So, today while bored and on skype with a friend I kept inquiring as to what he was playing, seeing as he kept having lots of fun, and for some reason the name didn't register, until like an hour later. Then I was like "Huh, Dirty Bomb, what is it like?" to which he responds "Mix between, TF2, BF3, CS etc".
Intrigued I quickly installed it on my steam and gave it a go, and found that its actually quite a bit of fun.
First off, Dirty Bomb is a Free to play FPS game with a mix of several gameplay elements.
So, the graphics is sorta cartoonish and the tone is light hearted and distinctly british, from voice acting to the text, hence the "like TF2", description.
When clicking on play you have the option to go for ranked or just quick play games, and from there are given a choice to build a team out of 3 mercs. Mercs are unique characters with different weapons, loadouts, roles and special abilities. They are a mix of the standard roles you've seen in tactical shooters of the past, like Snipers, Combat Medics, and Assaults hence the BF esque.
As you play you level up and get credits, which you can use to unlock more mercs or buy crates which award random loadouts to your mercs. In game the maps are segmented and multi objective based, where completing a set of objectives unlocks the next set and another part of the map.
I also just started it today. So far I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Not sure about the running and gunning, maybe I'm too used to CS:GO but I keep wanting to stop and fire whenever an enemy appears. Kind of wish I'd realized that the second character you pick in the tutorial is the next one you unlock, but oh well. Free rotations work for me.
Argh! Just spent some credits on a loadout, only to find out that I can't use it. I apparently also need to purchase the merc as well. T'would have been nice to have a little warning, saying, "this loadout card will be unusable until you unlock the merc it relates to", or something like that. Oh well, credits down the drain for now.
Still enjoying this game though. It feels a lot like early TF2. Went on quite a nice run a few minutes a go, holding down the defence on the church map.
So far the cards don't seem too overpowered, although I haven't gotten anything rarer than Iron. Still haven't quite figured out what the best approach is for the old gunplay, but so far every map has been pretty enjoyable. My favorite is probably Chapel and my least favorite is Trainyard, where I got lost multiple times trying to find the third objective.
Yeah, Kira's probably my favorite so far, although man that laser can be finicky to call down and direct. Also the fact that it doesn't do anything indoors makes her terrible in certain situations, from what I can tell.
Also Vassily... Man is he annoying :D But that heartbeat sensor is actually pretty cool.
On another note, I just hit 30k coins and I feel like I want to unlock a character, but I dunno who to choose... I have an Iron Sawbonez but I also want to try Arty and Proxy. Decisions, decisions.
On June 05 2015 23:48 amazingxkcd wrote: I've seen this game played a bit in beta and it just seems like a COD clone
I haven't played any CoDs recently but from what I see of those games, this isn't the same thing.
Is it more run and gun like CoD, but with more objective based stuff like CSGO and TF. I wouldn't mind a hybrid of those games with some class based stuff. Plus, a free game that I can just try and leave sounds right up my alley right now.
On June 05 2015 23:48 amazingxkcd wrote: I've seen this game played a bit in beta and it just seems like a COD clone
I haven't played any CoDs recently but from what I see of those games, this isn't the same thing.
Is it more run and gun like CoD, but with more objective based stuff like CSGO and TF. I wouldn't mind a hybrid of those games with some class based stuff. Plus, a free game that I can just try and leave sounds right up my alley right now.
Yeah, if you're used to CSGO's stop-and-shoot mechanics (like me), Dirty Bomb definitely feels more run-and-gunny. Aura the medic in particular is like a freakin' TF2 scout. But it is very much objective-based, and from what I can tell after about 10 hours, some characters actually do seem to need to do the ol' CS stop-and-shoot to win duels.
Anyone have any thoughts about mouse sensitivity for this game? Having trouble tracking people who strafe really quickly (Aura) but if I raise it I have trouble lining up shots.
It's a pretty amusing game but some things feel sort of imbalanced. But that's probably because I haven't gone into comp mode yet.
I love the movement and the level design (outside of trainyard). There's definitely lots of whining too but people are easily muted. The loadout system is ok but I don't like the lack of customization. Cards are easily obtained but it can be hard getting the one you want.
All in all it'll hold my attention for a decent while. I've been looking towards a good tf2 replacement for years and this takes the spot for me.
On June 05 2015 23:48 amazingxkcd wrote: I've seen this game played a bit in beta and it just seems like a COD clone
My thoughts exactly. Run and gun style of gameplay with guns having 0 recoil. Plus, Nexon is the publisher, so I would be worried about them screwing up the game at some point because they want more money.
Guess I'll have to try it for myself to see what it's really like but I highly doubt I'll end up loving it. I'm not really a fan of FPS games that want you to play a huge amount of time to unlock stuff.
Quick question, what's the "cards" you guys are talking about? Is it some kind of RNG loadout customization? Does paying to get those give you an advantage over those who don't?
On the one hand, the vertical progression in the game happens straight away, where others have more loadout cards (each card contains a loadout for a specific character, or 'merc', with fixed weapon selection and perks on each card) and beginners just don't have cards with any (or many) perks or options for variety.
After that, though, it seems that the progression looks to be quite horizontal, from what I can tell. Each new card will only provide more choices for perks and loadouts and most people of a similar level should have plenty of options to choose from.
