close quarters.

When we moved onto the parking garage scenario, I thought I had gathered my bearings enough to make an actual assault on the Defenders and try to run their flag to the base. Despite my confidence, I found myself in an even worse plight than I had been in previously. Nearly all of the walls in the parking garage were destructible, and no place was safe for me to hide with the flag. The attacker soon became the attacked.

Once the sheer shock of the destructible environments wore off, I was able to truly appreciate the sort of strategies and tactics employed by the individuals who had previously played through this level. Instead of just standing watch by their “base”, the Defenders eliminated several key stairwells that would permit an Attacker quick and easy access to their base.

By destroying the stairs, the Defenders bottlenecked the Attackers into coming up the wide-open, sloping stairwell. The Attackers continually were unable to advance the flag due to poor team coordination and the lack of any sort of cover on the ramp. We could take out one or two individuals, but the third and fourth Defenders would spring up in their place and gun us down. While we could blast through walls to advance our flag faster, the single car ramp bottleneck halted our ascension completely.

In both the subway and the parking garage levels, the back-and-forth dynamics of the team-based gameplay was easily discernible. Both the Attackers and the Defenders could use the destruction in their levels to open up new pathways to victory. In the subway, the Attackers could overwhelm their opponents early on, as much of the area looped and there is little room to move in the tunnels. However, in the parking garage, the Defenders clearly had an advantage when they destroyed the stairs and eliminated the shortest path to victory.

In the parking garage your opponents can come at your through the ceiling!

Although in previous interviews, the NetDevil team had suggested that a fully destructible environment was available - where buildings could collapse on the players - that sort of gameplay wasn’t evident in our builds. However, this is probably more from a restriction in lighting than the actual physics of the barriers. According to one member of the development team, the dynamic lighting necessary to destroy that much of a building hasn’t been completely ironed out, but it is expected to be revised very shortly.

Even without the ability to pull a building down on an enemies head, the NetDevil team has truly achieved something fantastic in this early build of Warmonger. Instead of the standard duck-and-cover techniques found in many modern shooters, NetDevil and AGEIA have developed a game where cover isn’t an absolute, and gamers may risk more by hiding than they do when the openly attack their enemies. Once destructible environments are thrown into the equation, new strategies and tactics open up for the players.

Given a few more months of development and a bit of shine-and-sheen, NetDevil and AGEIA will have a remarkably refreshing game on their hands. Fear and strategy will again enter the equation of the first person shooter, and the future may forever change for FPS gamers everywhere.

Ten Ton Hammer is your unofficial source for Warmonger news and features!

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