So, here’s the biggest change in the multiplayer, your team doesn’t start with any vehicles, and limited weapons. There are no more weapon pickups strewn across the map (except for what’s dropped by fallen friends and enemies.) Instead, you start with a certain amount of Rift Energy, shared completely by your team. You use this energy as currency to build everything that you need. So if you’re on a team of randoms that all decide to build 5 4×4 garages, you’ll run out of currency VERY quickly. This one will require the players to definitely play as a team when it comes to resource management, because if you can’t be effective with what you’re building, you’ve already lost the match.
In the map that we played (we got to play 3 rounds,) items that became available included:
- 4×4 Garages
- Weapons Bunkers
- Walls/Gates, which can be upgraded with turrets
- Automated Turrets
- Anti-Air Beam Weapons
- Warhawk Launch Pads
With the garages and launch pads, only one vehicle appears at a time. After that, you merely have to hit a control panel to build another, for a price (war ain’t free!) One of the coolest things that I figured out was the fact, at least in the CTF mode that we were playing, there were no more territories to capture. You do have a designated area for respawns etc, basically considered “your base,” but this doesn’t mean that you can’t build these things anywhere else on the map (although the costs is a bit higher.) So, as in a typical Warhawk map, it’s basically a mirror-image on each side, so I decided to build a weapons bunker right on the hill that’s directly in the center of the map. The good news is that these structures can be DESTROYED! It’s takes quite a bit, but it can be done even with a handheld rocket launcher.
That same great gameplay from Warhawk still exists, from squadrons of Hawks flying in for bombing strikes, to full jeeps rolling-in to capture the flag from a road behind the base, to taking a Hawk down with a few shots from the handheld rocket launcher, the game feels like would be expected. A couple of tweaks have been added, especially when locking-on to an enemy with your weapons, Now, instead of holding the button down to lock-on, it happens automatically when the enemy is in-sight and is being aimed at. The perspective, especially when on-foot takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, man oh man is it sweet.
Another change is how you spawn-in after dying. Instead of just dying, you now choose a spawn-point in your safe area on the map, and are dropped-in via a rocket-powered pod. Now here’s the cool part, when choosing your spawn-point, you can actually see where teammates are choosing as well, allowing you to coordinate with them if a certain spot is being overrun. Also, if a jeep has happened-in to your base, you can choose that spot to drop-in on. Then, when you’re hurtling-in, you’ll see a bright spot on the ground, which is where you’re going to land. Try to move that spot over the enemy jeep that’s in your base,, and if you succeed, you’ll perform the most powerful kill in the game (yeah, it’ll even take a mech out.) Even more fun, but effective is dropping a bunker on an enemy that’s in your base and trying to hide. In the last round, I had 4 enemies trying to kill me while I hid behind a rock, that is until I saw a shadow of a bunker all around me. I ran as fast as I could (you actually have to hold R2 to run now) but I just wasn’t fast enough to outrun gravity.