Friday, April 20, 2012

Brick-Force Closed Beta Review

http://www.brick-force.com/

I put Closed Beta in the title because I plan to review this game again once its released. There is a lot of content already but from the looks of things a lot more is on the way. What do I mean by more? Well Open Beta starts on April 26th and will have two new fighting modes. One of them will allow building and fighting AT THE SAME TIME!

If you want to skip my little banter and jump right into viewing the game check out this video.

Tutorial and a few levels.
There is a lot more to this review. Click the link for the rest.

lvl start graphicSNAG-0000So after signing up and downloading the client, (I hear there will be an in browser version as well) you press Start on the patcher to get to the sign in screen.

I ran into issues here. The screen would hang and I would have to kill it from the Task Manager. I noticed a few others on the forums having the same issue. After an uninstall/reinstall, everything ran fine.

 

 

 

 


 Login Screen

 

This is the sign in screen. Pretty slick graphic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



After signing in you go this this server select dialog.
Starting Dialog
This is also where you set preferences for sound, video, ect. This is also where you choose between Play and Build. Once the preferred tab is selected choose the server you want to play on.

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

The system settings are pretty bare bones. Only Resolution and a Graphic Quality slider. I was able to change screen resolution and toggle between full screen. However when I slide the graphics quality from min to max I couldn't see much of a difference. The glass was still transparent, the grenades still had a glowing trail. There was still plenty of smoke. The textures were noticeably different. But still not a huge difference. It would be nice to know what the actual steps in the graphic quality slider actually do.

Settings GraphicsSettings SoundSettings MOuseSettings Misc

Graphics slider to the far LEFTimage   
 Graphics slider to the far RIGHTimage

Graphics aside the one thing that I did notice missing was the lack of key customization. At anytime while in game pressing F10 shows a graphic that displays all key mappings. There isnt much of a need to custmize since the keys that are used are pretty standard for this type of game.

imageimage

The actual game play is pretty addictive. It's simple and fun. The headshots seem pretty consistent and that's good for competitive game play.  The heads are big so aim for them! I counted 4 shots to the head with a pistol vs. 10 shots to the body.

The awesome thing is that every map is different. Not the typical five or six provided maps but hundreds to choose from. I love trying other players maps. I compare it to mixing a FPS with MineCraft Adventure maps.

image image image image image image image image image image
For larger map pictures check out their current Map Creation Contest on Facebook...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.361210100581931.72892.265022526867356&type=1 

Look at this... just loads of maps to choose from and every day there are more of them.
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<<Future Game Play YouTube Video Here>>

Before we get into actual map creation lets look over what items are for sale. This will be a Free To Play game so they need to make their money some how. What really impressed me with the store was the items didn't seem to boost performance only give you points for new guns and experience. What does that mean? It won't be a pay to win game like so many of them end up being. I would imagine it will cost real money to buy the different types of blocks.

The Shop  These stats are from April 20th. Gun List 1-2

The Sniper Rifles
BSG69  BMN91Gun List 3-4
BRG42  BWM
Gun List 5-6
The Assault Rifles
BK47  BPSH41 StatsGun List 7-8
BMK  BM1918


BG42  BTG44  BR4  B2
BR16  B1  BRZ

The Clothes

Clothes 1-2  Clothes 3-4
Clothes 5-6  Clothes 7-8
Clothes 9-10  Clothes 11-12
Clothes 13-14
I'm not going to show all the stats for each of these items but most are 2% bonus Points and/or 2% bonus XP. I didn't see any that offered bonus attack or armor. That doesn't mean armor will not show up down the road.

As it stands this really doesn't look like a pay to win game. Oh and that's a good thing.








The Accessories
A number of these have no details on what perk they offer. The ammo belts are obvious and most of them do say they offer more starting ammo for either the primary or secondary weapon. That could be a good thing for a sniper. With the machine gun I don't think I have ever actually run out of ammo. It looks like both clothes and the accessories offer a good mix for both Points and Tokens.
ACC 1-2  ACC 3-4
ACC 5-6  ACC 7-8
ACC 9-10  ACC 11-12
ACC 13-14  ACC 15-16


The Characters
CharactersAll of the characters at this point offer the same bonus.
Plus 10% Points
Plus 10% XP
Plus 10% Luck

What's great about this? No plus 10% Speed or Plus 10% Armor. I know I know its just a matter of time right....

 




 

The BricksBricks
These are by far the most expensive items in the shop. All three of them require both Points and Tokens. What do they buy you? The ability to use the special blocks when making your maps. This is where being in a clan could really help you out when making a new map.


So what is a Deco Brick? Well glad you asked. Here are all three types of bricks that can be used when creating a map.

These are free for anyone to use
image

These will require the use of a Color Brick Ticket or an All Bricks Ticket image

These will require the use of a Color Brick Ticket or an All Bricks Ticket
image

Creating a New MapBuild Opening Dialog

To create you must back up all the way back to the server selection screen. Then change tabs to Build. There you can pick a server to start your map on. Or you can simply choose one of the MapEdit servers from the server dropdown.
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Once your there either select someone map and start helping them or press Create and start working on your own.

This is the Create dialog box. Give it a map title and off you go. You can also choose your background (Sky) and the size you wish to start with.
Build Create Dialog

Press OK and you are dropped "literally" into your map. Left click to drop a brick. Right click to delete a brick. Rolling your mouse wheel scrolls through the bricks shown on the top of the screen. Press B for the brick dialog to drag other brick types up onto the top toolbar for placement. Pressing B again closes the new brick selection dialog so you can get back to building.

One nice thing is being able to build all the way across the map. Unlike MineCraft here you are "shooting" the blocks from a little gun. Therefore you can place and remove bricks from pretty much any place you can see. This can get you in trouble when deleting. A number of times I deleted a block from the floor way across the map and didn't realize it until much later.

New lvl Creation
<<<Future Map Creation YouTube Video Here>>>

Conclusion

The beauty of this game is the user created maps. My youngest son has more fun making maps then he does playing the matches. Personally I liked the first person shooter side of it better. The play is responsive and predictable; two things a FPS must have. I did run into a number of games with lag but I doubt you will ever find a FPS without some lag. I think this games offers something for everyone. The client its very light weight and coming soon you can play it IN A WEB BROWSER! Talk about light weight.

Originally I figured I would play this game simply to write this review. Turns out I have far more hours into this game then the few needed to write a quick review.

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