For almost a year and a half, Friv5Online has mercilessly intrigued the entire gaming population of the planet. When the people who developed one of the best action films of our time promise a "revolution in the genre", they are involuntarily given credit of trust.
Until the release of Destiny, very little is left, and the veil of secrecy has practically disappeared. The developers talked about the plot, setting, locations. From the gameplay videos, it became clear how everything is played. The profile press has hung a number of labels, the most popular of which is the " Borderlands clone ". It only remained to wait for the July beta testing, but E3 presented an unexpected surprise - a preliminary closed alpha.
When you land in Old Russia for the first time, you find yourself in complete confusion. Every 200 meters there are caves and cellars leading to no one knows where, cargo containers are scattered, and wreckage of cars is lying around. And if you climb the hill, then you feel the scope even more: on the one hand, there is an airplane graveyard, on the other, the entrance to some rusting complex, on a hill in the distance there is a huge satellite dish. And everything must certainly be examined.
This is a normal, in general, situation for any crazy game: first check the left corridor, then the right one. Here and here, before going according to the plot marker, you go to some door nearby. In vain. Because it takes at least 15 minutes to get through a building filled with opponents. And this is not just a corridor, but a decent level of a "single-player" shooter: with arena rooms, constant forks, several floors.
Enemies do not let you breathe out. Everything about fighting is great here. The aliens hide behind the columns and flank them. They run away to sniper positions, climb hand-to-hand. They force them to constantly change their position and let the most tenacious ones go forward. And, unlike most shooters, they kill immediately, barely gape.
After a while we find ourselves in the fresh air. It is not clear where. There is another huge zone ahead, in the far corner of which five or six guards are shooting a huge tank. And there were no warnings that other gamers were joining the crazy game. These guys were really there all this time, and we were just passing by.
But duty calls - it's time to complete the quest. We make our way back through the already resurrected enemies. The speed of their revival seems to be too high. If this value is not adjusted for release, then the endless "grind" will become a big problem for the crazy game. Moreover, neither the location nor the composition of the detachments changes. Sometimes it comes to the ridiculous: you kill the guards at the entrance to the cave, open the chest inside, go out - and fight with them again.
In the meantime, we got to the entrance to the quest location. We stop for a second to admire the landscape, and we see, somewhere in the distance, several people going about their business. One runs up and waves his hand. Apparently, also on a quest - but as soon as you enter the building, you lose sight of each other. It was necessary to unite in the "party".
At the beginning of the quest, the player's companion, a small flying chattering robot, suddenly comes to life. He issues instructions, opens the front doors and warns: something is unclean ahead. As soon as you enter the room, new opponents, which we have not yet met in the crazy game, are thrown out from all sides according to the script. There are a lot of them, and they are overwhelming in number. Dynamic music starts to play, the robot above the ear shouts something like: "What are they doing here ?!" If they kill you, you start from the checkpoint. At the end, the "boss" is waiting. In general, this is a very typical level of any story-driven FPS.
When the stage ends, we are thrown into orbit. This is the main crazy game menu - a ship flying in the background of the Earth, and a button for choosing a landing site. A bunch of celestial bodies were available in trailers here, but now there are only three. And the system tells that it's time to go to Tower, the last colony of humanity.
Those who received the key from the alpha version were carefully invited by the developers to the closed site. It turned out to be surprisingly functional: all your activity can be viewed in the form of graphs, in-game achievements have been transformed into collectible cards, a guild system is available. None of this was in the crazy game itself. Whether this division will continue after the official release is unclear.
The camera moves behind the character's back, and the surrounding world becomes an exact copy of Mass Effect . If you remember what the Citadel looked like, then everything is the same here, only in miniature. Merchants stand behind the shelves of shops, smugglers have settled in the docks. One must think that someday some of those present will give out quests. While this is not, and there is nothing to do in the location. Nearly.
You can check your mail (which contains a welcome letter from Friv5Online) and take a couple of "challenges": kill 10 enemies from behind, complete the mission without ever dying. After that, the player is waiting - attention! - a dozen merchants. Some sell blueprints for items, others - weapons, others - "guns" of your class, the fourth - high-level armor, and so on.
