As the advertising slogan says: “ShootMania is revolutionizing the multi-player FPS”. Let’s try to find out if this qualities really showed in the previewed product. At first glance ShootMania can lure some of you with nice menus and server browser clarity… When speaking of the game itself this is a completely different story. Game has a few playable modes that at first may seem interesting to play but turned out to be not exactly what they appeared to be. This is all a part of some marketing gimmick, I guess.
As I suppose, this game’s main goal was to achieve originality. Developers planned to make something like a crossover of FPS and something else. Which to my sad experience failed at all dimensions… If you love gaming and great products, do yourself a favor and skip ShootMania, you will evade the possible risk of medical treatment. From now on, bad news about the game will follow. Let’s begin with “insane-like” keyboard settings, which were mapped like in a 2d Platformer game, (casual style of play) that affect game-play in such a way, that can possibly ruin whole matches. This means that you can forget about most crucial, FPS actions in ShootMania (reloading? where is reloading?)
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One aspect of ShootMania really made me angry… I have to mention that! How do you like the idea that there aren’t any guns (weapons) in players’ hands? I can tell you that it sucks, and how much it does in real match you will get to know by reading following example… Imagine a guy shooting to you from a distance, and it looks like the beam comes right out of his hands! This makes the game unplayable at more competitive level. In practice this can be very annoying and you don’t get the feel (weight, proportions, aiming properties) of the weapons you wield (because there are invisible). Try to shoot somebody with an invisible gun – and you will see what I’m talking about.
Another weird situation coming from the game: in some modes you just can’t shoot. What: you can’t shoot? This means running around and performing some stupid circles.This makes one of the most annoying things in ShootMania and I can’t imagine what kind of people are going to stand this. Another strange idea in ShootMania is that you don’t have any control over walking/running/crouching and this means a lot! Try to make a precision-requiring move, like getting around the corner and snipping, when you cannot crouch – this is just crappy and annoying.
ShootMania has some nice models and graphics but this won’t change the fact that ideas included in the game turned in practice to be a chore to play. There is really hard to find something in the game, that would be of real value. ShootMania is one of these games that theoretically look very nice on paper (and on the screens). But when you buy it and try out this game, you feel very disappointed… Most of the reasons mentioned above make ShootMania rather unplayable and annoying title, which will make all the fun run out from you faster that your money on your bank account.. Yes, we got cheated one more time. My suggestion is: don’t buy ShootMania because it’s one big lie. Or if in some way you would like to support this product, ShootMania can be a great birthday present for somebody that you hate.
