RATINGS:

Graphics: 6
Gameplay: 6
Sound: 6

Overall: 6

Pros: Interesting mix of giant flame-throwers & martial arts style acrobatics like Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon.

Cons: Everything feels a bit dated for a modern TPS.

                                                                                                                   

We recently had a glimpse into the 3rd-person shooter MMO GunZ 2: The Second Duel, the follow-up of the original GunZ, which is published by ProSiebenSat.1. We were able to try out one of the four different characters, participated in a team deathmatch to experience combat and also generally looked around in game to get to know what was at offer.

When logging in to the game, we honestly have to admit that our initial feeling was far from being positive, as you are instantly taken into a windowed mode, which we were unable to change, where you can access the game lobby as well as your characters. This is not much of a game breaker but painful when you have to record. With the character selection screen, we noticed a few graphic bugs that looked as if background textures were badly loaded while the character bio texts were uncomfortable to read due to the window’s transparency. Maybe that’s not that terrible in the end, however, it’s something we would have accepted in an alpha version, but with a fully launched title?

There are four different characters you may choose from, each with their own style of play and unique attack abilities. For we weren’t able to try out any of them, we just opted for the shield trooper "Max" and his riot shield. Once we selected our first character for free, the others became unavailable and could only be unlocked with a specific amount of in-game currency. While we perfectly comprehend the developers’ decision, we also see the issue that you won’t have any options left in case your initial choice turns out to not being able to satisfy you.

We were then taken into an optional tutorial mode that introduced us to the fundamentals of moving around, to combat and the core acrobatics, e.g. dashing through the air or running up walls. The tutorial initiates the first part of the campaign mode, in which you are able to play through a variety of PvE levels, the heart of the game, however, is evidently made up of the different PvP options.

Players have different gameplay options at their disposal - practice mode, normal and ranked mode -each of which offers 3 game types to choose from: a classic team deathmatch where 2 teams of 4 players each compete for 15 min against each other to reach a specific score and win the match, followed by team elimination, most probably a fast-paced match in which you have to obliterate all opponent players to prevail, and finally "Time Assault", of which we didn’t get the foggiest idea, for there weren’t any evident hints popping up. As the majority of users seemed to prefer the team deathmatch mode, we only got the chance to experience that one.

So off we went into the match, which was indeed, as we honestly have to admit, pretty enjoyable. The ability to run up and along walls adds a neat dynamic to the gameplay and, depending on the level you’re currently playing, can be particularly helpful to get around. Proudly advertised as one of the rather game defining features, we didn’t have the impression that it actually contributed that much to combat, though.

Combat itself is fast-paced and quite frantic but our shield trooper unfortunately seemed to be light prey for some of the other classes. He obviously wasn’t able to remain standing any longer than any of the other characters and, imagine, could even kill as fast as some others either. However, we were restricted to our initially selected class and therefore had to bite the bullet and cope with the situation.

Combat in GunZ 2 is quite simple, which doesn’t inevitably mean that’s something bad, as players won’t feel overwhelmed with too much to do. They do have options though, being able to customise gear, weapons and abilities of their characters. From what we could see, the level design is quite nice and makes for some neat intense encounters, although regarding the graphics, we don’t feel the MMO is quite as up to par as a recent client-based shooter could/should be (it doesn’t look a lot better than some browser-based shooting MMOs).

All in all, it was an interesting experience and worth to give it another shot to play as a part of a cooperative team for our character felt quite pointless with his shield able to protect from damage but hindering him to quickly change to his weapon of choice to ever defeat an opponent.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2014 at 6:36 pm and is filed under MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Puedes dejar una respuesta, o un trackback desde tu sitio web.