Here, by the way, there is a very complex economy: the purchase is limited by some statuses, ranks, several types of currencies have to be spent, something can be done from the resources collected on Earth and parts of disassembled objects. A typical, in general, for MMORPG situation in a shooter looks wild.
There is time to deal with the inventory and role-playing elements. The outfit is classic - a bunch of clothing items whose coolness is determined by colors. "Green" things from active use can be "pumped": so, on the machine, over time, three options for sights become available. Moreover, items "fall out" extremely rarely: much more often they have to be bought in stores.
Weapons are divided into three classes. The basic one, the cartridges to which constantly drop out, are assault rifles and revolvers. Additional (shotguns, rifles, lasers) have more limited ammo. Finally, heavy weapons such as grenade launchers are generally used only on holidays.
As for the hero himself, not everything is clear yet. There are three classes: conditional warrior, scout and mage. They are virtually indistinguishable from each other: no weapon preferences or special bonuses. There are three types of additional attacks and, accordingly, three characteristics of the character: one is responsible for the speed of recovery of grenades, the second is for melee, and the third is for a destructive super strike. These techniques are "pumped" separately, depending on the frequency of use. A new level offers a choice of one new skill that you just need to click on. The subclass menu is generally locked. Probably, by level 20, this system will become clearer, but in the proposed version, it was impossible to rise above 8, and when playing for different classes, the difference is only visible.
After the quest, there are still two activities left: free exploration and Strike. But the last one opens at a certain level, so you will have to take a walk first.
This is probably the worst part of the crazy game, which is still puzzling. There are beacons scattered around the same location - side quests, for completing which they give a little experience. Tasks are divided into two types: "kill ten enemies" and "reach point B". It's so boring that there are no words, and because of the constant walking between different parts of the level, other players are rare. The only thing that saves you from senseless running around is the ability to summon a hoverbike at any time. Senseless driving at least faster.
Destiny can still be full of surprises though . Running out into the street, you see a strange guy who uses the wing of an airplane as a springboard for a hoverbike and beats against a rock with a swing. But as soon as you get closer, it becomes clear that he noticed a passage at the top - and here you are, beating, there are already two. You fly in first. You see that there are bugs a couple of levels stronger than you, and you start running hysterically through a small cave. A second later, a companion breaks in, knocking everyone over with a hoverbike, and you yourself fall into some kind of inconspicuous hole.
The problem is that this will not happen the second time: all the adventures that the crazy game gives are one-time and are created only due to the magnificent design of a huge territory. In the world itself, nothing is alive. There are, however, “random events”: a red marker appears in front of your eyes, and a voice on the radio says: “Guardians! This may interest you! " And somewhere on the level, a small mass event happens (if no one is around, then you have to go alone). A strong opponent tries to escape. The spaceship drops the soldiers to be killed. That is, in fact, just another type of quests that do not replace the ecosystem in any way.
When it starts to seem that everything is really bad, the third type of missions opens, an analogue of "raids" from MMORPG. The crazy game selects partners and informs: at the point "crazy game" there is a "boss" who needs to be killed. And on the way to him there is another one. And a door in front of which you will have to withstand three waves of opponents.
By this time, you have already fully mastered the controls, and the combat system becomes much deeper. You start to think about where you are running, go around opponents and hit them in the back, use a jetpack in order to take a tactically advantageous position. The dynamics of combat in Destiny is simply amazing and, obviously, will only increase as the level rises.
This also affects PvP. In many ways, it resembles Halo (on which the same Friv5Online). At any time, with your current equipment, you can go to battle with other players. Battles in the only available mode take place as usual: players rush around small locations, capturing control points. Equipment and level are almost more important here than your skill: it is almost impossible to withstand an enemy three "levels" higher than us.
Strange, but today the crazy game looks incomprehensible. On the one hand, even the most boring moments, thanks to the excellent shooter component, turn out to be bearable. The proposed multiplayer interaction looks quite interesting, and the design of the locations is just great.
On the other hand, there is still nothing to do. Events are monotonous, and enemies constantly appearing are annoying. Interaction with people is clearly not enough, and this, alas, does not draw on a full-fledged revolution. But it would be foolish to draw conclusions after reaching the development ceiling at level 8. Apparently, this is a "big" crazy game that has the potential to drag gamers into its world.
