Facebook’s massive user-base is regularly exposed to a library often forgotten by gaming outlets, it’s time to dig in.
Many of you will have read last week that Facebook has achieved 1.86billion users (if not then this Engadget piece is a fine synopsis), and while it’s easy to dismiss the gigantic number with users having multiple accounts, spam accounts, and accounts left by people who have moved on -either from Facebook, or life itself- it demands a little respect.
Indeed, my initial reaction when I saw it was “I know at least a dozen people with over five accounts each, for various reasons”, as well as the fact that I know of at least half that number of accounts maintained for friends -or family- that I’ve lost over the years. One of these ‘various reasons’ was to boost themselves on the old Facebook games; although when I say ‘Facebook Games’ I mean Mafia Wars, Cafe World, Farmville, and that cool physics one on the planets which was a bit like Scorched Earth/Worms although got bogged down -as with all of them- in micro-transactions as it went on.
Facebook games were always dominated with timers, and shortcut micro-transactions; although efforts had definitely been made in getting other titles onto the platform; notoriously OnLive and some of it’s contemporaries had tried to launch the streaming service on it, and bigger publishers and companies opened studios to try and fill up some of the rapidly expanding market.
So, I thought to myself, rather than dismissing this, let’s embrace it. And so, fair readers, I took to Facebook, downloaded their ‘Facebook Gameroom’ client and dived in.
I should add, as I’m sure you’re aware, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed.
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Here’s The Skinny
That picture above is, at time of writing, the Facebook Games page. I decided it was best to play through the first five featured titles. This decision was made because, frankly, what kind of marketplace would feature stuff they were embarrassed with?
In retrospect that was a silly question because many places, like shops, recommend stuff they don’t give a damn about, with featured actually meaning ‘paying’ – although I’ve not sought out whether this is the case with Facebook or not.
I should clarify, I was quite impressed with a couple of these, and, as you’ll find, very unimpressed with a couple as well.
So, without further ado.
Gameroom Featured: There’s Poop In My Soup
Right. This is obviously first because of the fact that it has a mascot character with a moustache who is very clearly a dollop of chocolate ice cream. With 100’000 players the game couldn’t be all that bad, even with the ridiculous pretence, surely.
Despite the labelling as an Action Game, TPIMS is actually more of a physics/timing exercise with the player controlling a person near the top of the screen who happens to have a bottom for a face; with WSAD -or through a dragging motion with the controller- you move a cone of light around, and then click to fire. As you can no doubt imagine, the projectiles are clearly meant to be faeces, and the aim of the game is to score high by clearly an objective list, or landing solid hits on the strange, mutated MII-lookalikes that form the populous. This is accomplished by lining up the aforementioned cone with either the target (considering projectile speed) or a bouncy surface which will propel it towards another location as per game logic.
After completing tasks from your ‘To Poo List’ which serves as a list of objectives, you unlock more ammunition as well as more powerful attacks. You see, once you’re out of ammo -which starts as a meagre five- you have to restart again, albeit with your objective progress in place.
The game suffers spelling errors, a repetitive soundtrack, as well as a major content shortage; the game’s multiple characters includes various arse-faced sorts including a surprisingly detailed version of the -at time of posting- President of the United States. There’s a handful of levels, including China, which a message hints may have been a reason for adding POTUS to the game; although I should think that being immortalised in a Facebook game wherein characters gob body waste over strangers from misplaced rectums is the least of their worries at the moment.
Recommendation: Wonky Pidgeon or Sploot, would probably better serve you that this, and Sploot is -like this- free. I certainly laughed at this, but sadly I was laughing at it, rather than with it.
Gameroom Featured: Traffic Motorbike
So! This looks pretty good. I mean, it’s obviously made in Unity, which is given away due to the game’s textures and map, even in the image above; but as with any of the pre-fab engines, a creative can make the toolset dance. I quite like Motorbike games, and from the start-up screen it’s very reminiscent of some other motorcycle games I’ve plated lately.
It’s another 100’000 player title, and is listed as simulation rather than sports or, the sometimes appropriate, arcade.
I boot into the recommended mode on the recommended bike -basically hammering NEXT a few times until I get into the game itself- and I was away. I skipped past a few menus, there were about 8/9 bikes, and you could upgrade several stats. Unlike TPIMS this game has micro-transactions, and I even got a warning about it! The screen after bike selection showed of several modes including Derby, Freeroam, and a few more.
In Traffic Mode, you ride around the game world and damage vehicles because you are a vehicular bully. Coins, the games soft currency, are achieved by simply existing in the world.
I rode around on a 125cc bike, a high-pitched whinge that wore away at my existence within about three minutes. I explored the entire map, which is probably about 100 blocks, having a look around the agricultural and business lots and yards, finding very little traffic and almost nothing to do. The acceleration and turning felt alright actually, however clipping things, turning too fast, or plain old touching things were non-damaging and, well, much like the game’s world, unremarkable.
