Crosshairs, they’ve been in games for many, many years. They have assisted players in the death of millions upon millions of pixelated enemies. But in most recent years, they have been falling short, they’ve become wider and less helpful, reserved only for moments of spraying and preying…
Thankfully, Dirty Bomb has come to change this. Developed by Splash Damage, the same team responsible for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and BRINK, this group of ex-modders have finally shown players what it’s like to have a crosshair you can use at more than five feet.
In-fact, despite the games style of Mercenaries set in a disrupted London, Dirty Bomb more resembles old school arena shooters with its emphasis on fast movement and consistent aim rather than precise instant kill shots.
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“One thing that is nice about this game is that while teamwork is very important, it’s not difficult or cumbersome to be helpful.”
So while the art-style does appear to be a more on the generic side than Splash Damage’s previous release, gameplay-wise, it feels like a unique throwback that is only rivaled by the classics.
Currently the game features five maps and twelve MERCS with their own unique set of load outs. The game doesn’t have any “classes” per-say, but each of the Mercs all have abilities that may or may not overlap depending on the character.
For instance, Aura and Sawbonze are both medics, but Aura drops a health regen station where nearby friendlies can be healed; Sawbonze on the other hand has a simple health kit that can be given to teammates or himself.
One thing that is nice about this game is that while teamwork is very important, it’s not difficult or cumbersome to be helpful.
All abilities are attached to the Q and E keys, and they are quick to use. This makes it easy and means that teammates don’t have much of an excuse not to help out.
This being an online game though, there will always be a large number of jackasses who will find some way to be utterly worthless.
Those same people will probably be very disappointed to find out that at this time of writing, Objective and Stopwatch are the only modes available.
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” I do think some of their good ideas from BRINK should have been ported over, as well as that game’s art style, but sadly, that would most likely only diminish the player base due to BRINK’s lackluster reception.”
The five maps all do feel very similar with their objectives, and sometimes you can go for long stretches just sitting around and defending a single point for minutes on end; but for the most part, maps and Mercs are designed well enough to allow for flanking and tactics.
Weapon balance is impressive for a multiplayer shooter still in beta, but Splash Damage has proven themselves in the past and it’s always satisfying to take out multiple enemies at once, due to how tough each of the characters are. One on one firefights can be pretty intense when they go on for long periods of time, reminding me of Quake 3 or the recent Early Access game Reflex.
Gameplay wise, Dirty Bomb seems to be doing very well. I do think some of their good ideas from BRINK should have been ported over, as well as that game’s art style, but sadly, that would most likely only diminish the player base due to BRINK’s lackluster reception.
But there are two major items of concern, one that’s very predictable, so we’ll save that for last. First off, the server browser… it’s bad. There’s no other way of putting it, rather baffling just how unresponsive the server browser is. It’s also common to join a server that appears to be full on the browser, only to join and find that there are no players.
Lobbies also have a glaring omission, and that’s being able to access the in-game store or barracks, resulting in too many players leaving a server every time a match is complete, and forcing you to leave and go back to using the crappy browser.
Then there’s the micro-transactions. I understand that free-to-play is something that everyone has a different stance on, but I do feel Nexon has priced everything in this game too high and comes across as greedy.
The “Ultimate Starter Pack” which costs $33CAD, gives you five MERCS, 50,000 in game credits and two elite load out cases. Hmm. Well, that seems completely reasonable; that is until you find out that SMITE offers all 66 characters for a similar price.
If you want to buy a new MERC, you are looking at either spending 50,000 in game credits which will take forever, or, you spend $11CAD on one MERC and that is ridiculous.
It’s also very frustrating to have cases give you loadouts for MERCS you don’t have. Splash Damage have included a “Trade Up” system that lets you trade in cards you can’t use towards a loadout for a MERC you have, but this brings up the question of why would you give the player a card they can’t use unless they spend money to begin with?
Oh right, it’s so they can manipulate a devoted player into blowing a $100 dollars on a game that shouldn’t be priced half that.
The thing that’s most frustrating of all, is that this greedy system is put into a game that I am very much enjoying, Dirty Bomb has lots of potential and serves as a great return to form for old school team-based shooters. I’m just hoping it doesn’t make the same mistake as Blacklight and drive me away thanks to its greedy, money grubbing corporate heads.
***A preview code was provided by the Publisher***
