Rekoil:Liberator (XBLA)

When it comes to video game development there are some things you should do, and other things that you should definitely not do. Among things that you should not do is clone a gaming experience. It's a bad practice all the way around, and always results in ridicule in some form, or fashion. Secondly you should not try to push something on to the gamer that is not up to the standards of the tier of game formats that you are releasing the game on. Revamping an indie clone with better visuals, and slapping in some online features is definitely not the way to go. As much as I hate to do so I'm going to have to breakdown what Plastic Piranha's & 5o5Games' arena shooter has to offer, and deliver the bad news on what I experienced as I did my playthrough of the game. I cannot, and will not sugarcoat something bad. I just hope the PR, and developer don't take it personally. Perhaps something can be learned from the following critique, and can benefit all those involved as well as all those looking to buy the game.

Rekoil: Liberator, as it were was deemed an arena shooter by the game developers who made it. While it does sport some small similarities to games such as "Unreal Tournament III", and "Nexuiz" it is still a far cry from being that type of gaming experience. As it turns out Rekoil is more, or less a hybrid game that borders on being a CoD (Call of Duty) clone, and a fast paced arena shooter. It is not entirely either genre, but instead dwells in the limbo between the two. The title of the game which seems to reflect some sort of sequel involvement is anything, but that. Once you get into the game you'll find that it is void of any offline campaign, or offline story related features. Surprisingly you'll find that this game does have a back story though, but that plot material is vague, and is only explained in the marketplace listings as well as the press releases me, and the other participating journalists have received.

The plot of Rekoil, as explained by the developer is a generic apocalyptic tale that resembles a lot of other science fiction sources. It's based in the future of planet Earth, and seems to take place after catastrophic events which have plagued the real world planet. The maps you play on in the online only modes also reflect the nature of this apocalyptic scenario. You'll find violent combat across various abandoned locales, and urban wastelands that are littered with the most generic of debris. On the side, the cast of racially, and gender diverse characters come in an interesting assortment that seem to reflect possible plot involvement. With the lack of a background story on the characters, and their involvement in the game's mythology though the character inclusion comes off as being the simple "avatar skins" that they are known as in-game.

Like any CoD clone you'll find that "Rekoil:Liberator" plays heavily on the arsenal of weapons at hand, the modes of play, and the maps that are included. From the start players have access to all weapons, all weapon classes, and all features pertaining to the various action oriented modes. Like most FPS games you'll find that your chosen soldier carries with them a primary gun, a secondary gun, a grenade, and a knife/melee weapon. Unlike CoD though switching between these available devices of doom are allocated solely to the DPad inputs making the firing, tossing, stabbing, and aiming of your arsenal left up to the usual FPS related shoulder buttons. While this makes for easy access, and quick use you'll find that the game's "indie" nature prevents the actions from being professionally portrayed onscreen. Aiming itself feels loose, and clumsy often times making aiming down sight accurately a near impossible task. Of course Plastic Piranha did implement a sensitivity adjustment, but it did little in the way of fixing the issues at hand.

Maps in "Rekoil:Liberator" are an entirely different mess in themselves. It seems like developers would learn from the huge mistakes of others, but in the case of this game they decided to do all the bad things that Infinity Ward, and Treyarch have done with their CoD releases. The maps in Rekoil, which range from scrapyards to prisons, and other urban wastelands offer too many hiding places for would be campers. The added fact that 90% of the maps are constructed of these hiding places makes run & gun gameplay a futile task. Each map, in general is also small in size, and basically loops around in a circle, or semi-circle. The only real variations in landscapes lie with the simplistically constructed buildings, and tunnels that act as the core focus, or main playing area of the location.

As you might have guessed by now the modes in Rekoil also mimic many other popular FPS titles. While the names of some of the modes are vaguely different in title you will find that they offer the same gameplay as their mainstream counterparts do. In total there are 7 different modes of online play including, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Rekondite, Capture the Briefcase, Hold the Briefcase, Domination, and Team Hold the Briefcase. Most of the modes are self explanatory, but the "Rekondite" mode is a little less so. In "Rekondite" a single player from one of the teams is given a special stealth ability (think Crysis 3/Predator), and a knife with which they can go around stabbing other unsuspecting players. Of course it's this special stealth player that is the one who actually scores in this particular mode. The catch is that a Rekondited player will only be stealth while still, and once they are killed the abilities will pass onto the player who killed them. In the end the player with the most "Rekondite" kills wins.

Deathmatch, and Team Deathmatch also make their generic debut amongst the other hohum modes of play. These competitive kill all, and save yourself modes are your basic score based modes where your (your team's) k/d (kill/death) ratio matters. The player, or team at the end of a match with the most kills wins. It's as simple as that. As far as Hold the Briefcase, and Team Hold the Briefcase goes you will find that these are basically the same as CoD's "Hardpoint" mode. In the singleplayer version of this match type the player who holds onto the briefcase the longest, and scores the most points by doing so will be declared the winner. In the team version the team who collectively holds the briefcase the longest, and ends up with the most points wins. Capture the Briefcase on the other hand is the equivalent of CoD's 'Capture the Flag" mode. It is only team based though, and in order to win your team must capture, and hold all briefcases for as long as possible. The team with the most points at the end of such a match wins. Lastly there is "Domination". Like the CoD" counterpart this mode is all about objectives. The objectives, unlike CoD's Domination mode are not based around defusing bombs though. Instead you'll be killing off all the enemies at a highlighted capture point, so that your team can claim it as their own. In order to "de-cap" a cap point the opposing team who has current possession of it must be eliminated. After that the newly claiming team must redo the whole cap capture process in order to gain possession.

When it comes to graphics "Rekoil: Liberator" once again fails in what it's attempting to do. Without giving away names, or titles of similar games/developers I will say that there were a select brand of XBLIG FPS games that oddly enough looked very similar to this game. It's as if Plastic Piranha took some sort of generic FPS making software like the XBLIG developers seem to have done, built the game from the ground up, and added a somewhat visually enhanced set of textures. While some of the textures in this game look impressive enough others are borderline XBLIG quality, and that's definitely not praise worthy, or price worthy. The repetitive use of certain debris objects, and lackluster shadow/lighting effects makes this game pretty much on par with what you'd expect from a much cheaper XBLIG/indie title. One good thing the game did have going for it was the soundtrack which seemed to have a more serious tone about it. As in the trailer you'll find that the soundtrack of "Rekoil: Liberator" is geared towards rock music, and heavy metal enthusiasts.

Now for the verdict ...

By now, having read thus far I think you've learned what I think of this game. It just isn't what it's hyped as being. The trailer which shows off some fun looking action, and the Steam version details which include Mod options are all misleading when it comes to the XBLA offerings of the game. What you have here is a bare bones FPS hybrid that wants to be something it is not. It fails in the visual department, and it fails in basic design. The average CoD player (and we've all played CoD) will fully realize when they get their hands on this game that it's just not up to par with such a popular FPS franchise as CoD. Had the developer gone about this differently, and not tried to clone/improve upon the CoD experience I imagine it could have been worlds better. At the end of the day the lesson game developers should learn from this game is that innovation matters. Being as original, and professional as you can be also matters. I'm gonna have to say pass on this one folks. It's just not worth your time, or money.