Smash and Grab Shows Serious Promise
United Front Games have been a bit quiet as of late, but they’re emerging on the scene with a new competitive game that focuses on beating the living heck out of your opponents and stealing as many goods as humanly possible. The idea may sound simple, but United Front has given Smash and Grab a fair bit of depth, and it’s worth keeping your eye on this promising multiplayer title for a couple of reasons.
First off, Smash and Grab is a fresh idea. It’s a mesh of third person combat that United Front proved they can handle with titles like Sleeping Dogs, and it provides players with their own AI-based squads that they use in tandem with their two teammates. Games are only featuring six real players, but each player has a lieutenant, who has a special skill and one of three specializations. They will also get to have a trio of goombas, so to speak. These three can be given a specialization as well, and can prove to be useful in combat, smashing and grabbing, or in providing support. Gang battles can quickly turn hectic in a visceral sort of way, and what turns into what may seem like Westside Story soon turns into a full on re-enactment of The Warriors. Combat is satisfying, and a mix of light, medium and heavy weapons, along with a range of firearms and other ballistic weapons allows players to pick their own sort of play-style, and these are further augmented by the variety in each Criminal we can play as.
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“Gang battles can quickly turn hectic in a visceral sort of way, and what starts like Westside Story soon turns into a full on re-enactment of The Warriors.”
Players have three different classes to pick from in Smash and Grab, filling their roles with Light, Heavy or Ranged weaponry. These three weapon types get split into various classes such as Berserker, Disabler, Fighter and Assassin. Some of these gang leaders excel at fighting, whereas others work great in hit and run encounters. One I was particularly fond of was Scatter, who was excellent at controlling the flow of fights with his ability, Crippling Shots. Slowing enemies allowed me to kite other players easier, and my crew was focused on melee, so I was able to sic my crew on them while my lieutenant kept them off of me. I was sitting rather pretty until a player using Doomchild, one of the Berserker class came barreling through my crew thanks to his passive ability where he was doing more damage the more he had taken. He is also rather sturdy, so Doomchild quickly became a major problem for me. My team helped mitigate this with some heavy damage of their own, but the fights in Smash+Grab aren’t purely chaotic. There’s a fair bit of depth in this title, and the customization of crews before each fight should help flesh out matches to be more than just simple mud-fights, although it’s difficult when you are outnumbered.
Combat is just one of the main focuses, though, and it isn’t your only way to make some serious moolah. You’ll do well enough kicking asses of other players, but the real prizes lie in the various shops you can rob. Some shops yield various crafting materials, allowing you to upgrade your weapons, whereas others just held major, major cash. The goal in each match is to get to $50,000, and this will be accomplished not purely by theft or by violence, but by a solid combination of both. If you loot various stores, you can inflate your cash, and if your leader excels in this skill, you’ll pile up the money even further. You can also go and tweak your leader further, thanks to a variety of customization options available to the player, such as weapons that either increase bleed damage or help speed up your looting. The cosmetic items don’t provide any advantage, but you’ll be able to make a criminal all your own, and in Smash and Grab, you’re going to want to leave your mark on the stores, and on your enemies.
