[Des0lar]

So since nobody talks about that game here I am, to help you out!
Tadaa!


What is Blacklight Retribution?

It is a F2P first person shooter!


What makes it special you ask? Well, it has some preeeetty cool features to spice up the old stale fps battles!

First: Nearly everything is customizable! Yay! We love that, right?

Guns, as well as armor and secondary equipment are fully customizable! That means, you can equip a trusty assault rifle, a rapid fire SMG, or do you rather want a Burstfire weapon? How about stun mines? No? Ok well then let's go for the HE mines. Sounds better? Yes.
You like to melee? Well then, how about a personal cloak? You like coverfights but when you run out to fight, there just isn't any cover to be found? How about deployable bullet shields.
Sounds imbalanced to you? Well, how about the best thing:

Everyone gets a free WALLHACK with Blacklight!



Absolutely right! Blue is friend, red is foe!

Wait what?

Pressing "V" activates your HRV, letting you see through walls or invisible players. Problem is, you can't shoot in this mode, so don't use it running around corners. Also, use is limited, so be cautious. And when everyone has it, it's even ground again ;)

Oh and I did totally forget the best thing!

Freaking MECHS!

If you were wondering, that's what YOTM means: Year of the Mech



If you are thinking: "What what mechs?" Let me explain it to you:
During gameplay, each round, you earn CP buy killing enemies or completing objectives like defending your flag.
YOu can then spend these CPs for health, ammo, heavy weapons or HARDSUITS

These hardsuits are the aforementioned mechs. Packing a minigun and a railgun, these things are walking killer machines. The engineers on these things were a bit sloppy though since every mech comes with a random weak point that you can hit for massive damage (ho ho).

Also rockets from the depot can kill a hardsuit with 2 direct hits. Oh and you can use a flamethrower to burn out the driver and take that thing for yourself. Mean but neat.


What more do you need to know?

Multiple game modes!

Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch
Domination
Capture the flag
King of the hill(s)
Kill Confirmed
Netwar
(and another one soon to come)

Steam version has NO Pando media booster! Thank the heavens!


Starter pack weapons include:
SMG Premade - Krane B.SEV 'Downtowner'
Burst Pistol Premade - Foiche x2.7 'Haz Mat'
Scope - Lightsky L3 AimPoint
Barrel - Briar TDF 13
Helmet - Dataluxe Slant-X2
Chest - Guardian WarmongerL1
Gear - Toxic Grenade Mk.1
Gear - EMP Grenade Mk.1
3,000 GP Token
7 Day 10% XP Boost

F2P more like PAY 2 WIN AMIRITE?

Yeah no, In Blacklight you can be very good with just your starting equipment. You can unlock almost all weapons and gear with GP, which you earn by playing the game.
There are some weapons though, you can currently only get via bought packs. They will be unlocked to get with normal GP later.
Also I have to tell you, Zombie Studios, the developers are great people, it's just that Perfect World (those pulling the strings) sucks, so the monetarization is a bit on the "bad" side.
There is some stuff like special "hero" character skins which you can only "win" by buying chance packs. It's not game changing or unbalanced, just stupid. More like a gamble than anything. Don't get these, just wait for the stuff to be either buyable with GP or with ZEN the currency that you can buy with real money.

You can choose to rent weapons (or any other equipment for that matter) for a day (or 3, or 7) or buy them permanently. In doing so, you get the chance to try out your weapon build without wasting to much GP. A completely different reciever for your weapon costs 200GP for a day. That's the amount you get in a single game. Very well worth to try out.

Gameplay videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAXYmtMQ5Gc
(This is early footage, some things may have changed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns3vTIxrp50
(newer footage)

So now you're ready to rock! Go own some faces and bath in your shame as to why you have never played this game before!

Edit: Addendum: Also it has: SHINY GREAT DX11 GFX YAY!

[Sethos]

Wasn't this on Consoles ages ago? Remember playing the demo and it was beyond awful. Is the PC version different or did they change it up?

