Wednesday, August 28, 2013

No Spank You!



I grew up playing Ghost Recon and the Rainbow 6 series. These games portrayed an aspect of digital-combat that is largely forgotten today, that being of course the tactical shooter. Having said that, I’ve been following two games that are attempting to replicate that genre – Takedown and Ground Branch.

Ground Branch has remained in development hell for a long time, while Takedown: Red Sabre is gearing up to launch on the 20th of September. Regardless of some of the shady dealings Serellan has been involved with (Anon hacker group & IP pilfering) since the games inception, I was still looking forward to the title. I wanted that old-school feeling of planning an operation, choosing my load-out, and taking down some bad guys with my buddies in an online match.


That is until I saw the launch trailer which represents the final product.

 

Talk about horrendous.  Not only does it not feature a campaign (not really a big deal), or a planning phase, but the animations are ugly, the sound design is sub-par, and the visuals are highly lacking. Some of these issues can easily be forgiven, but the shooting mechanics and weapon manipulation appear overtly clunky, not to mention the unrealistic reloading animations. You're also stuck with a lot of 2D optics, the kind that completely eliminate any and all peripheral vision. Here I was thinking it was 2013 and not 2003. 

Judging by the trailer, it certainly looks a budget title, the kind you used to find in a bin at stores. 

At least they had the good conscience to charge a budget price for a budget game.