| RecWarWillem Janssen | RecWar is a high-octane 2D top-down vehicle shooter and is one of the few good games existing in this genre. What has this game got to offer, you may ask? Well for one, it's free. But it also serves up a nice mix of explosive action, deadly weapons, and an almost unhealthy competitive environment as 1 to 2 players battle it out on the one computer or 1 to 4 compete over LAN.
There are three armoured combat vehicles to choose from: The tank, the hummer, and the hovercraft. Before you begin, you may partially customize your vehicle of choice. You can define the colours (important in team play) and emblem of your war machine. I opted for the more psychedelic "freak out" sixties colour scheme of course. Bots can also be configured and have the extra option of favouring a particular weapon or varying in use. Designating certain weapons to each bot is certainly a good way of familiarising yourself with the game's arsenal and learning how to counteract the various attacks.
You will also find in the main menu, three typical modes of play that make a regular appearance in most games that involve maiming something or someone. The modes are as follows: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Cow (it sounds less typical, but it's essentially the same as CTF). It's possible to play with up to 62 bots or none at all. I wouldn't recommend going above 30 however, unless you like things slow and unsteady. Capture the Cow must be played.
The game mechanics are fairly easy to grasp. You have 8 weapons with unlimited ammo at your disposable (except for the land mines) and you must destroy your opponents for points. Combat pretty much consists of steer, kill, die and repeat; a simple formula, but one that works well owing to the high paced nature of the game. The three vehicles each have their slight differences too, for example: the hovercraft can easily traverse water but is unable to fully rotate the mounted turret, while the tank struggles on water but has full rotation of its turret. I usually stick with the tank as I find it to be overall, a well-rounded vehicle.
The available arsenal has nice variation and the guns really do pack a punch, which adds to the satisfaction of a kill. However I would have liked if at least some drops appeared randomly on the playing field, such as health or temporary abilities. I was also dismayed by the fact that your spawn point offered no shielding when you respawned. Often I was returned to glorious life, only to have it cut short by the neighbouring tank in the spawn next to me.
Playing this game with a buddy is definitely a must as the level of enjoyment goes up a notch. If you are without one, playing solo with the bots is still challenging. I was quite impressed by the artificial intelligence, especially in Capture the Cow mode. You will see them alternating between defence and assault. They also follow orders pretty well, which is a plus. Unfortunately they are pretty susceptible to friendly fire which can't be toggled on or off. Allocation of the bots in team play is also somewhat iffy, as teams have a tendency to end up imbalanced or stacked.
Graphically speaking, it's okay. There are some nice little touches here and there, such as destroyed opponents temporarily leaving behind a burnt out chassis. The terrain or landscape is not really eye catching, but you are mostly focused on the combat anyway. I thought the sound effects were all very good. There's no music to comment on and that isn't a bad thing. I couldn't see the point of music in this game as it would be drowned out by players swearing viciously at each other anyway.
Although RecWar could do with a lick of a polish in different areas, it really does offer an amazing amount of fun and playability considering how compact it is. Give it a go; it is but a small download away from being on your computer.
Resi out.
*Note: Site listed is the unofficial RecWar webpage, as the official is no longer active. |
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