Crossout Preview

<p class&equals;"western">Vehicular-combat&comma; besides being a phrase I can not pronounce&comma; is a genre I surprisingly have had a good time with&period; No&comma; I never got to play any of the classics that tend to be thrown out&period; <em>Vigilante 8<&sol;em> was my ride&comma; with its tongue-in-cheek silliness&period; I later picked up <em>Vigilante 8&colon; 2<sup>nd<&sol;sup> <&sol;em><i>Offense<&sol;i>&comma; where the insanity ramped off&comma; and tried <em>Vigilante 8<&sol;em> <em>Arcade<&sol;em> where the series did its last dive into a burning wreck&period; So&comma; when I heard of <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;crossout&period;net&sol;"><strong>Crossout<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&comma; I signed myself the hell up&period; What more could I want than the vehicular-combat of old meshed with building my own junkyard car&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">So&comma; after a bit of luck on my part&comma; I snuck into the closed beta of Targem Games&&num;8217&semi;s latest title to give a preview to <em>Crossout<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Like all journeys spent driving around a twisted wasteland&comma; I began with making an engine-on-wheels that would quickly blow up today&period; Fortunately for me&comma; there were blueprints I could use to make the game build a car for me&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d then put my gear on it as I rotated along the tiles where I wanted my machine-gun to go&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110129" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110129" style&equals;"width&colon; 1694px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-110129" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03122724&sol;CrossoutPic2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Crossout&comma; Gaijin Entertainment" width&equals;"1694" height&equals;"950" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110129" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Crossout<&sol;em>&comma; Gaijin Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Suddenly&comma; with a dawning realization&comma; I begun to cut into <em>Crossout<&sol;em> like a surgeon&comma; careful not to tear the skin as I peeled it back&period; That voice was so similar&period; Once it was skinned&comma; I realized just what I was staring at&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;So THAT&&num;8217&semi;S where you&&num;8217&semi;ve been&comma; <em>Banjo Kazooie&&num;8217&semi;s Nuts &amp&semi; Bolts<&sol;em>&excl;” I exclaimed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I should back-pedal on this a bit&period; In every good way and bad&comma; it is very akin to <em>Banjo Kazooie&&num;8217&semi;s Nuts &amp&semi; Bolts<&sol;em>&period; It is on a grid system with the freedom to rotate and move parts around as you desire&comma; or just load up a blueprint to get into the meat of things&period; However&comma; you have a limited amount of components to use&comma; and this is where the microtransaction cage falls down with the hatching spider eggs and revealing photos of Margaret Thatcher&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">After all&comma; to get more gear you COULD grind the PvP or PvE missions&comma; or you can buy it on the game&&num;8217&semi;s market with a premium currency that is either bought or traded for&period; This is made more dire as the damn gear breaks if you die too hard&comma; too often&period; So your first good few hours will be spent in the exact same vehicle from the start&comma; afraid to break equipment that you can&&num;8217&semi;t afford more of&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110130" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110130" style&equals;"width&colon; 1710px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-110130" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03122706&sol;CrossoutPic3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Crossout&comma; Gaijin Entertainment" width&equals;"1710" height&equals;"961" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110130" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Crossout<&sol;em>&comma; Gaijin Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">That isn&&num;8217&semi;t to say you&&num;8217&semi;re trapped using poor starter gear without throwing your money at the developer&period; Each PvP match-up has you able to get one of three components as well as some scrap&comma; with the first three missions offering either a machine gun&comma; shotgun&comma; or cannon to strap to your junkyard-on-wheels as a possible reward&period; You can also do PvE &lpar;oddly a limited amount of times in contrast to the unlimited PvP&rpar; to get different components you want&period; These can then be used to build bigger and meaner things to strap to your petrol-guzzling monster&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Out in the desert where the combat happens&comma; the gameplay is generally good&period; Nothing great&comma; nothing to blow you away&period; The only thing that made me raise an eyebrow in noticeable interest was the destructible parts on your car&comma; allowing you to break them piece-by-piece rather than just obliterating their total health&period; The only criticism I have about the system is that this led to often savvy players just breaking my wheels and&sol;or weapons and then chuckling off to go have fun elsewhere as I weep in my worthless car&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">What was aggravating was the matchmaking&period; You are matched depending on your vehicles &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;power-level”&comma; but I found the range way too high&period; This was likely so to allow the closed beta to function with the numbers it had&period; In the end though&comma; it led to often being absolutely decimated as cars with 500&plus; power higher than me would blow me away as though I was a fly who had found a home inside the barrel of a shotgun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110131" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110131" style&equals;"width&colon; 1692px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-110131" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03122648&sol;CrossoutPic4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Crossout&comma; Gaijin Entertainment" width&equals;"1692" height&equals;"952" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110131" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>&lpar;Crossout<&sol;em>&comma; Gaijin Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Overall&comma; <em>Crossout<&sol;em> feels like it&&num;8217&semi;ll be the type of curiosity piece you download under the intoxicating fumes of vehicular-combat nostalgia&period; If it clicks or not seems to depends on if you can enjoy the idea of slowly amassing some bestial vehicle over match after match&period; Well&comma; that and if you&&num;8217&semi;re not getting your head caved in by those who threw money at the game which the matchmaking system could prevent&period; <em>Crossout<&sol;em> isn&&num;8217&semi;t a burning wreckage in the Nevada wastelands&comma; but it isn&&num;8217&semi;t something that&&num;8217&semi;ll likely bring in the mass&&num;8217&semi;s interpretations of <em>Mad Max&colon; Fury Road<&sol;em>&period; It is the lovely middle-ground where madness lives&comma; along with its tiny car with an artillery cannon strapped to it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PC preview code for Crossout was provided by Gaijin Entertainment for the purpose of this preview<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;