The Other 99 Preview

By Nate Lakritz
9 years Ago

Early access survival games are all the rage these days&period; Some are obviously doomed from the start, while others have great concepts that will quickly attract a solid player-base&period; The issue here is that most of these survival-exploration types start off without some core features, and never get entirely completed even a few years down the road&period; Ark&colon; Survival, DayZ, and 7 Days to Die are some popular survival games with ingenious concepts that have yet to become full-fledged titles&period; Don’t get me wrong, tons of players purchase these games and enjoy them&period; However, there’s so much missing from each title that could propel their presented experience to infinity&period; That said, The Other 99 is following the very familiar (and flawed) early-access route to a T&period; Let’s dive in and see what’s missing from another wonderful concept filled with potential&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;113205" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113205" style="width&colon; 1000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-113205 size-large" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/18174506/9db011e866596cbe373018ec328fbdef2f5d7b31-1024x576&period;jpg" alt="The Other 99 1" width="1000" height="563" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-113205" class="wp-caption-text">(The Other 99, Deck 13 Interactive)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;The Other 99 opens with your character waking up in a dark forest with a mysterious note next to him on the ground&period; The letter basically tells you there are 99 other people on an island that you must kill in order to escape&period; Although it’s unknown why you’re thrust into this situation, there are cameras stationed around the island that watch your every move&period; Think a mix of Hunger Games, Lost, and Fight Club&period; I immediately felt a dystopian game show vibe coming from the world of The Other 99&period; Unfortunately, there isn’t much information around the island that expands on a broader story, although there are a few notes lying around that provide helpful hints on where to travel&period; Based on the concept of having to fight a bunch of strangers for survival with a higher power watching over you, I believed The Other 99 would be a great game&period; Here’s why it’s not&period;&NewLine;To start, we need to discuss the game’s awful combat system&period; It works by forcing you to physically whip your mouse around without clicking&period; It’s somewhat like playing on a Wii again&period; Although, it might sound bearable, this is by far one of the worst combat systems I’ve ever experienced&period; Half the time, your mouse swings won’t register and you’ll be punished with a whack to the face&period; Other times, you’ll forget to lock onto an enemy and end up spiraling the camera out of control&period; To make things worse, each weapon seems to be equally effective&period; Meaning, there’s no benefit to using your fists versus a giant crowbar&period; The game boasts a gory, intense battle atmosphere, but I felt like an idiot brandishing my mouse around&period; Controller support is the only way to go with The Other 99 unless you want some motion-based game memories to surface&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;113206" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113206" style="width&colon; 1000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-113206 size-large" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/18174512/the-other-99-201682610366&lowbar;14-1024x576&period;jpg" alt="The Other 99 2" width="1000" height="563" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-113206" class="wp-caption-text">You&&num;8217&semi;d guess a torch could do more damage than your hands&period; Well, we all guessed wrong&period;(The Other 99, Deck 13 Interactive)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;As I’ve already mentioned, your ultimate goal on the island is to kill &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the other 99&period;” That’s easier said than done when there aren’t even 99 others on the map at any given time&period; There’s actually only around 30, and they respawn once killed&period; Luckily, you’re given a wristwatch early on that tells you how many enemies are remaining&period; Occasionally, AI will fight amongst themselves and the number will decrease on its own&period; Still, you need to enter the brawl if you want to make any significant progress&period;&NewLine;The second core component of The Other 99 is its survival system&period; Staying alive consists of keeping four separate meters up&colon; hunger, thirst, stamina, and health&period; When your health bar drops to zero, you’ll die permanently without any respawns and in order to replenish health, you’ll need to keep the other three meters up&period; The survival structure is basic and contributes positively to the overall adventure&period;&NewLine;A few alternate endings await you in the game, all of which aren’t very rewarding and surely need to be expanded at some point&period; I felt absolutely no gratification when I beat the game, and that’s the exact opposite of what should have been there&period; One consists of creating a boat with various parts scattered around the island&period; Another can be achieved by killing every last one of the others&period; None are worth your time, and none are acceptable for a finished game&period;&NewLine;As you can tell, The Other 99 is not complete and definitely needs a ton of work to reach a well-built status&period; The crafting system is non-existent at this point, the combat system is flawed, and the story is extremely underdeveloped&period; Granted, the foundation of this game is enough to bring in some interested fans who want to embark on an escapade&period; All we can do is hope The Other 99 breaks the early-access trend and gets some much needed substantial updates&period;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;<hr />&NewLine;A PC Preview Code for The Other 99 was provided by Deck13 Interactive for the purpose of this preview&NewLine;

Categories: Game Previews, PC Previews
Tags: Deck 13 Interactive Games PC Survival The Hunger Games Top Stories

Related Content

Type-NOISE: Shonen Shojo PC Preview

Tribe Nine Hands On Impressions