For a genre that thrives on teamwork, skill, and getting large groups of players to tap away at their mice and keyboards until the wee hours of the morning, shooters have had surprisingly little luck making the transition to the MMO space. So to a genre dominated by elves, more elves, and a plethora of candy-colored free-to-play offerings, Vogster Entertainment brings CrimeCraft, an upcoming PC shooter with a massively multiplayer twist.
Dubbed a "Persistent World Next-Gen Shooter" (PWNS, get it), CrimeCraft attempts to blend the quest- and experience-based MMO genre with the twitch-centric gameplay of third-person shooters. It follows the story of Sunrise City, a penal colony built to house ne'er do wells after a cataclysmic economic collapse. Violence rules the day, and numerous gangs have risen to power. In the midst of all this turf-warring and general chicanery comes your character, yet another prisoner just trying to scratch out a living.
I had a chance to take a look recently, and while the game is still in closed beta, it's shaping up to be quite an interesting hybrid.
The world of Sunrise City is built on the Unreal 3 engine, and as a result is gorgeous. Three distinct neighborhood-hubs will serve as lobbies for up to 500 players to congregate. While they are expansive, their purpose is to give players a venue to meet-and-greet, and have been designed to prevent forcing them to jog countless virtual miles when all they really want to do is get to the next fight. I was told that while there would only be three lobbies per server at the game's launch, a growing player base could result in the addition of extra lobby-neighborhoods, giving players more room to roam.
Players won't be able to engage in combat while they're in the lobby, but there will be plenty of other things to keep them busy. CrimeCraft is an MMO, so all of the traditional conceits apply -- you'll find NPC traders, auction houses, and quest-givers. Guilds are replaced by Gangs, but they serve the same purpose. Players can work together with friends to complete missions or just take on other gangs, with leaderboards in place for players to see where they rank within their gang, and where their gang ranks globally.
Combat in CrimeCraft is instanced, and follows the traditional shooter templates. You'll have your standard deathmatches, in addition to variations of King of the Hill and Capture the Flag modes, to name a few, all with a gang-warfare twist: "guarding a weapons cache" replaces "holding a control point," for example. You won't be able to customize any of the instances, however, as that would likely disrupt the game balance.
Fighting is standard shooter fare, with all of the standard weapons thrown in: assault rifles, shotguns, rocket and grenade launchers, etc. In fact, once you've entered an instance it's pretty hard to tell you're even playing an MMO, until you're back in a lobby, or have to turn in a quest. It's hard to judge just how the combat will ultimately play out, but combat moves at a fairly brisk pace, with a heightened focus on squads of players moving together.
CrimeCraft is still a full-fledged MMO, so you'll have to deal with levels, experience points, and loot. Kill an enemy (an NPC or another player) and they'll drop randomly generated objects that can be sold, equipped, or used in crafting. You won't lose any of your own equipment should you fall in battle, but there will be wear and tear that will require repairs. And at the end of every instance, players will be ranked based on their performance, and then assigned cash and experience points.
Quests are achievement based, and a player can complete them regardless of whatever instance they're currently running to earn cash and experience points. While you will run into the occasional delivery job, missions will typically include things like killing a certain number of players in a single match or without dying, or ranking first in a particular combat instance.
As you level up, you'll gain access to new items and skills that can help give you an edge in combat. These can range from grenades to cloaking devices, and players can carry up to three different abilities into combat. A player who has reached the level cap will have a slew of traps and equipment at their disposal, but as the game is skill-based, a good player with a brand new character won't have much to worry about.
There are no classes in CrimeCraft, but certain combinations of weapon and abilities are a no-brainer -- a player equipped with a sniper rifle would likely find more use for landmines than Molotov cocktails. As you only get three, choosing the right equipment before a match will be crucial. Leveling up nets you attribute points you can assign to gain and improve various abilities, but you can't pick them all -- fortunately, indecisive types will be able to redistribute all of their skill points as often as they'd like, by talking to particular NPCs. Abilities are all subject to a cool-down period, preventing players from repeatedly using the same item without crippling them with a limited supply. You'll also never run out of your weapon's default ammunition, though you can build or buy a limited supply of special ammo, with improved effects.
Some of the loot you collect can be used to customize weapons and equipment, which might mean making your clothing a bit more resistant to bullets, or altering the characteristics on your favorite weapons. Modifications can introduce drawbacks -- increase the rate of fire on your sniper rifle, and you'll do a lot less damage. There will also be more utilitarian changes, like improving the recoil on a gun, or extending the magazine so you can fire more shots before reloading. If you're not into crafting, you'll be able to purchase items from other players either on the street or through auction houses, or just ask a friend to help you out.
Crafters will also be able to dabble in cooking up "performance enhancers." These pharmaceutical goods temporarily enhance your abilities, but there's a catch: if a player creates an enhancer with sub-par components, its effects will be inferior. The twist is that a customer will only be able to gauge the effects of a product by actually using it. I'm predicting many colorful conversations surrounding these enhancers, as players try to determine which back-alley vendor is peddling quality wares, and which have been cutting their stuff with baking soda and charging the premium rate.
A release date for CrimeCraft hasn't yet been nailed down, and a pricing structure wasn't being discussed, but the game is already looking pretty appealing. That being said, subscription-based MMOs tend to offer a great deal of content, and almost always involve a large world to explore. CrimeCraft, on the other hand, is structured around instanced combat that performs much like standard shooters with an RPG twist, and the average World of Warcraft junkie might find the game a bit lacking. Then again, the spirit of competition and gang rivalry, coupled with entertaining combat, could be enough to keep players enthralled.
That has potential, kind of like eve you'd have companies and merc groups, or you could even just go on missions for one of the armies. There's just so many options available to you in that game... this will be a worthless IP by the time it hits the shelves though.
