It has mechs. And it's free.
Within the gaming community, there's an ongoing joke that PC gaming is dead and that the only games that hit the platform now are buggy console ports. But PC gaming is going through a quiet renaissance. While consoles are now the home of the multi-million dollar blockbuster and the graphics wars still rage steadily between Microsoft and Sony fans, PC gamers have been playing games just as high-quality as their console counterparts for free.
Many of these games are MMOs, which for many people immediately adds the stigma of a "grind" or of an impenetrable fantasy setting with forest elves and magical rainbow-farting unicorns. While for some games that rings true, the MMO genre has been around long enough to branch out, splinter and embed itself elsewhere. This is where Blacklight: Retribution enters the story.
Many of these games are MMOs, which for many people immediately adds the stigma of a "grind" or of an impenetrable fantasy setting with forest elves and magical rainbow-farting unicorns. While for some games that rings true, the MMO genre has been around long enough to branch out, splinter and embed itself elsewhere. This is where Blacklight: Retribution enters the story.
Blacklight: Tango Down was a very cool downloadable shooter that came out last year on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and PC. It offered a lot of content for a reasonable price tag and, although it didn't have the most revolutionary shooter mechanics ever, the core was solid enough that the game still shone quite brightly. Developer Zombie announced a sequel was coming and then nothing more was heard. That is, until Retribution was shown to us.
Blacklight: Retribution is set in the same sci-fi universe as the original, with the many of the core mechanics of Tango Down, but it builds them into something that borders on MMO territory without making the leap. Players get experience and a currency for scoring kills and during usual gameplay actions. As players level up, they can spend points on a skill tree reminiscent of the sort of thing you'd see in an RPG. The currency can be spent to buy new weapons, armor and weapon customizations.
Players can customize every aspect of every weapon they get -- the stock, the barrel, the scope, the clip, everything -- to tweak how it fires, aims and recoils. Players can even tweak their secondary weapons, typically some sort of pistol, to the point where it resembles another assault rifle.
Blacklight: Retribution is set in the same sci-fi universe as the original, with the many of the core mechanics of Tango Down, but it builds them into something that borders on MMO territory without making the leap. Players get experience and a currency for scoring kills and during usual gameplay actions. As players level up, they can spend points on a skill tree reminiscent of the sort of thing you'd see in an RPG. The currency can be spent to buy new weapons, armor and weapon customizations.
Players can customize every aspect of every weapon they get -- the stock, the barrel, the scope, the clip, everything -- to tweak how it fires, aims and recoils. Players can even tweak their secondary weapons, typically some sort of pistol, to the point where it resembles another assault rifle.
Zombie says rather than have a class system they would like players to be able to customize their characters exactly how they would like to play them in the most situations. Stacking on some heavy armor and a powerful, rapid-fire weapon and you might lose some mobility, but they'll probably be able to provide a strong frontal assault. Or you could keep your gear light and equip some digi-grenades and other disabling weapons and act as a scout or assassin, keeping the enemy blind and only going in for a kill when it's safe. Or you can flip it around and be a fast-but-fragile machine gunner, or a lumbering, tanky sniper.
The flexibility of the customization even stretches to the mechs. Wait, I didn't mention the mechs? Oh, well, there are frickin' mechs. Technically they're called Hardsuits, and they're launched from a console for credits earned mid-match and fall from the sky to a location of your choosing. Then you can jump in and cause mayhem throughout the map. Even these Hardsuits can be tweaked with the ability to regenerate health or launch rockets. There are actually 12 different customizations that can be mixed and matched in five slots.
The flexibility of the customization even stretches to the mechs. Wait, I didn't mention the mechs? Oh, well, there are frickin' mechs. Technically they're called Hardsuits, and they're launched from a console for credits earned mid-match and fall from the sky to a location of your choosing. Then you can jump in and cause mayhem throughout the map. Even these Hardsuits can be tweaked with the ability to regenerate health or launch rockets. There are actually 12 different customizations that can be mixed and matched in five slots.
It all plays like the original, with sharp shooting mechanics and an emphasis on the HRV, which allows players to see enemies and key objects through walls. Reliance on the HRV becomes risky with the addition of HRV Decoys, however, which will project someone's figure to anyone using an HRV, potentially letting players set up ambushes. The HRV has also gained an extra utility -- Hardsuits can take a lot of fire normally but have specific weak spots that can be detected by the HRV.
It's all free, and like MMOs, Blacklight: Retribution will be going through a beta (likely in the last quarter of this year). Zombie plans to keep a regular update cycle for Blacklight: Retribution, with monthly updates and new maps on a bi-monthly basis. Zombie hasn't announced any specifics about its business model for Retribution, but it isn't farfetched to imagine something similar to Battlefield Play4Free's gun-rental model, where weapons (or perhaps just weapon components) can be purchased for varying lengths of time.
I don't usually get the craving to dive headfirst into free-to-play games all that often, but given the immediate fun that Blacklight provided me during the demo, as well as how pretty it is (it uses Unreal 3 with DirectX 11 compatibility), you can be sure I'll be there come beta time.
It's all free, and like MMOs, Blacklight: Retribution will be going through a beta (likely in the last quarter of this year). Zombie plans to keep a regular update cycle for Blacklight: Retribution, with monthly updates and new maps on a bi-monthly basis. Zombie hasn't announced any specifics about its business model for Retribution, but it isn't farfetched to imagine something similar to Battlefield Play4Free's gun-rental model, where weapons (or perhaps just weapon components) can be purchased for varying lengths of time.
I don't usually get the craving to dive headfirst into free-to-play games all that often, but given the immediate fun that Blacklight provided me during the demo, as well as how pretty it is (it uses Unreal 3 with DirectX 11 compatibility), you can be sure I'll be there come beta time.
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