Harm's Way -- Shooter Mode
3So, and I have no idea whether or not you could've seen this coming, but I decided to take the gunner's chair for a change of pace and perspective on the game.
Playing the role of team Shooter is a fair bit more unfocused and disorienting at first, because you're a fixed emplacement trying to rain down punishment during whatever brief glimpses of the competition you can muster.
The general idea is to jump from turret to turret around the track, following the racers around and taking shots at them. You'll receive points for your team in proportion to how much damage you cause to your target as well as bonuses for kill shots. You can also specifically target the tires and windshield of your victims, either (further) debilitating their control or taking them out instantly.
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Desert Bloom
You might notice that we teamed up for this one (and in fact just got off a session where we were teamed up with the roles reversed) and that I take a quick peek at the achievements list during the loading screens. As you may recall from the previous videos in other games from this session, one of our big ideas here is that BluishNinjaJoo wanted to use this opportunity to snag some easy achievements, so while we're at it, I might as well see to knocking out a few of my own.
The reason why these seemingly-unrelated factoids are presented together is that... well, AI players are pretty terrible at driving with a purpose. This is particularly the case if you're a Shooter hoping for some turret upgrades, because I've gone entire races without seeing a single one by a computer partner behind the wheel.
On the other hand, a human driver is perfect for actually being able to... you know, drive properly (or as much so as one might hope on soapy tires) and actually aim for the upgrades so as to allow their partner use the other weapons.
The only weapon enabled by default to lowest-grade turrets is a long range rifle with a laser sight and a slow rate of fire... and to be perfectly honest, this is probably my favorite weapon of the bunch. It's precise, powerful, and allows you to damage your opponents' vehicles in specific places as you might want.
The next level up gives you access to a rapid-fire minigun that does less damage in exchange for a sustainable stream of bullets. If you sustain the attack for too long, the gun will overheat and require cooldown before it can be used again. Honestly, I find this one to be the least useful weapon overall.
On the third level, you get access to a truly strange weapon... it causes a cluster of projectiles to rain down from the sky to about where your crosshairs rest on the landscape, leaving explosive mines behind that will explode on contact with enemies. They're not oppressively powerful, but they definitely can make drivers' lives miserable. At the time of this recording, I thought it was a simple air strike and thus found them too unwieldy to merit extensive use.
The fourth and final level is a rocket launcher with limited lock-on capability that will deal fairly heavy damage on impact with a vehicle. It should be fairly clear why this is the ultimate weapon... although I might posit that the very FIRST weapon can keep up with its damage potential with just a bit more effort in aiming required. And of course, rockets can't go for specific targeted shots.
Anyway, it's not really very easy to see the text written in this game, so the important things to keep track of are all the red labels indicating your viable targets including racers, turrets currently under enemy control, and breakable course elements. It would have been very helpful if I could've made out that last category during the race.
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So anyway, this was the one of the three free games that I liked the least overall, but it's also the one that I found comes across as least understood by sitting down and playing.
I could go on for far longer than a YouTube video description will allow analyzing what works and what doesn't and why it would seem to be the case... but based on the mere sampling that I've been allowed to take away from it, I get the feeling that I would only be able to formulate an incomplete image at best as to what the bigger picture has to offer.
Without a proper study of how the various disparate game design elements work (or don't) together, it's hard to get a real feel for how the game feels when it's running in proper accordance to the design specifications.
That said, even if I had continuous access to online play, the self-serving denizens of the matchmaking process would have to cooperate. And that's assuming that you can even find as many as we stumbled across during what could easily have been a spike in people trying to play the game as a result of the Free Gold Weekend...
And it's no small wonder I'm as jaded as I am towards random matchmaking in general and seem to be driven to specifically play online only when I know someone else seeking the same.