Fox's Second Opinion: Exteel (PC)

[Fusion]

GOing back and redoing a review because I got to take a deeper (and better) look at the game thanks to the acquisition of a far more powerful computer.

Exteel is a mech-based MMO like Gunbound, Gunz and such where the gameplay is entirely arena based and is mostly PvP.  Though, there are a few concepts that were used in First-Person Shooters.  This game, sadly, looks interesting but plays like complete crap no matter how you play it.  But, at the very least, I was wrong about the poor mouse control.

My opinions on the Graphics and Sound of Exteel stand unaltered, this is merely a Gameplay section revision, and that's what this second opinion will cover.

*Warning: Bitching ahead*

My first complaint is with the stupidest radar system ever.  To be able to look at it strategically, you have to be in a low resolution, and the radar is not customizable, and by the time you actually SEE an enemy on radar you're pretty much screwed over in terms of actually being able to do something.  If you're gonna have a radar that doesn't do jack shit for you tactically, then why the hell would you have it in the first place?

Your weapons fire not as you click, but as you hold and they fire in specific salvos for some strange reason.   You -have- to fire 4 bullets from an SMG, not just 1.  You can't control your firing like that.  You really can't!  Seriously, I've killed an enemy, let go of the mouse and my guns kept firing for a good 2 more seconds at least.  That's not lag, that's horrible coding.

The sword type weapons are both crap and cheap and the same time.  When you slash, there's this incredibly long delay between your slashes and when you can actually attack again.  SO if you wanna try to slash & shoot at the same time, you're screwed because you can't do both at the same time!  Not to mention that when you're actually hit by a blade, you're brought to a dead stop, so it ruins any escape attempt.  Not only is that the cheap part, it's also defying the laws of physics.

It's like playing as Zero in Megaman X7 only when he slashes, he slashes too fast for it to be effective at all.

Why do I say the sword type weapons are crap and cheap?  Because they have an overheat guage.  YES, A FREAKING PIECE OF SOLID METAL OR AN ENERGY BLADE CAN SOMEHOW OVERHEAT!  I can understand the overheat for the guns, but SINCE WHEN HAS A SWORD OVERHEATED JUST BY SWINGING IT AROUND!?  It's like a Katana that catches on fire after you swing it just 3 times and for some reason you have to wait for it to cool down before you can attack again!  Get rid of the damn stopping when you get slashed, and get rid of the damn sword overheat.  Maybe then blades would be easier and more fun to use.

Better yet, the game badly needs an overhaul in programming.  You frequently hear you've been locked on to, but the problem is the game never tells you from where, and when you do find out it's because whoever targeted you has already fired!  You're pretty much just screwed at that point because the actual hit detection is just pure crap, the guns never STOP firing and never start missing realistically.  You can fly behind a wall and still get hit by gunfire coming from the other side of that wall.

Also, whoever thought up the Auto-balance system needs to be shot.  Why?  Because it is by far the most UNBALANCED system ever.  It puts the skilled all on one team, and the skill-less all on another team.  That's right, in Territory Control and Team Deathmatches, you'll usually find yourself paired up with the worst team you could imagine and find that they're all rookies.  Why?  Auto-balance balanced the teams in favor of the higher level players, not in actual terms of skill.  There wasn't an equal balance of skilled & not-skilled players vs. the same.

Fortunately, the only good parts of the game are the things that don't actually help the damn gameplay to begin with.  Team Deathmatches, if you're lucky and get on the WINNING team, can net you up to 1,000 or so Credits.  These credits can be used to buy new parts and new weapons, though it's highly suggested that you save up for weapons and forget about your Mechanaught, because you'll need all the firepower you can get if you even want to have a hope of surviving anything at all.

Maybe I should just invest in NCCoins, buy one of those NCCoin-only Mechanaughts & parts and see how that tweaks things around for me.

Then again, I'll still be stuck with the team that sucks.