FPS, or First Person Shooter games are probably the most popular form of game today. Many companies are trying to get in on this popularity by releasing many types of FPS games, but only a few have what it takes to compete against the big name companies out there. Today for review I have SOF/Raiders from Hypercat Games, it is a Spec Ops type of game in the style of Counter Strike and others of the genre, but it’s tiny, weighing in at around 25Mb total. Is SOF/Raiders worth your money? Read on to see what I found out and check out some in game movies as well…
SOF/Raiders Video Game Review
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: VGSmart and Hyperkat Games
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
The Unit:
Special Operations Forces (SOF), Raiders group. Unacknowledged unit that operates under the command of the USSOCOM. This group is a tech savvy, highly mobile, fast attack unit that can deal with situations where the sponsor can maintain a low profile.
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The Story:
We have reason to believe a paramilitary terrorist cell has been activated within our borders. Our agents discovered they have set up a command center at the old Misty Mountain site. Encrypted messages are being sent from this location to known terrorist groups outside of our borders.
Your mission is to gather intel at the site and shut down that transmitter.
The Game:
This is a first person shooter where you have to gather clues as you move through each of the missions. The 5 sub missions or levels are tied together with a single story to immerse the user in the game. As you complete the levels you can go back and replay any of the ones you have finished to improve your score.
Single Player Features:
Five game levels with three difficulty levels each.
Mission levels can be replayed after completion
Each level has a puzzle to work out while the bullets fly.
Random weather effects each time the game is run.
Silenced SMP – 9 Assault rifle, grenades.
Hawkeye overhead satellite view.
Light level meter for sneaking in the dark.
Night vision equipment, radar and compass.
Interactive Doors, computers, panels that can be destroyed.
Multiple Player Features:
Local Area Network (LAN) based game for up to 8 players.
Internet based game for up to 8 players.
Deathmatch free for all or Teams.
Capture the flag.
User selectable cloak, armor and gun settings.
Extra weapons choice of Shotgun, Sniper Rifle and Grenade Launcher.
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows based PC, Windows 2000, Windows XP Operating System, 1ghz processor speed, 512 meg ram, GEForce 3 video card with 64 meg video ram, 56k internet connection.
A Better Look at Things
and Installation:
Ok, since this is a downloadable game we will just jump right on into the review as there are no box shots for you. After the install, you are greeted with what appears to be a real life picture for the title screen, kinda cool actually.
After the title screen passes you get to the main menu, the background appears to be real life pictures as well. There is a computer in the center of the screen that is supposed to be your interface for the game.
Well of course we have to check out what options are available first off, the graphics option doesn’t have much to offer except for changing screen resolutions, bit depth, type of file for screen shot and whether or not you want the game to be played in full screen mode.
The audio options offer the same minimal options as well. There is no background music in SOF/Raiders.
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The last options would be for the control configuration, while there are many things you can configure I found a few that you couldn’t configure at all like the ‘Use’ or ‘Interface’ button, it is not even on the screen to see it. It is set by default to by ‘U’, but I use a different key configuration, the cursor keys and surrounding keys for game play, and having to jump all the way over to ‘U’ to do something is irritating. The right mouse button cannot be configured either, so much for zoom, or anything else you would like to use it for.
The Main Menu also has an ‘About’ button where you can learn who made the game etc.
Well that’s the basics, you’ll notice there is also a ‘Tutorial’ button on the main menu, I highly suggest playing the tutorial or else you will be lost in the game not knowing which buttons to press, unless of course you read the manual, but how many people actually read the manual…
Let’s get into the next section, I have a few more screen shots for you and five in game movies as well…
Testing and Gameplay:
Ok, when we click the Single Player button we are greeted with the standard mission briefing that we see in most games of this type. The player can also select the difficulty level as well, from multiple choices at the bottom of the screen, that if you really didn’t look you wouldn’t even notice it was there.
Starting the game you get to see another, more in depth mission briefing, where you can see the map of the area and the objectives you need to complete to finish the game.
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The graphics of SOF/Raiders are not like what you would see in big budget games like DOOM, PREY, BF2 etc. The graphics are ok for what they are, the game is only about 23Mbs in size, you can’t really expect super high quality graphics from a program that size. On the screen at the top is a message bar where things that pertain to the game are displayed, like kills, codes for doors and other messages. On the bottom left of the screen is you health and stealth bars, while in the middle is the radar, and the right side is your ammo count for bullets and grenades.
Single player mode set on Easy is, well, Easy, you can keep dying and re-spawning over and over again, your enemies also re-spawn after a while as well. One of the things you can do is search the ‘people’ you kill, searching is done with that ‘U’ key I mentioned earlier, I have found that searching a person is actually quite difficult as when you try and search the ‘activation’ spot is never in the same place and most time is is not even on or near the body, weird… maybe a bug…
Testing and Gameplay Continued:
I’m going to cover the Multiplayer parts of SOF/Raiders briefly as I did play it but there was no one else online every time I tried to play, so I walked around a bit until the level ended…..
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When you start the multiplayer mode you are greeted with your choice of missions or levels to play. You can play Deathmatch, capture the Flag or Attack and Defend styles of play.
The game play is basically all the same, there are a few options you can select for multiplayer like weather effects, no friendly fire etc.
You can also customize your player as well, there are actually lots of choices to customize your character, but you only have about 20 seconds to do this, which is odd to me…
The first game play movie is from the first mission, you can watch the YouTube version or the WMP version HERE.
Here is the first movie:
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Testing and Gameplay Continued:
The next two movies are from the Tutorial:
WMP HERE
The second part:
WMP HERE
The last two movies are from various parts of the game:
Here is the first one on YouTube or Download HERE
And the final movie..
And WMP HERE
One of the things about this game that is truly annoying is the fact that you need to keep running around and doing certain things to continue on, from what I have found that certain thing is basically accessing computers or panels to get information you need. This is done by downloading or hacking the computers and panels, this gives you information for the next mission, or to continue on. I guess the whole point is to gather all the intel as possible. You can’t just go and complete the mission objective, you need to access these things, even if the information received is not that valuable to the mission at hand.
The actual game interface is a bit annoying as well, you have to hit an exact spot to activate things, sometimes you will press the ‘U’ key four or five times to get something to activate, so you really have to make sure that you kill everyone around before trying to do something.
Another goofy aspect is that you can kill someone with one shot with a pistol even if that person is hundreds or yards away, they might look like a spec in the distance, but I found that if you aim just right you can easily hit them in the head. I don’t know anyone that can pull a shot like that off with a pistol…..
Summary:
In the end, SOF/Raiders might not be able to compete with games such as Counter Strike, but it does have it’s own little niche that it fits into. SOF/Raiders will play on almost any system, and is very small so it won’t be using a lot of your system resources. It is an interesting and enjoyable game to play, but there are a few bugs that need working out to make the game more playable and overall more enjoyable. The multiplayer part of the game, well, it needs time to mature and get more players involved to be of any fun.
DragonSteelMods gives SOF/Raiders a 3 out of 5 score.
Pros:
-Small size
-Kinda cool to play
Cons:
-Buggy
-Interface needs work
-Seems like a BETA, not a final release