Auto Assault: Stratics Takes AA For a Test Drive

I've been an online gamer for over 8 years, more specifically a UO player. Nothing else has ever offered me enough fun to take time away from what little game time I do have to play UO. I've played a lot of stand alone games over the years when I see something fun but I know they are only a temporary distraction. That is until now.

One of our Stratics Staff has been beta testing Auto Assault by Net Devil and raving about it, so I finally checked out their web site to read up a bit on what had him so exited. My first reaction was scepticism, too fast paced for my type of gaming. I'm an old man compared to most gamers and I play to relax, not for excitement. My job is stressful enough thank you very much. But they talked me into the 2 day open beta weekend, in spite of my PC only meeting the recommended minimum requirements at that time (minimum game requirements have since been lowered). After the 2 day free beta I went out and bought the pre-order on Monday. This Game is Awesome! My UO friends know not to expect me in UO on Wednesday nights or the weekends anymore.

"The Fastest, Most Destructive MMORPG Ever!", just does not do this game justice, it's so much more. At first glance and even the first few hours of game play may seem like that's all it is, driving around in high speed vehicles armed and armored, killing everything you can find and destroying anything in your path. But after playing for awhile you'll find there is much more to this game than meets the eye.

Lets begin back at the web site. Well laid out and easy to navigate, well worth exploring. Very informative as well. Tutorials for the game, community boards for discussions and to report bugs (this is still in beta after all), and a definite, very active presence of the development team. All the information you could want is there including - one of my favorite parts - a history. They have written a detailed Sci-Fi back story that has a reasonable plot and makes sense. It's up to you to join in and influence the outcome.

The setting is 23rd Century Post-apocalyptic Earth. In the early 21st century there had been a meteor shower which left behind contamination that was causing human mutations. The Mutants became so numerous they started to form their own colonies and society. In an effort to control the mutants, humans created robot military units, when those proved ineffective they tried Bio-Mechanical Soldiers. Human volunteers and some not so voluntary were fitted with mechanical appendages and organs so they could survive the contamination. While these Bio-Mechs proved much more effective in eliminating the Mutants it became apparent that mutations were not going to stop. By the end of the 21st century the world leaders decided to move a very small population of the elite - doctors, scholars, top scientists etc. - to underground bunkers designed to house them for 100 years, and then destroy all life on the surface. Fast Forward 100 years, it is now early 23rd century and it's time for humans to come back to the surface and see what has grown out of the ashes of their sterilization project. Much to their surprise things have only gotten worse, the Mutants have survived and flourished, and the Bio-Mechs have also survived and are quite pissed off at being left for dead. The entire world is nothing but rubble thanks to the sterilisation project and add radiation contamination to the contamination from the meteor, which has since been found to be of alien origin. I don't do the story justice at all, please read their version here.

While all that would be enough to create a game where the humans were tasked with trying to reclaim the surface, the folks at Auto Assault have taken it a step further, you can choose your species. You can remain a human who's goal it is to reclaim control of Earth and attempt to destroy the Mutants as well as the now independent Bio-Mechs. Embrace the contamination and become a Mutant and use it as your empowerment. Transform into Bio-Mech who believes that they are the next logical step in evolution, a technologically superior race that can survive on Earth in it's current condition. The stage is set, choose your alliance and let the role playing begin. Your only goal is to claim dominance of the planet, or what's left of it, and prove superiority of your race. Oh yeah, and to destroy everything in sight along the way!

So lets talk about these choices for a minute, character creation, lots of choices. Not only can you choose between the 3 species but each one has 4 classes of characters, basic fighter, healer, intellectual or spiritual leader, and assassin. Naturally you can choose male or female characters and I have yet to find any difference between them other than visual, no sex specific armor weapons etc. like other games have done. Each character has a selection of body styles which change the looks of your character's clothing armor etc. you can also choose from different hair styles and colors, skin tones, and some accessories like helmet, eye wear, mouth piece, and even eye color. Each character class comes with a specific vehicle type, you can change colors, tires, paint scheme and name your vehicle whatever you want.

Now for the game play, lets face it, nobody buys a game because it has a good premise or a cool web site. You begin your life in Auto Assault appropriately in Drivers Ed, of course you must learn proper driver safety before you're allowed to go out and destroy the world with your vehicle. Drivers Ed is a mini tutorial that teaches you the basic controls, interface and mechanics of the game. I must admit never having played a console game I had a really hard time driving with my keyboard. I pulled out my Thrustmaster driving wheel, tinkered with game settings a bit and tried it again. Steering is a little touchy but otherwise it works great. Seems a little more realistic to me as well, to actually have a wheel and peddles to drive with as well as weapon triggers at my fingertips.

