Hero shooters appear to be a dime a dozen today. Prior to now few months, we’ve seen the Marvel-inspired tackle the style with Marvel Rivals, and now Unhealthy Guitar has thrown their hat within the ring with FragPunk. An brisk shooter, combined with a brand new card system, the studio hopes will probably be sufficient to cement itself in gamers’ more and more increasing multiplayer library.
After investing a substantial period of time within the recreation, I can say with out reservation that Unhealthy Guitar Studios has created probably the most refreshing takes on the style in years, providing gamers one of many quickest, most enjoyable, and frenzied on-line group shooters accessible available on the market.
Shard Playing cards Shuffling Up The Match
The principle recreation mode, Shard Conflict, performs out a lot in the identical method because the modes established by in style video games within the style, with the groups rotating between attackers and defenders, the defending group is tasked with stopping the opposite group planting a converter (bomb) on the designated websites, while the attacking group should plant the bomb and forestall the enemies defusing it. It’s a staple recreation mode, and while the Lancers (FragPunk‘s hero roster) is sweet and assorted, it’s the Shard card system that elevates FragPunk from a great shooter to an amazing one.
Shard playing cards are primarily tweaks that come into play every spherical, with the playing cards various of their influence from the minimal to the extra extravagant. As you play, you’ll earn shard factors which may then be dished out into the three randomized playing cards which can be dealt originally of every spherical. These playing cards are then put into play for the upcoming spherical, creating some frantic and sometimes amusing firefights.
One spherical may even see all of your ammo loaded into one magazine, permitting the sub machine weapons to completely pepper the enemy, while one other may even see you activate a card that grants your group small heads, or perhaps a big turtle in your again to deflect any injury coming from behind. The playing cards are consistently altering, and it makes every spherical really feel recent and each recreation you play really feel enjoyable and unpredictable in one of the best ways. The playing cards are even in a position to have an effect on the map with thick fog being solid over one bomb web site, or erecting a wall, blocking the route to a different. On the time of writing, there are properly over 150 totally different shard playing cards, every able to reshaping the sport in thrilling methods.
Enjoyable Is The Identify Of The Recreation
The selection of Lancers is nice too. Each feels well-designed and distinctive, with every one providing one thing totally different, making you modify your playstyle to the skills of your chosen Lancer. I tended to rotate closely between Jaguar and Hollowpoint. Not as a result of they’re any higher than the others, Zephyr, Kismet, and Corona see numerous playtime, however I discovered Hollowpoint’s utility complemented my playstyle.
The skills on supply really feel tailor-made to every lancer’s design, with Hollowpoint possessing a one-shot railgun, deployable traps to detect close by enemies or a thick-walled smokescreen that strikes ahead, serving to you reposition or push ahead on enemies. Every lancer has their very own three distinctive skills, and it’s numerous enjoyable to discover video games with them, whether or not you’re sliding round with Axel and his shotgun guitar or sending out mud tornadoes and Serket. They’re all a lot enjoyable to fiddle with, and it’s addictive to repeatedly experiment with every character’s equipment. It’s only a disgrace that there’s fairly a little bit of playtime wanted to unlock extra lancers with out spending actual cash, given their value.
One nice characteristic that FragPunk launched to its Shard Conflict mode is a game-deciding duel. This occurs when the 2 groups can’t be separated after six rounds (or 10 in ranked), with the scores tied, gamers will probably be thrust right into a one-on-one duel. Your group chooses positions, after which the primary participant is put in an enclosed map for a struggle to the demise, with the winner staying on to struggle the group’s subsequent participant, persevering with till one group has been worn out utterly, with the victorious group profitable the duel, in addition to the entire shard conflict recreation. It’s a neat option to time up shut video games, and the stakes within the one-on-one duels really feel extremely tense.
What Else Is On Supply?
FragPunk affords greater than the usual Shard Conflict mode. As soon as gamers hit stage 30, they’ll begin to tackle FragPunk Ranked mode. There are additionally a great variety of conventional and enjoyable modes to discover, with the usual group demise, deathmatch and kill confirmed, in addition to extra quirky modes like one-shot and melee-only. Every of those modes is numerous enjoyable to get entangled in and might really feel like refreshing break from the extra tense battles of Shard Conflict, the one downside being that these arcade modes are on rotation and never accessible the entire time, so should you fancied leaping in to snipers solely you make be in for a protracted wait till it rotates again spherical.
There’s additionally a zombie virus mode referred to as Outbreak, which sees gamers battle towards different contaminated gamers throughout a number of rounds. As soon as killed by an contaminated participant, you then flip into the contaminated and assist search out the remaining survivors. It sounds enjoyable on paper, however the precise execution is fairly poor. The video games final a really very long time, and the cumbersome well being of the parasites and talents end in a relatively unenjoyable expertise. It took a very long time to get into the sport, and after taking part in it, I can perceive why not many gamers are eager to dive again into it. It could be a great recreation mode sooner or later, however in its present state, it wants a good quantity of labor completed to it.
Sadly, like many free-to-play video games, the storefront and in-game foreign money are a little bit of a minefield with a number of unlockable gadgets tied to totally different currencies and totally different loot bins littering the sport. It may be arduous to maintain monitor of what foreign money buys what. There’s additionally a premium move and battle move accessible for these seeking to unlock higher rewards and kit, a number of the gun skins look nice, however numerous it’s underwhelming, with a disappointing possibility of cosmetics that appear to rely totally on easy coloration palette swaps, making the rewards really feel a little bit naked bones. Hopefully, as the sport continues to develop, the accessible skins will begin to be extra assorted and distinct, alongside different rewards.
Remaining Ideas
FragPunk is a unbelievable addition to the hero-shooter style. Its gunplay is snappy and enjoyable, and the shard card system is an absolute delight to play with. It appears like a shooter constructed across the core thought of enjoyable and, consequently, brings gamers an amazing on-line shooter that’s simple to choose up however extremely arduous to place down. The fixed bombardment of latest and thrilling playing cards and tense firefights helps make FragPunk a contender for the throne as an alternative of a throwaway imitation.
