First impressions: Free To Play, but is it Pay to Win?
I wanted to give a free game a try, particularly an open sourced one, but my main problem is the physics and the environment; either the engine is entirely too dated, or it's aliens and lasers n junk. I just want bullets and iron sites. Then Steam introduced me to this little nugget; Blacklight: Retribution appeared to be everything I wanted.
My very first time playing was mixed because gameplay was choppy; I don't know if this is because of poor coding, or if this is actually a demanding game that over-estimated my hardware (4GHz 2500K, Radeon 5830, 8GB DDR3-1866). I was averaging in the low 40 FPS range, which is fine for single player (which there isn't), but online, combined with server latency, is too much. After a few tweaks and warm up rounds, gameplay was smooth and I was on fire.
The game modes are what you'd expect in a shooter, at least the ones I've come across; There is a Team Death Match, Capture the Flag, Domination except instead of securing a point by standing around, you have to hack data nodes, and an interesting mode called Koth. Koth is similar to Domination in the sense that you have to hack data nodes. Instead of gaining points by holding the nodes, you actually get points just by capturing/hacking it. I believe it's the best of 5, and the Data Nodes appear randomly throughout the map. I've only ever encountered this mode once; it's usually CTF or TDM.
The basic weapon set is pretty decent and you can reek havoc on the enemy if you are a good FPS veteran. I'm not sure what it is, but the shooting mechanics just feel good. There are customizations you can rent with in-game currency that you earn from playing matches. Personally, I was constantly on the upper quadrant on my team for score and occasionally ranked top 3 of the entire match. Up to this point, the game is a blast.
Now, my problem comes in after I've played a few matches. Since there are numerous maps and game modes, you'd need multiple loadouts; I consider this an essential feature. There is no way to unlock, or even rent extra loadout spaces, and you are only allocated 1 total. You can have multiple loadouts, but you have to pay real money (actually another form of game currency that you buy with real money) in order to unlock them. Also, there aren't any weapons you can buy permanently with in-game currency.
With the in-game earned currency have a lot of limits of what it can buy (and for how long), a very harsh load out restriction, and all these perks for the premium currency (such as 50% extra XP), I can't help but feel this is a Pay To Win title. It might even more accurate to say this is a demo masquerading as a Free 2 Play.
If you are one of those "as long as I have a gun to kill things with" types of people who need few, if any customizations, this game is for you. As I said, the standard loadout is a decent all purpose set that you can kill things with. If are one of those who don't mind paying for a full experience (haven't calculated how much), this might also be for you. As for me, I don't like pay to win titles, and that is the impression this one has left on me. I might go back to the stock weapon set (I rented a sniper) a fool around to kill some time, but this isn't exactly the game I've been yearning for. Overall though, this is a solid a game with shooting mechanics that just feel good. I might buy some content if my experience changes over the next few days.