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Fox's Review: S4 League (PC, F2P MMO)

Started by Fusion, November 24, 2008, 08:05:54 PM

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Fusion

International Release

S4 League, an MMO Arena Shooter not unlike GunZ, but also far from that.  Stylish eSper Shooting Sports, the 4 S words that make up S4 League... Though I don't see why having that as the explanation for the choice of 'S4' as title made any real sense.  On to the review.


(Graphics: 8/10):

Stylized is definitely a word to describe this game.  Characters with anime proportions and an anime drawing style with weapons not actually based off of common military equipment, fancy clothes and a overall futuristic appearance lend this game's graphical style.  The texturing wouldn't appear to be the best, though the lighting is what sets it off.  The graphics appear professionally done and I honestly think that this is one of the best looking Korean MMOs out there, even for a Third Person Shooter.  That's right, I said Third Person.

The only downside I can see is that certain graphical effects cause an unordinary amount of lag, but it's not often you'll deal with this kind of graphical lag at all.  It's also one of the few shooter where you can actually see where the bullets are coming from and strike back.


(Sound: 8/10)

AWESOME.  SOUNDTRACK.  Done by an actual DJ, the soundtrack to this game is actually quite amazing, and is shared between the international and Korean versions.  The major themes of the game are done in a rock\techno mix style.  Each piece of music is as professionally done as the graphics (to me) and is entertaining to listen to on it's own.  The weapons all have distinct and unique sounds to them, though every weapon seems to share hit sounds.  The only thing that could get annoying is the next thing I'll talk about: International Edition Voice Acting.

While they kept the original grunts and such from the Korean version, the voice acting was re-dubbed with cartoon-level quality, and the "death" cries were removed.  It sounds like someone trying to imitate Ryan Drummond's Sonic for the Males and just another girl voice for the female.  The difference is, the girl voice actually sounds close to the Korean voice actor's original.


(Gameplay 6/10):

S4 League is, at it's heart, a well-refined Third Person Shooter, with a viewing aspect from over the shoulder.  The tutorials seemingly take forever even though they cover the most basic but most important actions.  Every weapon has a specific purpose, though in some cases it feels like the weapon's original purpose is too specific to be useful.

There's also the problem of the worst lag compensation ever.  Sometimes you'll fight players who lag so much that you can absolutely murder them and they won't die, but it will take them 2 shots to kill you.  You know it's lag because you check his ping and it's 600+ ms.  Come on, lag abuse is just cheating.  Sometimes you'll get hit by de-sync, though rarely.  There was a time I could shoot a player who just appeared to be standing in one spot doing nothing aside from firing his weapon at nothing every now and then.  I was able to kill him, and he wondered how he was being killed so easily.

The Touch Down game mode is American football, but simplified into a Capture the Flag-esque game mode.  Two teams have to go for a ball in the center, and reach the other team's goal.  Killing the ball holder allows the other team to pick up the ball holder.  It all boils down to the strategy of the team there, though to be honest I've seen piss poor results from matches.  Such as people just letting an enemy flag holder go through.  The Team Deathmatch mode is just that, Team Deathmatch.

There is levelling in this game, but fortunately, the weapons don't have level requirements and their damage never changes.  You can choose from a set of "Skills", most of these skills use SP, and vary from just adding +30 to your health to being able to make you completely invisible or using a Hookshot-type tool to get to places fast.  Create a wall that enemies cannot pass through...  Brutal for TouchDown matches.

I'm not gonna comment on the game's economy because of one reason alone: The hosting company has did their best to fuck around with it so much.  I'm sorry, it takes away from the gameplay score if the provider screws around with the economy just so you'll buy shop points with your real cash.  For the price of some of those clothes, you could buy real clothes.


Overall ( 7/10 ):

S4 League is a shooter worthy of taking a look at, but you'd better learn some money management techniques if you intend to play with a fully clothed character.