Having 1 perk is strictly better than having none (even if it's something small like being able to hold one extra ammo pack to drop for your team-mates) and those who have cards with all 3 perks will almost definitely have a noticeable advantage over those with none.
The question is, then, whether or not the top-level cards are actually balanced and, to some extent, how long it takes to get them (and get a decent collection of them) without spending any money.
On June 06 2015 06:59 jtype wrote: On the one hand, the vertical progression in the game happens straight away, where others have more loadout cards (each card contains a loadout for a specific character, or 'merc', with fixed weapon selection and perks on each card) and beginners just don't have cards with any (or many) perks or options for variety.
After that, though, it seems that the progression looks to be quite horizontal, from what I can tell. Each new card will only provide more choices for perks and loadouts and most people of a similar level should have plenty of options to choose from.
Having 1 perk is strictly better than having none (even if it's something small like being able to hold one extra ammo pack to drop for your team-mates) and those who have cards with all 3 perks will almost definitely have a noticeable advantage over those with none.
The question is, then, whether or not the top-level cards are actually balanced and, to some extent, how long it takes to get them (and get a decent collection of them) without spending any money.
I think so far it's 500 coins and 3 cards to trade up to a new tier (maybe more for higher tiers? haven't tried). All in all that's 3.5k coins for a guaranteed Iron of your choice, not including random drops.
One thing that people are complaining about which I hope gets changed is the recoil being stupidly unpredictable. Maybe that's just my hours in CSGO talking, though.
It is more credits and more cards for the higher tiers.
I've been playing for a couple of months with my housemates, personally I hate the game where they really enjoy it (except for the loadout system). Load out system sucks, inconsistent hit reg sucks, the cost of classes sucks - but I refuse to spend any cash on a game I don't enjoy so maybe that's just me.
One thing I do like about the loadout system is that it could potentially help a lot with balancing certain weapons and abilities.
Often, in these sorts of games, individual weapons aren't the hard thing to balance. It's more the way that they can work in combination with other weapons and abilities/perks. If you restrict the combinations available to players, it might help the game retain balance at all levels.
As a possible example, a sniper might have an amazing 1hit-kill bolt-action rifle, that dominates at long range, and then take an SMG as a secondary that excels at close-quarters, which could lead to him being pretty over-powered in many situations. Limiting him also to a relatively weaker secondary, when he's using that bolt-action, would balance that out somewhat, but without completely restricting smgs to the class as a whole, as many other FPSs do. Otherwise they'd be forced to either nerf the rifle, or the smg, which could throw off a lot of the overall balance of other playstyles.
Dirty Bomb is best compared to its popular predecessor Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a 2003 idtech3 team-based shooter, longtime ESL and quakecon title mostly in 5v5 or 6v6 stopwatch format. Having played thousands of hours of ET and getting up to med/- in competitive, I was happy to play a game with many similarities.
DB is very teamwork oriented - it is hard to mow down an entire team as headshots arent one-shot-kills and most characters move relatively fast, which makes setting up good crossfires very important. Good medicwork, positioning and timing respawns can make it very hard to break though defences.
Im always sceptical about f2p games, but DB seems pretty reasonable so far. You end up with a lot of gold by just playing, as there are new missions every 3 hours, so there is practically always something to work towards. You get plenty of loadout drops by just playing and it takes only 2.5k and 9 random lead loadouts to get a random bronze card of a specific character, so youre mostly just saving up for buying other mercs. Cards higher than bronze are purely cosmetic and asides from different weapons, I dont feel a disadvantage from having or not having perks - they might speed up things here and there, but at the end of the day it still boils down to whoever aims for the head best. You get enough gold to unlock a merc by just reaching lvl 4 (12k at 2 + 12k at 4), so youll get a merc you want to play pretty fast. There are two free mercs and a free rotation, so you wont be confined to constantly playing the same thing. What I feel lacking is a permanently unlocked engineer merc, as I bought Sawbonez first, so Im saving up for Proxy now for when your team just needs to go full engineer to rush an objective.
I like the hard-to-master-yet-rewarding movement system, which makes movement much more challenging than just holding down shift or taking your knife out. You can cover a lot of distance with tricks like walljumping which can give you a huge advantage over your enemies, even when playing slower characters.
Another feature i really like is the good old respawn wave system. There is no point loss for dying (unless we count your e-penis, which is not impressing anyone anyhow), so often times its beneficial to just kamikaze right before the spawn time, taking someone down with you and getting right back into the game with full life and ammo. Conversly, dying right after the spawn means you are out cold for a long time, so figuring out when your enemy spawns will tell you when they might be suiciding into you, or pulling back and being more conservative. A tactic in ET was rushing out with a grenade and using the suicide button a second before your spawntime. Often frowned upon in pubs since it denies the kill credit for whoever might be shooting at you at that moment, but extremely common in competitive games. This also highlights the importance of movement, since you need to get back to your defensive/offensive position fast. You can even play mindgames with your opponents by suiciding with your whole team at a random time.
On June 06 2015 15:23 RuiBarbO wrote: Are enemy respawns the same as yours? I know there's a counter on the HUD but idk if it's the same for both teams.
I don't know how they are exactly set up map per map, but attackers seem to spawn every 20 seconds while defenders every 25. ET used to have a randomized offset at the first spawn aswell (so they wouldnt always sync up) but I dont know if its the case for DB.