We commented on how the east might be
running out of MMORPGs
to export in our article on April 1st.
style=""> That might be because the
companies are
producing more and more F2P shooters instead of MMOs.
Rockhippo Productions throws their hat into
the ever expanding ring with Microvolts, a simple shooter with almost
as much
visual customization on your character as Team Fortress 2 has hats.
style=""> But is the game as deep,
detailed, or even
enjoyable as its customization features?
At its core, Microvolts is a fast
deathmatch game, with the
notable feature of everyone spawning with all of their weapons.
style=""> Everyone has a melee
weapon, rifle, shotgun,
heavy machine gun, grenade launcher, sniper rifle, and rocket launcher.
style=""> Your standard game modes
are present such as
capture the battery (flag), deathmatch, team deathmatch, and a little
crazy
mode known as Item Match where everyone drops a super power up on death.
style=""> Everything from full heals
to temporary
invulnerability and double damage drops, so its not uncommon to see a
player
massacre a whole team effortlessly with a good chain of power up drops.
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style="font-style: italic;">Perhaps the most fun mode is
Close Combat, which allows melee weapons only. You still have
to deal with horrendous hitbox and lag issues, but you don't give a
damn because you're beating people with chainsaws and shovels.
One of the core mechanics of a good
multiplayer shooter are
the maps. The
setting for Microvolts is
miniatures fighting on household items and in mini forts, and while
fighting on
a dishwasher is certainly unique, the maps have awful design on the
whole. Spawn points
on some maps are horribly close
to each other, while other maps have far too much space on them.
style=""> Some paths can take
upwards of 30 seconds to
get from your spawn to a point youre on the enemys side of the map.
style=""> Instead of creating
elements or objects that
would propel you in a direction, little green circles with arrows on
them
catapult you across the map in places.
Why isnt it a Spoon catapult?
There are multiple different types of
each weapon available,
but each one is a tiny increase, and purchasing one with the currency
earned in
game doesnt get you it permanently.
Much like every other free FPS, these transactions are
mere rentals. Unlike
those other games, the function is
damn near identical with only a smidge more damage or fire rate, making
the
currency useless for upgrading weapons.
They even look horribly generic, so you cant even warrant
it by saying
you look cool.
Instead of spending money on
upgrading weapons, youll
likely spend it on decking your avatar out with ridiculous clothes and
parts. You choose
from 4 different
avatars and each one has a large variety of tops, bottoms, accessories,
hair
styles, and all of these can affect your stats slightly.
style=""> So if you want to run
around in stockings and
twin pigtails, you can do that.
style="">You
can certainly make some interesting combinations of weapons and
clothes. Some are even level restricted, so you have to grind
to get blue clothes instead of red. They all give the same
stats, so like WoW mounts, you're just looking for a status symbol...
or to be an eyesore.
So how does it all play out when
everyone runs around in
ridiculous avatars, all with the same weapon options and some
lackluster maps?
Boring.
I dont know how they managed to do
it; oh wait, I do. Between
the anemic movement rates (even with
accessory upgrades!) , strange hitboxes, and ridiculously long
invulnerability on
spawn, the game just turns into a cluster of stupidity in each match.
style=""> The actual movement rates
feel slower due to
the fact that your characters legs move like a certain hedgehog at
full speed,
and you feel like youre moving at the rate of diseased livestock in
game. The
animations for everything from getting hit
to jumping are all artifacts from the last millennium.
And perhaps the greatest sin is the
netcode, the most
critical thing to get right in any shooter.
I have never had a game below 150 ping.
The server list shows a handful of servers with 20-40
ping, and I join
thesenope, 150.
style=""> If anyone has a bad case of
packet loss, they
teleport around being almost impossible to hit, which is frustrating to
say the
least. Even more
aggravating is the fact
that the lag just seems much worse than the number.
Aiming a shotgun in close quarters combat
feels like aiming with 500 ping, and there are so many times where two
people
will kill each other due to hitscan hits coming out as they die.
style="">
Can the presentation save this train
wreck? Sure, if you
like terrible elevator music, 10
year olds yelling silly taunts and voice work into a mic, and graphics
that are
about on par with the first Sims zoomed in.
The rest of us have long since moved on from this kind of
game. Even some
things seem to be lost in
translationafter you reach level 5, you can no longer join the newbie
servers. If you try
to join them, it
says Beginners cannot enter this server.
What? Other
offerings such as
Genesis A.D have pulled off the F2P shooter much more effectively, in
all
aspects.
Without some major overhauls in
almost all areas before it
goes live, Microvolts is microfun.
