Developer: DONTNOD ELEVEN
Publisher: DONTNOD ELEVEN
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
BATTLECREW Space Pirates – Review
In the current day and age it sometimes feels that the simple side-scroller shooter is forgotten. With the graphical capabilities that the present brings us why keep fighting on a small field with limited view some may ask. Now these games were for their time very fun and simple to play. This does make us believe that the developers of BATTLECREW Space Pirates are a bit homesick and want to honor the classic days with a fresh title.
Story
In BATTLECREW Space Pirates your goal is to become a rich and skillful pirate, which is done by completing online matches in one of the two available modes. Since this is just a no brains shooter, there is an absence of a real story, which is not really necessary for a game such as this but it would have been fun to have some background on the characters and why they became pirates.
Graphics
The developers wanted to show that a two-dimensional game could look as good as their bigger brothers, so they did their best to create a nice looking title. While the characters all boast cool looks and uniforms, they also add personality by reacting on various situations during combat. The battlegrounds tend to be darker to remind us of older shooters like Quake or Unreal Tournament with the mixture of space and arena settings.
Sound
As a shooter that looks back to the old days it does this well with the mixture of a good action tune and a charismatic announcer reporting in what is happening on the field. Although the music might not pump the adrenaline on full power, the gameplay surely will. In the hub zone there is a pretty nice tune to get you in the pre-game mood.
Something else that is respected are the great sound effects that the characters and weapons make. Each warrior has a few voice lines that can be unlocked and enjoyed. This all brings back the feeling of playing that great Quake match again. This helps distinct your opponents and plan your approach.
Gameplay
BATTLECREW: Space Pirates is a side-scrolling 2D platformer shooter that has great potential to become a fun title, but with the game only having two modes at the current time, things become repetitive rather fast. Goldrush is an intense team based mode where you need to collect gold from a cache and bring it back to your base, but there is a catch. The entrance is blocked by lasers, so you will need a teammate that stands on a button so you can pass, and on his turn deactivate them from the other side. With real players this is quite okay to play, but the game also supports bots to fill the slots, and these bots are notorious for either working against you or to get stuck somewhere in the middle of the map. When there are not enough players currently in the lobby a countdown will stretch some time for players to join. In Team Deathmatch it is the goal to get to the set score first or have the most points within the time limit.
In the main menu, that is actually an open lobby where you can see other players, don’t be intimidated by the fellow pirates as you can start by learning the ropes in the tutorial mode. After having done this, you return and it is time to set foot into the universe. Finding your way around the lobby is pretty easy as there are loads of signs placed to guide new people around and jump platforms will transport you to the right location. A special sort of changing room is installed on the ground floor. Here is where you can select other heroes and customize them. These rooms are also found in the countdown time of a match. Currently there are four heroes available but more are bound to be released. Although most of them are well balanced there is one character that is so underbalanced that no one decides to use her. What makes these different heroes unique is their personal weapon and special moves.
To control the game you have two options: go classic with mouse and keyboard or play with a supported controller. In the early build there was an absence of a crosshair for mouse and keyboard users, luckily the developers decided to patch this and added one, this makes controlling the game with both options fun and accurate.
To aid you in your quest you do get to use some really sweet superpowers. Some characters have the offensive abilities to shoot rockets while others tend to have a more defensive setup so they make space great again and build a wall! The unique abilities are character based, but you also have a few pickups that each character can use and these will, for example, give a short boost or a shield to name a few.
Conclusion
Comparing this from its early build there have been a few improvements but still much work to be done. Not as much content has been added, only skins and more emotes and this is a shot in the foot in some purists’ eyes. We can understand the story content-wise is but for a shooter it does needs more maps and modes. The current modes are a good way to keep us entertained for now and we are looking forward to the new content to make the experience better.
No Comments