ExoCorps Early Access Review
Without a doubt, ExoCorps is one of the fastest FPS’ I’ve played. Granted, I’m an FPS veteran, but not a very good one when it comes to multiplayer. Shame then, as this is exclusively a multiplayer experience without any campaign.
The debut from Gingerbred, the game was put back to ensure it was ready to be launched as an Early Access. Granted, there’s an expectation that there will be bugs with these sort of releases, but it was a wise decision to make sure it was up-to-speed – gamers are horrible critics.
You could say that this would be a no-brainer for someone such as myself who seldom plays deathmatch games unless local, but I was willing to make the exception as the concept is fun, and that’s kind of how this review has to go.
ExoCorps Early Access Review
I don’t need to be shown how to hold a mouse or what W, A, S and D do, but going with the tutorial was the first stop. This was my first experience of just how quick ExoCorps is.
Navigating an indoor play area, you’ll learn the controls of moving back and forth, strafing and the like, but it was so blisteringly fast, that it was unplayable. Not having a top-spec machine, I tried to slow it down by upping the settings, but they were more or less maxed out already.
It was like playing Quake with all the video settings set to low to get the upper hand on other players. In this situation, ExoCorps was set to very high and still ran super quick. However, I wasn’t particularly blown away with the textures of the Exosuit – they appeared a bit flat.
That said, the gaming environments are great. It could be argued that they’re on the more barren side without much going on, but you know what? This is the biggest selling point as this open-air environment encourages movement, without cheap sniping points or having to spend ages tracking people down.
Too Bot To Handle
While a campaign mode is out of the question, you can cut your teeth by tackling some bots. This was a good idea as there are loads of weapons in the game. Sure, they have the same destructive function, but it’s pretty cool to experiment with them in an open arena.
The bots are quite agile, so tracking them down and getting rid of them was a welcome challenge – not so much their attacks as I died a fair few times that I’d openly admit. This offline mode was best suited for a more important reason as I wasn’t how to fly.
Flying is a fundamental skill in ExoCorps, but where the tutorial was so lightning quick, I bailed on the pointers and found myself frantically pressing keyboard buttons, exiting back to my desktop. I was a sitting duck. But, when I saw the key from the menu, it was a lot of fun.
ExoCorps is familiar territory for most FPS fans, similar controls, simplicity with gameplay yet an ongoing process of learning the techniques to outwit unpredictable players from the murky depths of online play.
The jetpack, health and weaponry dependent on the Exosuit, so you have to pay attention to overheating and exposing yourself (steady…) to other players if flaunting your flying abilities as you’re easier to see. So that ‘tactic’ of staying on the ground is perhaps a little better for survival.
Sneaky, Sleeky
While I wasn’t bowled over by the character textures, the camouflage you can apply to your suit is impressive and genuinely works. Strafe about on the floor, lock on to an enemy and shoot for a few times then shimmy on up next to some rocks and it’s genuinely tricky to be found.
As mentioned at the start, ExoCorps is very sleek in movement with the settings on high on a relatively low specced PC. On this basis, I anticipate that the game will be a massive hit in the competitive leagues. I’d also forecast that I wouldn’t make those leagues.
There are three modes available in the game: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. While it perhaps lacks any innovative features, but what it does, it does very well. Other than the five arenas, it might benefit from a few new features in the future such as variants of the Exosuit – other than camouflage.
ExoCorps an Early Access game, so there will be bugs. The only thing I noticed at this time was the sound quality. It didn’t glitch out as such, but some of the weapons were very understated and sounded like I was firing a gun that needed reloading. No doubt this will be ironed out in future, but as the game is quite subtle in places, it would be good to be blown away, wordplay unintended, with some decent sound effects. Everything else such as jetpacks, locking on and jamming equipment played a decent part, however.
It’s a big ask, but I’d like to have seen a campaign as the Exosuit has so much potential, comparable to Crisis. But as stated, it does the job really well and as a deathmatch-based title, highly recommended for fans of Counterstrike and similar.