When I say unremarkable, I don’t mean building distribution, or assets used in the game, those are fine. What I mean is that there’s nothing to actually do in the game, and even the most mundane and dross sounding simulators have event and objective systems within them. This has nothing, this is a bike asset, well animated and coded, in a world of nothing.
I then tried another mode, just in case the Traffic mode had actually been a freeroam mode of sorts. Other modes were more generous with coins, however I found that the longer I played the game the greater the chance of the controls not actually working on spawn became. This continued until I was having to restart on four-out-of-five starts because the keys were completely unresponsive. As a further negative, some game starts simply started you in the air where the spawn point had slipped up the Y-axis due to some unseen collision.
The game was poorly localised, with spelling errors on nearly every loading screen; in addition to this, despite having lock symbols on them in the menu, you could actually ride any of the vehicles without spending a single coin.
Traffic Motorbike honestly felt like an unfinished demo, in its current state it’s quite the embarrassment, not just to play, but also for the engine. There’s some good ideas here, but it needs a lot of work.
Recommendation: If you are looking for open-world you can’t go far wrong with Burnout Paradise, it still holds up after all this time. If you’re looking for something a bit more arcade-like, then I can’t help but recommend Super Night Riders on Steam.
Gameroom Featured: Critical Ops (C-OPS)
One. Million. Players. That’s loads! As a matter of fact, that’s just over 0.5 percent of the Facebook community! It turns out, I’m thankful to say, that it is for good reason too.
I’m not going to beat about the bush, Critical Ops is so close to CS:GO that there’s a high chance that even people who haven’t played Valve’s eSports sensation would recognise it as such. C-OPs is a first person shooter with a cash-for-kills system that runs through it’s one-life, team-based, Terrorist-VS-Counter-Terrorist-Someone-Set-Us-Up-The-Bomb game mode.
You use that cash to buy from an array of weapons, pistols up to revolvers, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles and grenades. So, very similar to CS:GO. As a matter of fact, the game even features clans, a rank system, and a charming chat system, easily as welcoming as it’s distant cousin.
The pull? Much like it’s Steam counterpart the game has unlock chests which contain skins for your weapons, these are awarded occasionally, but can also be bought with cash-money-cash.
So, I’ve talked a lot about what it shares in common with CS:GO, that’s not to say it has done it badly. The game is responsive, the hit-detection is great, and everything seems very well balanced. It does however, do a few things different, and does them very well too.
C-OPS’ maps feel a lot smaller, and feel a lot busier. Canal, pictured above, is a map that plays on verticality. The core of the map is a simple three lane map, with the outer ring forming a 30 second walk between bomb sites and opposing spawn points. There is, however a set of stairs, which essentially weaponises a lower level of the canal, meaning that when you are crossing the bridge you have to not just look ahead and to your side, but also downwards for skulking sharpshooters.
The maps are busy as well, desks and statues, bikes and bins among other things give the maps an occupied look – it’s all quite well done. That said, Canals is definitely C-OPs’ Dust2, It took some deliberate server scouring to get me off the map.
At the moment the game is listed as in alpha; I couldn’t find a roadmap for the game, but this is actually something I feel is definitely worth watching out for, I think the team can achieve great things on the foundation they’ve built here. (Even if they do end up getting bought out by Nexon or Valve.)
Recommendation: If you’re one of the 16 people who don’t own CS:GO yet, but would really like it then this is a solid alternative. As a matter of fact, even if you own GO this is worth a quick shot; it’s available on mobile and is just as responsive, load times are fast, and there’s ample matches going on.
Gameroom Featured: Deer Hunter 2017
So, as evidenced by the last game on this list, I’m pretty cool with shooting, stabbing, bludgeoning, and blowing-up people in games. Hunting games tend to sit wrong with me, call me soft if you wish.
There’s multiple reasons, not just a respect-for-wildlife driven dislike of the sport, it’s mainly the fact that the games tend to be shallow on a mechanical level. Even that humble forefather Duck Hunt with the Zapper was a case of hunting-lite; the targets were dropped in front of you, it wasn’t a case of patience. There’s other things too, the experience of hunting requires not just patience, but also a strange, resting alertness. In that way it’s similar to fishing, and… I play fishing games.
So, that’s my background here. Onward with the game!
Deer Hunter 2017 is actually very well detailed, each of the weapons (and it’s upgrades) are rendered well in game, and while smaller upgrades are not visible on the weapons, instead serving to gate away certain hunts, the larger ones and weapon shifts are visibly different.
The animals, that you’ll be shooting through their vital organs, or in the head, are well animated, and move along the various settings (you unlock more as the game progresses) in a mostly realistic fashion, although the game is really something of a sideshow. You can sidle left and right, free-aim with your weapon, or look down the sights and switch on various weapon upgrades – including an early unlock which allows you to see the various key organs of your targets.
