Playing ShootMania feels like playing a Quake III Arena-era multiplayer shooter: quick nonsense combat with ultra-lethal weapons on small maps filled with jump pads. ShootMania’s been playable in beta form for a while now, and developer Nadeo is planning on launching some new features into the next phase of testing to make movement, map navigation and death even faster.
Like in Nadeo’s TrackMania series, in ShootMania you’ll be able to build custom maps and share them online. In Beta 2, grappling hook nodes can be added into maps. By attaching the nodes to pieces of architecture set high above the ground, you’ll be able to run up, attach and soar over sections of terrain. When you attach, it’s not a pre-set movement animation that kicks in. You’ll swing in the same direction you were moving before you attached. By angling yourself properly you may even be able to soar close enough to another node and fire out your grappling beam again to continue swinging.
Though you can’t shoot while swinging, grappling well can certainly help you reach an important area of the map quickly or drop down to surprise an opponent. The next beta update will also give you more movement options, so in case someone detaches from a grappling point and slams down right in front of you, you won’t necessarily be cornered if your back’s literally up against a wall. By timing key presses just right you’ll be able to wall jump off of surfaces, which can pop you up and away from potentially deadly situations or help you hop up to higher ledges without the need to look for a ramp. Combined with ShootMania’s already deliberately floaty, unrealistic jumping, and there’s actually quite a bit to learn about effective movement to be successful in battle. Mid-jump, for instance, you can glide through midair for a limited time, which is useful for throwing off an attacker’s timing or clearing large gaps.
Weapons also take a little getting used to. There are no ammunition pickups in ShootMania. In the matches I played, I started with an energy weapon that could fire four shots before it needed to be recharged. Each shot was a slow-moving projectile, so hitting anything at a distance required an accurate prediction of an enemy’s position and precision timing regarding exactly when to fire. I missed many times, and most of those times I missed badly. Even so, this system resulted in some thrilling close-range fights as I was forced to quickly switch directions to throw off my opponent’s fire while trying to set up a kill shot.
Because it only takes two shots to die, every landed shot is a big deal. The first shot blasts off your shield, which can be regenerated by standing still on a specific pad in the environment for a few seconds. In the maps I played those pads were out in the open which meant that, considering how easy it is to die, choosing to regenerate shields was a pretty big risk.
Weapon pickup positions are located around map, but they don’t function like standard weapon pickups. If you’re on a sniper pad, for instance, you can only use the sniper rifle while still on the pad. As soon as you step off, your weapon automatically switches back to the basic four-shot cannon. So while you get the benefit of using a weapon that’s far more effective at long range, everyone knows exactly where you’ll be if you’re using a sniper rifle. Rules like this help ensure that the most skilled players, not simply those who collected the best gun, wind up winning each round.
There are multiple modes of play in ShootMania, which range from standard deathmatch modes to stranger variations. In one team-based mode, for instance, there’s a switch in the map’s center that when hit activates an Off-Zone, a wall of instant death, that contracts around the activation point. This forces all still alive to the map’s center and leaves only a tiny space to fight, ensuring the match ends quickly.
Scheduled to launch on January 23, ShootMania Storm seems like it could be a good choice for anyone looking for fast Unreal Tournament-style multiplayer shooting. Given what Nadeo’s dedicated community of modders has produced for its TrackMania games over the years, it’ll be especially interesting to see what happens when the same creation and sharing tools are applied to a first-person shooter.
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