On a man-made floating city called the Ark, Civil war is on the Brink of starting. The Ark which was built as an experimental self-sufficient and 100% “green” habitat, the reported rapid rise of the Earth’s oceans has forced the Ark to become a refuge for humanity. Crammed with the original Ark founders, their descendants, as well as tens of thousands of refugees, the Ark exists in total isolation from the rest of the world. With 25 years of social unrest, the inhabitants of the Ark have reached their breaking point. It’s up to you to decide the future of the Ark and the human race.
Upon starting the game you are given a choice. You can Save the Ark or you can Escape The Ark. Choosing one pretty much decides which side of the story you will be focusing on. You can either be a part of the Resistance or a part of the Ark Security Force. I found that you are able to play both sides no matter what you choose at the beginning of the game. I feel that if you choose a side you should be locked into that side only for that particular character. None the less gameplay is great, it was a lot of fun switching between Resistance and Security. While carrying out missions no matter the difficulty its up to, you to make sure the objectives are carried out. This is where the class selection comes into play. Depending on the class you choose (there are 4 of them Soldier, Engineer, Operative, and Medic) each class can accomplish specific objectives. All I am saying is don’t expect a Medic to do a soldier’s job.
Now on to player customization. When first announced, Splash Damaged promised that player customization would be really deep. Boy did they keep their promise. You can change your hairstyle, facial scars, facial hair, body tattoos, facial tattoos, helmets, and more. You can pretty much stand out from the crowd with the many styles you can sport in the game. You can also set your body type and each type has its own set of attributes. Each body type also allows a different set of parkour skills. A heavy body type can take a beating and keep on kicking, but to me lacks speed, agility and doesn’t have much parkour skills. Light body type which allows you to run like the wind, leap like a frog but the health bar is VERYY low. With these kind of attributes Light can pretty much allow you to escape a fire fight. A medium body type is a balance between the two. Depending on how you want to play the game you can choose from the three.
The guns on here are pretty much standard. There is a wide variety of guns you can pick from. If you do play the Heavy class you will see that there are a few more guns for you. Each gun can be customized with different sights, grips and magazine cartridges. Its pretty much like Call of Duty:BO multi-player but you can put 1 add-on per slot on the weapon. While I am talking about the weapons, the audio on them all sound great. I just wanna speak on some of the guns reaction. To me shotguns don’t do much damage unless you are up close and personal with the enemy. When I say close I mean like you are gonna kiss them. I prefer the SMG’s as most of the battles are short to medium range and this gun works best.
While I did not get to touch multi-player the game plays as if it was always online. Meaning if your playing a game and you have it visible others players as well as your friends can join in and help you with the fight. So expect randoms to jump in and out of your matches. Now onto to my gripes with the game. There is no split screen Co-Op. Why is this? I mean it would be so much fun and much easier to play if I had the option to play together with someone on one screen. It’s really frustrating especially when you wanna play with a friend and you can’t. No female characters? Really you couldn’t add ONE female character? It’s a real slap in the face to female gamers. How come there aren’t any female characters? Yes, other FPS don’t have female characters, but this felt like it needed to have a female character. I’d also like to add that the game has no replay value. Its like you play it, you beat it, and you’re done.
In summary I feel this game is a rental if your into team based games. This is for players who play objective based games and are not about the run and gun type of first-person shooter. This game is somewhat similar to Borderlands and Team Fortress 2. With all the hype that came with this game when it was announced last year at E3 the game is somewhat a let down.
