Monday, November 19, 2007

Exteel : Not Horrible, But Not Me...

I spent a little time last night in the Open Beta of NCSoft's next Free MMO, Exteel. Basically, the game's something akin to playing Battlefied 2142 or Call of Duty online. It's a FPS game, but your "character" (a giant mech robot) has levels and can even choose what weapons it wears if you have enough points (earned through fighting) to buy more than your starter ones. I didn't get too deep into it, as I only had time for one deathmatch.

But really, the game's action was so faced paced, so crazy hectic, that it threw me for a loop. I started off well, holding at second place out of 12 players for a while, but quickly fell to number 11. I'm not sure if it was my lack of skill or my crappy starter weapons, or both, but ultimately it was just... not fun. But then, when is losing so harshly ever fun?

It's a free game though, and will be free to play, similar to the cult-hit "Gunz: The Duel". So really I guess you get what you pay for. You log in, you create a "handle", you're given a basic robot, and you start joining matches from the lobby. Deathmatches, team deathmatches, and last standing, they're all here. I suppose if you want a free player versus player shooter, this one's the way to go... but not me. Not my cup of tea.

The beta is now open to all, so if it sounds like something you might like, check it out here. It's not bad, just not for me. Were I less craptastic at FPS games (I suppose it's more 3PS though, as the view is from behind your mech), I'd probably get into it. Give it a go, if you're bored with Gunz or can't afford Call of Duty 4 or the Orange Box. I'll be trying it out some more over the next few weeks, but my initial impressions are that it's just not my cup of tea.

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