Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

The contributing artists give amazing atmosphere to the plot and setting, setting BLEEDOUT apart from its competition easily.

Crime doesn't pay, unless we're talking about CrimeCraft, a futuristic MMORPG third-person shooter that has you killing for money whether it be NPCs or other players.  The game is free to play with a subscription option and cash shop. The expansion content, BLEEDOUT, is planned for 10 episodes, with the first being free, and successive being free to subscribers or available for purchase for a few bucks each for free players. The content for the expansion has much higher production values in the graphics with beautiful comic book style inks and a graphical novel tie-in to bring it all together, making it much more desirable compared to other paid content in other F2P MMOs.

Starting off as a humble thug, you work your way up the criminal ladder and gain a multitude of skills to slay foes, escort allies, and capture stolen goods.  Oh who are we kidding--you're the one doing the stealing half of the time.  You gain levels and with each level comes additional skill points to allocate to specialize in additional weapons, use a variety of explosives, defend yourself, and regenerate hit points lost in firefights.

Every quest starts from an NPC, though the NPCs can look awfully different than you'd expect from a standard MMO. You don't see yourself getting a quest from a payphone in WoW, now do you?  Almost every quest has you joining some form of an instance, but more along the lines of Warhammer's Public Quests.  Several players may be in an area, all with different objectives, but the enemies do not care and will attack everyone equally.  Spawns are rapid and can be unexpected or even frustrating as you get caught reloading.

Kills themselves during a quest only add to your score for the mission, which determines the amount and level of rewards you receive when you complete the quest or choose to leave.  Grinding isn't exactly feasible as a result, as you'll always need to be working on some form of quest to progress.  But even if you feel there are no more 'real' quests, there are always odd jobs to work on.  Odd jobs can be anything from killing 10 guys that use pistols, to killing 50 enemies using pistols of your own.  You can work on tons at a time and you'll find yourself completing them without even trying, giving you a little boost of XP and cash every time you hit up a payphone to check your progress.

Crafting is a mixed bag.  It's kind of hard to imagine a resource node popping up in the criminal underworld, so that system is out the window.  Now after selecting a profession, you can craft an item that enables you to collect vastly more drops of that type when you do an instance, kind of like WoW's system for tailors only moreso.  This leads to a lot less useless crap piling up in your inventory and is a welcome change on the whole--especially when you're a free player with only one bag of space

Cautions

This game is not ESRB Rated. There are some adult concepts and language in play, so be advised.

Gameplay

70Okay

NPCs are easily found using the in-game map and radar icons.  Since everyone is useful for something and you probably can't keep their names straight, this is important!

CrimeCraft's gameplay takes some getting used to.  Controls are just as you'd expect from any other shooter, with the ability to zoom in on targets and go for head shots for bonus damage.  However, RPG elements are still in play (read: level trumps skill) and you'll notice your weapons lose power beyond a certain effective range.  This leads to many a "What the hell?" moment where new players will headshot opponents at long range with pistols and rifles, doing little damage. Maybe in the near apocalyptic future, the weapons are Airsoft-powered.

One of the more interesting calls is the removal of jumping, period.  It's nothing to a Final Fantasy XIV player, but in a PvP-based shooter where mobility is critical, the lack of jumping can be pretty punishing. It's inexcusable to schlump through two feet of water until you find a wooden plank strategically placed to run up and out of the drink. However, instead of jumping, you can roll to cover ground and become less of a target for a split second.  This is no replacement for crime lords-a-leaping, though.

That said, when you get down to it, CrimeCraft's run and gun feels good.  Targeting is good and has minimal to no lag associated with it.  Enemy AI isn't too bad (high praise for an online, unscripted shooter) and will use cover, roll, and use special weapons on you with deadly accuracy.  The PvP is varied with several play types from other FPS games, and the maps are fairly balanced.  Capture point gameplay in particular felt just right--with spawn points being close to the action, but capture points taking a good while to convert to your team.  Everyone enjoys a good bloodbath!

I have to point out that you really need to put some time into CrimeCraft in order to get a feel for the real game and gameplay.  The prologue is long... very long.  It will take you a good ~2-3 hours to run through the entire tutorial start to finish, and that's not wasting any time.  That said, it can't help but do a good job of introducing you to most of the concepts and processes you'll go through to succeed and progress in the world of CrimeCraft. Now if only it could accomplish that without sapping my desire to play the game.

Once you've made a name for yourself, the expansion BLEEDOUT becomes available. Normally this isn't a big deal, but the production values are much higher in this compared to the base game, and sports a plethora of major improvements. Authentic looking comic book style graphics punctuate the tale dealing with the greed of man, giving the quests much more personality and compels you to go forward in them. Some much needed voice acting is also added into the mix, and it's all free to subscribers or only $2 per 'issue', or quest pack.

Graphics

70OkayOn high, the graphics of CrimeCraft are respectable. Visuals are nothing mind blowing and some of the textures are muddy, but the animations are solid and people blow up and collapse dead in a gratifying fashion. The graphics settings lack granular control, however, so if you have a card that has trouble with a specific feature such as anti-aliasing or high end shadows or water effects, you'll have to suck it up and run the whole game on low, which sours the visual appeal of the game a good bit. I was particularly disappointed with the effects of the rocket and grenade launchers, which have weak effects and tiny explosion radii. But one cannot ignore the beautiful hand-drawn comic book animation for the intros to the BLEEDOUT campaigns, and those give a much needed boost to the average for the game and its expansion.

Sound

80Good Sound is a mixed bag for CrimeCraft. The music plays its purpose, but lacks punch or any kind of epic feel to be memorable or even noticeable most of the time. Some weapons effects sound like they were recorded in a tin can, while the shouts of Berserkers holstering their weapons and charging at your face are colorful, varied, and perfect. Directional audio plays a big part in determining threats before they are visible or shooting you, and CrimeCraft does a good job of pulling it off, especially for a free to play game. The lack of any kind of real voice overs in game is a bit troubling, but typical for the F2P MMO genre--until you reach BLEEDOUT. Then you're treated to some quality voice work as well, which greatly helps the immersion and interest of most players.