Once you finish your Drivers Ed you're given a new quest and sent out into the real world of Auto Assault. The first map you enter is a relatively small area where you can really get a feel for the game. You get some experience driving the vehicle as well as killing and blowing up stuff while completing the early quests. Now the killing and blowing up stuff is just plain fun. One of my favorite quotes from a player in the game, "This is the most mindless, senseless, FUN game I've ever played." Although not completely mindless it sure is fun. There has been considerable thought put into the story line and the quest system does require you do more than aimlessly drive around destroying everything in sight. More like destroying everything in sight through guided quests. Quest are an essential part of Auto Assault, they acquaint you with the area you're playing in as well as teach you how to play as you go along. Quests are also valuable for skill gain, you receive a substantial amount more skill completing quests than you do just driving around killing stuff. They also direct you to the areas suited to your current level. You'll also learn more about playing the game and the history behind it by completing the quest. If you complete all the available quests in that first area you should be around level 5 when you are first sent to the safety of a town to work on new quests and learn more of the game's features.

When you arrive in town you park and exit your vehicle and can see your character for the first time. Here you'll first get to use the crafting system. More quests will lead you through the basics of collecting resources and turning them into usable materials, then crafting usable items out of the materials. The crafting system based on the theory that you can make things better than the stuff you can find or buy, and with the right skills you can even enhance what you do find and make it better. Though I haven't actually gotten far enough into the game to prove this theory. You'll learn how to craft weapons, armor, engines, and more, however you'll only be capable of specializing in a few. You'll have to rely on trading with others.

In addition to the crafting system there are specialized skills one can learn too. These are skills that range from things like self repair and repairing allies to creating bots or drones to help you in battle. Skills that improve your attack or defence. Like the crafting system you'll never be able to specialize in all skills so choose wisely.

You'll also find vendors and other useful NPCs to interact with in town. There is a weapons dealer, armor shop, power plant and tire shop, salvage yard, body shop, facilities for crafting, and several NPCs to hand out quests and help you along. There is also a housing complex, after you accomplish certain quests your reward is a key for an apartment. You can enter your apartment alone or with a group to have a meeting to plan an assault or just hang out and socialize with friends. There are some customizations available at a cost, things like lighting and a terminal where you can purchase supplies from the comfort of home. There is the body shop where you can customize the appearance of your ride, add brush guard style pipes, vents, or other accessories, paint your vehicle or change the paint scheme. A new car dealer where, when you reach the appropriate level and have enough money, you can purchase a new vehicle.

Speaking of vehicles, there are over 150 different chassis available in the game so far. Vehicles come equipped with a turret mounted weapon and have open slots for a front and rear mounted weapons. You can also change weapons, tires, engines, ignitions, armor and other components of your vehicle. One of the nicer features is that you can right click any item in your inventory that you are able to equip and it will swap with what was there. Makes it really easy to change weapons for different situations on the fly. Find a nice engine or flame thrower, drop it right in and start using it. I find the the crawler my terminator uses to be much easier to drive than the scrapmaster my constructor drives. Why? Because they handle like they look, the scrapmaster is heavy, slow, and top heavy.

That brings me to the world they created. This place is Huge! With real world physics that work. I'm amazed at how large and complex of a world they have managed to load into a PC game. This is a vast sprawling landscape of small towns and encampments strewn throughout the desolate remains and contamination that once was the earth we know now. When I say physics that work, I mean that things react to the physical restraints of our world as you expect them to. The handling of the different vehicles is a perfect example. Your traction changes depending on what terrain you are on and the tires you are using. Objects you run into have the proper amount of resistance, hitting a motorcycle is far different than hitting a truck. Not everything holds true but they are still working on it.

There is also an in game chat system which I have some mixed feelings about. First I find it distracting, however informative. May just be something I need to get used to. This is an open chat with everyone, so at times there can be a lot of conversations. There are filtering mechanisms but then I felt like it would be rude to put everyone on ignore...

There is also a PvP aspect of Auto Assault as well. Two types in fact. First is Arena style fighting where you can square off against an opponent or have team matches. These are scored and you can view your rank in the PvP community online. There are also tournaments which are scored and ranked. Then there is also Ground Zero where the 3 Species fight for control of the Central Wastelands. That I believe to be an open PvP area where you do literally fight for control of resources and loot in the area.

Last thing I want to mention is Support. I had a few problems in the beginning, one related to upgrading my account from a free weekend to pre-order account. The other technical issue which were resolved buy upgrading drivers on my PC, (always a smart thing to do when you are beta testing a new game that may rely on new drivers). In both cases these were email support tickets, not live in game. In both cases I received an initial response in 45 minutes. In the case of the account problem they had to forward it to a different department and I heard back from them in half an hour. I did take a few hours to get that fixed but they were very good about getting back to me very quickly and started working on the issue immediately. There were a few emails back and forth to the effect of, "We think we found the problem please try it now" and "Nope still can't get in", until they did get it fixed, which at least let me know someone was actively working on it. Very responsive and efficient.

I could go on and on about how impressed I am with this game, but you'll never know until you try it yourself. The game is scheduled for a mid to late April release, I'd highly recommend you put a little money aside and a lot of time, once you start playing this game you won't want to stop. I'll leave you with another quote I heard in game from a player who was on the last File Planet Beta Weekend, "I'm gonna be so bummed on Monday when this is over."

Ghost Writer
Stratics Reporter