Fragpunk has lastly landed, marking one other addition to the Hero Shooter style, however that doesn’t make it any outdated Overwatch, Valorant, or Apex Legends copy. As an alternative, it breaks the mould of people who got here earlier than, and it’s genius.
Hero Shooter fatigue has proven up lately, as few new entries handle to interrupt previous the giants that outline the style. Nonetheless, that may change with Fragpunk, the journey that breaks each the mould, and the principles.
Basically, Fragpunk locations gamers right into a fast-paced 5v5 battle, full with the selection of 13 completely different Lancers and your individual weapon kind. All this occurs inside a close-ranged map designed to maintain the fight quick, lethal, and ever altering.
Nonetheless, the actual rulebreaker, actually, right here, are Shard Playing cards, which fully flip the sport on its head, so no battle is ever the identical.
Guidelines are for chumps
Shard Playing cards function rule changers for each your workforce and the enemy’s. By way of deciding on these playing cards each spherical you possibly can grant buffs to your workforce, nerfs to the enemy, and even alter the map’s panorama from a metropolis avenue to a frozen wasteland.
Now place that right into a fight situation and your workforce has the potential to fully flip a match round. For instance, you possibly can be taking part in Shard Conflict whereas shedding to the workforce that all the time crops their bomb the place you’re not anticipating it.
So, you pull a Website Deletion card, forcing them to go to the one different website accessible, the place you possibly can destroy them with out care.
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The flexibility to alter the principles of a sport so shortly isn’t one thing we’ve seen earlier than in different hero shooters, and it destroys one of many golden guidelines of the style: preserve issues predictable.
Every gamemode, be it Search and Destroy, a easy battle royale, or a Staff Deathmatch has its guidelines. You realize you possibly can depend on your weapon dealing particular injury, the enemy doing particular actions, and the target all the time staying the identical. Properly, not in Fragpunk.
Now, that may sound unattractive to followers of Overwatch or Marvel Rivals, and even Apex, nevertheless it solely serves to make the sport a lot extra pleasant on account of its unpredictability and subsequently, its versatility.
Each match is completely different, each duel is exclusive, and each battle is undeniably enjoyable now that the principles are out of the way in which. As such, if you get to the fifth match of the identical gamemode, you’re not repeating your performs or anticipating the enemy to go down the identical route.
Each spherical, every workforce pulls a card which mixes up the way you strategy the battle, whether or not that’s extra offensive or defensive, and that’s precisely what the style wants.
Stripped down enjoyable
Apparently, that distinctive function is just heightened with the stripped down gameplay elsewhere in Fragpunk.
Certain, the 13 Lancers all have their very own highly effective talents which contribute to that versatility talked about earlier than, in addition to completely different methods and playstyles, however the actual magnificence lies in simplicity, notably when the weapons come out and the battle really begins.
Dexerto / Unhealthy Guitar Studio
To begin with, there’s no sliding in Fragpunk (offered you keep away from arising in opposition to the one rule-breaking exception right here, Axon). So the worry of being destroyed by an enemy skidding spherical a nook with their crosshair magically geared toward your head is gone. Then, you get to decide on the weapon that matches you, reasonably than the one which comes with the hero.
Add that to the smaller-scale maps, and you’ve got a method of gameplay that harks again to unique hero shooter days, the place there was a major concentrate on choosing the proper character for the job, conserving an ear out for the noises round you, and naturally using the panorama.
Fragpunk manages to mix one of the best elements of the style with its distinctive type. It retains the simplicity of a shooter whereas combining enjoyable and loveable heroes with the rulebreaking playing cards function that retains the motion contemporary, and in contrast to something we’ve seen earlier than.
Guidelines are a significant facet of any multiplayer sport, however Fragpunk proves that guidelines are made to be damaged.
