Is anyone in on this? Last week they released the final early-backer steam keys, for the low-paying scrubs like myself. I backed it last year, and had actually got sick of reading updates about it to the point where I wasn't interested, but when I played it...wow. Well worth the wait.
https://warofrights.com/
For the uninitiated:
FPS set in the American Civil War. Early access, but very playable. Has a bunch of cool stuff that other FPS games don't go for, including:
- no scoreboard. No place here for leety-mcleetleet and his e-peen.
- teamwork is essential. Penalties for dying out of formation and lone-wolfing. Can skirmish but death leads to a greater morale hit for the team (there's a team-wide morale system which is pretty essential).
- takes time to steady the aim. No spinning 360 headshots, as the big ol' rifled muskets take a few seconds after raising to become aimable. And even then, chances are the shot won't hit. But a line of 20 soldiers firing a coordinated volley might do some damage.
- nco's, officers, and flag-bearers. They get to draw the lines where the grunts go and die, and the flagman doesn't get a weapon, but can act as a mobile spawnpoint.
- fog of war. The smoke from the muskets lingers and obscures vision, and gives an indication of wind direction for when firing downrange. Saw a wave of our own reinforcements mercilessly (and somewhat hilariously) gunned down by a volley from our own disorientated line, despite cries over the positional VOIP.
Tends to favour the slower, methodical playstyles that don't lend themselves to modern FPS/twitch games. They're aiming for an educational element as well as slaughter, and it works well. Currently goes up to 75 players a side.
Here's some screenies of some action from last night. The Union boys were assaulting a rebel bridge. We formed up behind a wall, popping up in unison to fire a volley, then hunkering back down to reload. And then a comical bayonet charge over the bridge. Have a look at all the people working together, not seen that level of teamwork in any other FPS:
To my right...
To my left...
...with the officers and flag-bearers behind us. Here's what you get at the end of the round, no K/D, no individual score, just who capped that point and a breakdown of the team deaths:
Charging across a pontoon into the yankee lines:
Didn't end well. I led the next one, and under heavy suppression got within 50 yds:
We tried a different bridge:
Which also failed, landing us back at deployment - showing off the tasty maps which they've put some work into:
Shaping up to be a real nice game. Those are on high settings @1440p. Frames are 30-70, mostly all over the place with it being alpha, but they don't dip too low for me.