Hunts work on an energy system, although the game is extremely generous with the stamina – I completed about 40 hunts before I ran out of the stuff. Hunts are extremely quick affairs, single, simple objectives like ‘Down the Moose by destroying it’s lung’, or ‘kill two bears’ are common and the creatures are already in front of you, or at least approaching, most of the time.
What this means is that the game is a quick sequence of, click mission, click proceed, point at animal (press E for organ-view if needed), click to fire, watch slow-mo bullet hit target, win the hunt, metal riff plays as you get paid bucks, back to menu. It all takes place within about a minute.
The game features multiple weapons, as well as multiple locations to kill animals in, which are all as realistic as I would imagine. It all looks very pretty as well, but it’s very, very shallow. As well as that, those 20 minutes of 30+ hunts were outlined by prompts to buy premium cash and shortcut the steep jumps between the starting content and the new “With Dogs!” content.
In closing, it’s a great game on a visual level, but shallow thanks to it’s potshot nature. With no actual stalking, or perceivable bullet drop, the slow-mo payout felt like a comma rather than the full-stop that I suspect real hunting gives.
Recommendation: If you like snap-second potshots then I guess this is completely fine. Personally if I’m going to play a game where you’re killing animals then I’d much rather have the ‘Hunt’ of hunting in the game. theHunter: Call of the Wild is launching later this year and brings the stalking and tracking to PC with single player and multiplayer. If you’re curious about what I was eluding to with fishing games then head over to the crusty old Sierra help site and download the demo for Trophy Bass 2, that’s a proper hunting game.
Gameroom Featured: Star Wars: Commander
As I initially glanced across the list of five featured games I’d be covering with this article, it was Star Wars: Commander that alone gave me pause. I’m very familiar with the setting, I’ve read comics, poured over the lore of the games, and work with a few big fans of the series. Yet, I’ve never watched the films (don’t really need to), and so my idea of the narrative is a jumbled, out-of-order rendition as taught by the Lego Star Wars games.
SW: Commanders would also either be completely licensed by Disney, and held to high standards, or be a quick-shot clone trading on the franchise.
My final concern was that the game seemed very clearly to be one of the social-strategy genre that I eluded to at the onset of the post. Games which strip out the pace and tension of the RTS genre, instead adding build delays and major unit queues which can be cleared, or expedited if you grease the palms of the developers with in-app purchases.
As is obvious I’ve not really played one of these games since the formative days of Facebook as a gaming platform; although I did have one of the various Clash games, and a Three-Kingdoms era ‘MMORTS’ (but not really) installed on my phones which I had a dabble with.
Back in late 2011 I interviewed a figurehead from Bossa Studios, Henrique Olifers, on the studio’s first title ‘MonsterMind’, which they cited as The World’s First Anti-Social Game. What they meant by this is that you would build up your base, and rather than sharing and aiding your friends you’d instead be launching attacks against them. At the time they were the first developer to do this, everything before had been about co-operating to mutually benefit, as opposed to competing to drive growth. Needless to say, Bossa hit on something big, and birthed a mechanic that is now core to all of these faux RTS titles.
Star Wars: Commander is one of these. Not that this is a bad thing.
The game nails the brand and franchise, with you starting out with a small base that immediately falls under siege from Jabba the Hutt’s mobsters. Two factions offer assistance; the powerful, mechanised Empire, and the resourceful rebels. You side with one of these two factions, setting yourself up against the other (and Jabba’s men).
Each of the tutorial briefings are professionally voiced, meaning you get a Harrison Ford sound-a-likey, among others, talking directly to you at points. The artwork is also extremely well done, although the game still suffers the now-irreversibly associated camera angle of the sub-genre.
Alongside infantry troops, you also get mechanised troops, walkers, and aerial support, all as well as hero characters who -while limited- can be highly effective if cleverly used. The best example of this is the first outing of Han Solo, in the early tutorial, where you deploy him and he immediately makes a bee-line for the enemy shield and deactivates it with ease.
Recommendation: In conclusion, the game is exceptionally well made, although is very much still one with the genre. If you already play games of this kind, and like Star Wars then, well, this is a given. If you’re looking for a Star Wars RTS then look no further than Empire at War, which was developed by genre-daddies Petroglyph.
Conclusion
I can’t really call a conclusion on this article without mentioning the fact that the full app is very well organised, it includes a list of premium games that we’ve actually reviewed on this site over our short history, and there’s also an editor’s pick section that seems to have a decent selection of titles in there.
That said, this was written on the first five titles that were seen when I clicked on Facebook’s Games tab, and so the failings of some of these in representing some of the quality titles on the platform is certainly a massive short-coming.
When games like Skyhill, Warhammer 40l Freeblade, Hook, and 1979 Revolution are pushed down a list by a strange arbitrary system… it endangers making the newer audience as dismissive of the platform’s potential as some members of the older audience.
Is Facebook Gameroom a viable platform? 100%.
Is it currently using it’s potential efficiently? No.
I will, however, be making sure that we cover the platform and some of its games going forward.
