Shattered Skies Preview

<p class&equals;"western">In a virtual open world&comma; the population runs mad&period; We shed ourselves of our identity&comma; of our boundaries and of our responsibilities&period; As we walk upon the dead&comma; our foot-steps crunching upon forgotten bones&comma; we repeat a mantra over and over with each pump of blood in our system&colon; no matter what&comma; survive&period; However&comma; no one said we had to stay sane&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I got to preview the open-world survival title <em><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;playshatteredskies&period;com&sol;"><strong>Shattered Skies<&sol;strong><&sol;a><&sol;em>&comma; currently in beta&period; It is developed by Free Reign Entertainment&comma; who fortunately have experience in the genre&period; Unfortunately&comma; said experience comes in the form of <em>Romero&&num;8217&semi;s Aftermath<&sol;em>&colon; a free-to-play zombie open world survival game which is kicking about on Steam at 44&percnt; positive out of 9&comma;121 user reviews&period; Although&comma; I admit&comma; I never got to try it as zombie open-world survival titles have&comma; for me&comma; blended into a <em>Day Z<&sol;em> mush&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">So now Free Reign Entertainment has decided to go with a paid method&semi; it seems appropriate to see what the deal is &&num;8212&semi; To discover if they&&num;8217&semi;re doing the same old song-and-dance behind a paywall or if there&&num;8217&semi;s something different going on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;108921" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-108921" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-108921 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03140415&sol;ShatteredSkiesPic2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"ShatteredSkiesPic2" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-108921" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>&lpar;Shattered Skies<&sol;em>&comma; Free Reign Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">If <em>Day Z<&sol;em> is pure vodka&comma; sometimes sold to you in a dubious and questionable form with methanol in it&comma; then <em>Shattered Skies<&sol;em> is the safe&comma; reliable&comma; and easy to comprehend beer&period; You run around a map collecting weapons&comma; ammo&comma; meds&comma; food&comma; and water&comma; though enemies are far and few&comma; equipment is plentiful&comma; and there are few conditions to be in&colon; bleeding&comma; dead&comma; starving and dehydrated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But beer makes you fat&comma; Kailan&period;” Oh I know&comma; and in a similar way this simplified system left me at an ease that I shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have been in&period; Every time an enemy did appear&comma; there was a bit of a struggle as I ran two clips of ammo into the alien creature that teleported in with a noticeable sci-fi &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;woosh”&period; Even though it was always the same type of alien and I&&num;8217&semi;d reliably down it&comma; usually they&&num;8217&semi;d be able to sling plasma onto my face or puncture a good few holes in me&period; Needless to say&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d be left vulnerable afterwards&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Perhaps more scary &lpar;especially in my now-vulnerable state&rpar;&comma; however&comma; was the hidden threat always lurking&colon; other players&period; The disgusting beasties out to wear your skin as a mask&period; <em>Shattered Skies<&sol;em> isn&&num;8217&semi;t shying away or letting nature take its course&comma; oh no&period; If you want the best guns &lpar;as the rarer guns do more damage&rpar;&comma; the best attachments&comma; and even more cosmetic skins&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll likely want to loot the various free-for-all packages dotting the map or going where loot is being parachuted in &lpar;marked on your radar and via flares for maximum competition&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;108920" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-108920" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-108920 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03140432&sol;ShatteredSkiesPic4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"ShatteredSkiesPic4" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-108920" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>&lpar;Shattered Skies<&sol;em>&comma; Free Reign Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">However&comma; if you gun down a fellow human being&comma; others will know by your name changing color&period; So you better be sure before you get blood on your hands&period; Blood isn&&num;8217&semi;t easy to wash off&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">If I had to sum up my first impressions of <em>Shattered Skies<&sol;em>&comma; it would be by describing something that happened in the game&period; As I had amassed a pretty large water collection &lpar;since you just refill bottles after use&rpar; and I got a pretty large backpack with a lot of spaces to share&comma; I thought I&&num;8217&semi;d give it out to those who perhaps are starting off or lost their loot&period; I announced across the server where I&&num;8217&semi;d be &lpar;in a non-PvP zone&rpar; and that there&&num;8217&semi;d be water and a backpack being given out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Upon arrival&comma; there were two people waiting&period; One who looked like he&&num;8217&semi;d done the rounds quite a lot&comma; and one who looked relatively new&period; After giving my water and a backpack to the travelers&comma; one exclaimed over voice chat&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;That&&num;8217&semi;s it&quest;&excl; Only water&quest; No vodka&quest;” in a thick Eastern European accent&period; As I said bye &lpar;as I was logging off to play a pen-and-paper RPG&rpar;&comma; the same person wished cancer upon me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;108925" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-108925" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-108925 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03140300&sol;ShatteredSkiesPic3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"ShatteredSkiesPic3" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-108925" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>&lpar;Shattered Skies<&sol;em>&comma; Free Reign Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The spirit of <em>Day Z<&sol;em> is still intact from what I can tell&comma; and my only grumbles at this stage are the lack of a race&sol;gender option&comma; a disappointing lack of variance in rarity effects of guns &lpar;only damage increase&rpar;&comma; and no variance of alien type while only rarely strolling in one-by-one&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll admit&comma; it feels somewhat as though I&&num;8217&semi;m nit-picking&period; There is no current release date of <em>Shattered Skies<&sol;em>&comma; but you can purchase now to join the on-going beta at different tiers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">You can join us in our mad games of wishing cancer on those who&&num;8217&semi;d give us water instead of vodka &lpar;which isn&&num;8217&semi;t in the game&rpar;&comma; tripping over guns you don&&num;8217&semi;t want&comma; and looting a box before anyone else notices&period; Just don&&num;8217&semi;t be surprised if someone shoots you on a whim &&num;8211&semi; that&&num;8217&semi;s what it&&num;8217&semi;s like out here&period; With the fall of civilization&comma; the first thing to collapse is our minds&period; Pass the vodka&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>Shattered Skies is published by Free Reign Entertainment and is in open beta<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;