Lighting the Way | Blacklight: Retribution Review

<p><em>Blacklight&colon; Retribution<&sol;em> is a free-to-play&comma; first-person shooter from Zombie Studios for those unaware&period; It takes place in a futuristic city and features two factions going head to head in various locations in the city&period; The game has been in beta for several months and managed to be very successful&comma; even then&comma; with its use of micro-transactions&period; The question&comma; though&comma; is if that success will carry over into full release&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In short&comma; it will&period; The impressions it has left on me from the first time I played until the latest I’ve played&comma; the latter of which is last night&comma; remain the same&period; The game handles very much like <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em>&comma; but it also has its own unique features like the ability to take a quick glimpse through walls to find enemy soldiers &lpar;known as the HRV&rpar;&period; It is a great example of a well-made free-to-play game and can easily be seen as the best game to follow that model this year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first thing you’ll see when you start <em>Blacklight&colon; Retribution<&sol;em> is the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;marketplace” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;customization” menus&period; You can customize your character’s armor&comma; weapons&comma; and other small things such as emblem to your heart’s content&period; The marketplace is where the micro-transactions take place&comma; and it’s where you will buy all of the items used to customize your character and loadout&period; You can choose to pay with GP&comma; which is earned as you play&comma; or charge &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Zen points” for real money&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Once you’re ready to hop into a match you can either join a random game or choose from a list of available games&period; Currently there are seven maps and six gametypes&comma; two of which were announced today&period; Zombie Studios is preparing to add two more maps in a couple of weeks as well&period; The gametypes are your standard Deathmatch&comma; Team Deathmatch&comma; Domination&comma; King of the Hill&semi; while the two new gametypes will be fully detailed later this week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;blacklight-retribution-review&sol;blr&lowbar;by&lowbar;the&lowbar;numbers&lowbar;screenshot&lowbar;10&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-10112"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-10112" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;04&sol;06223314&sol;BLR&lowbar;by&lowbar;the&lowbar;numbers&lowbar;screenshot&lowbar;10-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"590" height&equals;"331" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Graphically this game shows the best of the Unreal Engine&period; If your gaming rig is top-notch then you will love how this game looks&period; Each map has its own mood and ambience that makes you feel like you’re on an urban battlefield&period; The maps are also all different and incorporate different colors and shadows&comma; as opposed to being all brown or gray&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Retribution<&sol;em> utilizes an in-game currency system as well&comma; so each kill and assist will give you CP to spend at Supply Depots&period; These depots are terminals where you can upgrade weapons&comma; replenish ammo and health&comma; and buy the all-powerful Hardsuit mech&period; The Hardsuit is incredibly strong and game-changing&comma; but it is very well-balanced&period; Handling isn’t too easy and enemy soldiers can use their HRV to detect weak spots in the suit&comma; which causes ten times normal damage when shot at&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;pay to win” strategy isn’t really prevalent in <em>Retribution<&sol;em> since Zombie Studios did a great job to balance the weapons efficiently&period; For example&colon; if you prefer a semi-automatic rifle then you can have one&comma; but it isn’t better than all of the other rifles&period; It is easy to tell that Zombie Studios wants the player to progress in skill as he&sol;she plays more&comma; and one way of doing this is by focusing on getting better with your favorite type of gun as opposed to using over-powered weapons&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;blacklight-retribution-review&sol;blr&lowbar;by&lowbar;the&lowbar;numbers&lowbar;screenshot&lowbar;9&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-10113"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-large wp-image-10113" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;04&sol;06223300&sol;BLR&lowbar;by&lowbar;the&lowbar;numbers&lowbar;screenshot&lowbar;9-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"590" height&equals;"331" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Blacklight&colon; Retribution isn’t a perfect game by any means&comma; but it is very consistent&period; There are some glitches that sometimes show their ugly heads&comma; but the experience manages to remain fast-paced and fun to play&period; Zombie Studios completely recreated <em>Blacklight&colon; Tango Down<&sol;em> from the ground up&comma; addressing user complaints&comma; and managed to create a game that is well deserving of your attention&period; If they stick to rolling out new maps and gametypes as they have been the last few months&comma; then this game will continue to be successful as the year continues on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;