Mobile Forces Hands-On

Thanks to our buds and rabid Michael Owen and David Beckham fans - he's from Liverpool I think - Rage Software, we got a chance to play test their latest game in development, Mobile Forces. Hey, this one's from the guys who created Incoming, one of the first true 3D accelerated shooters to make us wish we had enough cash to buy a 3dfx card. 'Nuff said I think.

You need a shave buddy, come here.

It's too quiet around here.

This is Rage's first try at first-person shooters, and we're delighted to inform you that this MF holds one helluva Unreal-powered kick that should make every true shooter fan rub his hands in glee. But why call the game Mobile Forces? Simple really: In addition to the fast FPS action, this multiplayer-only shooter features some awesome racing and plenty of vehicles to go around. Yeah, you've seen all this before in Tribes 2 and Renegade, but not like this. The racing thrill you get from driving a buggy in Mobile Forces is quite unique. And that seems to be one of the game's main strengths. Now; I'm not referring to the vehicles and the racing mode itself. I was thinking more of the way the game manages to innovate, although one wouldn't immediately realize just how and why by reading the specs.

I would have to say that you need to play the game to figure it out, and that is mainly because you cannot put to words the little tricks that Rage programmers implemented to the physics engine, and it is the excellent physics engine that truly separates Mobile Forces from the rest of the lot. You can feel the difference when you drive one of the vehicles or shoot a gun; and let's face it - isn't that the most important aspect of any serious multiplayer (mobile) shooter - to feel comfortable with the weapons and vehicles? Not only does the physics engine make driving a lot more fun (especially the spins), it also adds considerable pace to the gameplay and it makes the weapons much more skill-dependant (high recoil - in accordance to the weapon's firing rate and its penetration power). When you hit something with your vehicle and it makes a few spins, the camera rotates accordingly to simulate the disorienting effect of the spin. Really fun arcade racer stuff. And you just gotta see the explosions. Large chunks of metal fly high in the air and bounce off the ground when they fall, adding some serious OOMPH! to your regular PC shooter explosions. So it's the serious tweaking of the physics that allows this Unreal powered shooter to stand out, along with some neat little details implemented by the designers.

Since Mobile Forces is an offline/online multiplayer only shooter, it comes with full AI bot support. I got to play the demo against both the bots and my fellow colleagues, and let me tell you: the bots aren't there just for show! They'll strafe and use the weapons and vehicles effectively. Of course, the true test for every player is playing against other humans, and this is where Mobile Forces truly excels. In a nutshell, it offers plenty of shooting and vehicles, but it also offers 8 different game modes. Along with traditional Deathmatch, Capture The Flag and Domination game types you'll also find other modes such as Trailer, Captains, Detonation, and more. Detonation - cool explosions... you go ahead and put two and two together.

In the full game, the players will get to drive and frag across eleven environments including docks, shopping malls, Mexican desert, ice bases, airports, storm drains, rail yards and warehouses. We got to play the demo on some sort of Western-themed map that looks to be set up for assault / CTF type of gameplay. The map was well-designed with clear, straightforward paths to blue and red bases (incidentally, that's what the game's all about - blues against reds), and with plenty of polys to go around.

Step on it man!

Forget bungee jumping, you gotta try this! Weeeeee!

This brings me to another very important aspect of the game. I played it on my GeForce 3 / Athlon XP 1600+ rig, and my FPS didn't drop below 40 at 1280x1024 and in 32-bit palette.

Mobile Forces features a dynamic class system that allows players to decide how they play - you can change your class at any point during the game without having to wait for a respawn or new round to commence. This will undoubtedly only enhance the gameplay experience, as it might bring even more tempo to an already fast shooter / racer.

Finally, a few words about the weapons -- as I've mentioned earlier, the physics model plays an important role here. Just wait till you witness the devastating power of the rocket launcher. If you look more closely at one of the screenshots, you'll see a player model flying 20m in the air, as he just got blown away by my RL. If the gameplay can generally be considered arcadish, then the weapons definitely balance this arcade feel a bit with their well-implemented recoil and damage model. Granted, the dev. team still has some tweaking to do, but I immediately picked out two of my favorites: the assault rifle for its flexibility and semi-zoom option, and the absolutely awesome heavy machine gun; with its penetrating power and high rate of fire. You cannot just shoot this weapon, as you need to mount it first. Naturally, this kills any chance of movement, but it makes this weapon an awesome defensive option to hold the forth while the enemy vehicles try to invade. All the weapons have secondary fire modes, and I especially enjoyed the knife throwing. Yeah, you can throw the knife and surprise your opponent when he least expects it. I find this decision by the developers quite understandable, because the knife is the default weapon, and you need to have something to defend yourself when you run out of ammo. Each team member can carry 'primary weapons' unless you opt for a heavy machine gun, and then you're allowed to have only one. Hey, but don't worry... the heavy machine gun has plenty of bullets to go around, so be sure to mount it on a nice vintage point, and calmly lay in wait. My other favorite weapon combo was the assault rifle and the sniper. With these weapons you get both versatility and long-range kills.

There's so much more to be said about this game. You can let your buddy jump in the back of the buggy and provide covering fire, and boy oh boy, Carmageddon better watch out 'because running over enemy soldiers can be devilishly fun! We're getting a new BETA build from rage pretty soon, and they tell me they've done some more tweaking to the game.