[Gez]

I will give it a try but I'm afraid it looks dead in my region.

[Htown]

Already downloading.

Was waiting for this to hit Steam.

If you have that Raptr program, you can get a couple free unlocks from that. Nothing amazing, but free's free.

[Htown]

Wasn't this on Consoles ages ago? Remember playing the demo and it was beyond awful. Is the PC version different or did they change it up?

Different game.

You're thinking of Blacklight: Tango Down. This is the sequel to that.

[Des0lar]

Wasn't this on Consoles ages ago? Remember playing the demo and it was beyond awful. Is the PC version different or did they change it up?

Nope that was Tango Down. This is a PC only sequel without a single player campaign!

[WX3]

I have played a few hours of it and I had a blast. It seemed user friendly which made it easy for me to understand the systems in place after only a handful of matches. It's a solid FPS experience that of course has the optional marketplace where you blow your real world bones on accessories or boosts, shit like that.

I like it for something to fill in gaps in time when I can't decide on which new title I want to concentrate on. It's perfect to pick up and play two or three matches and shut it down and go play with the kids or walk the mutt, or even spend time with your wife if that's your thing.

I also like how the guns sound.

[jarosh]

You lost me at F2P.

[JackEtc]

Game's a blast, have a lot of fun with it. Real easy to pick up and play for a few matches.

F2P shooters have really gone up in quality the past year or so, this being a prime example.

[justjim89]

It's fun enough, but honestly, if you don't want to have to pay for anything then grinding xp and in game cash for equipment takes forever. Unless you want to just "rent" good equipment, which is kinda garbage. Buying even basic stuff for keeps without using real money takes forever.

It's not necessarily pay to win, but get used to the starting equipment if you don't want to pay. You're in for an uphill battle.

[Des0lar]

You lost me at F2P.

You lost me at this post. You know why, because there is always one guy who enters a thread, sees F2P, leaves a useless remark (most of them exactly the same like you did) and then never come back.
And no, I won't argue with you about F2P, there are enough threads on GAF already. I will tell you though that I pity your stance. You are ignoring great games now and in the future to come because of no reason whatsoever.

It's fun enough, but honestly, if you don't want to have to pay for anything then grinding xp and in game cash for equipment takes forever. Unless you want to just "rent" good equipment, which is kinda garbage. Buying even basic stuff for keeps without using real money takes forever. It's not necessarily pay to win, but get used to the starting equipment if you don't want to pay. You're in for an uphill battle.

I know what you mean. Though I gotta say, with the level up packs and the possibilty to rent whole recievers for weapons you can get a pretty good picture at what fits you best. And gathering 5000GP for a new reciever isn't that hard. I mean compared to Tribes (don't hate on me I love that game too!) 100k XP weapons (which really take forever) 5000 is a cakewalk. That's about 5 - 6 hours playtime.

The price for Medpacks and other backpack equipment is horrendous though :( 11k GP is too much imo

[jarosh]

You lost me at this post. You know why, because there is always one guy who enters a thread, sees F2P, leaves a remark (most of them exactly the same like you did) and then never come back. And no, I won't argue with you about F2P, there are enough threads on GAF already. I will tell you though that I pity your stance. You are ignoring great games now and in the future to come because of no reason whatsoever.

You wrote "FPS lovers" in the title. You must have known you were gonna get people in here with all sorts of expectations. It wasn't clear from the title whether this would be SP, multi, F2P or whatever. So expect people to click on your thread and be disappointed if this isn't what they're expecting.

[Des0lar]

You wrote "FPS lovers" in the title. You must have known you were gonna get people in here with all sorts of expectations. It wasn't clear from the title whether this would be SP, multi, F2P or whatever. So expect people to click on your thread and be disappointed if this isn't what they're expecting.

And this game is still exactly that. A game for FPS lovers?! In what way did I destroy any expectations?
You unlock stuff just like in other modern mp fps games like BF3 or CoD, just that you don't pay for the basegame...

If you really don't want to play F2P games, please at least post some reasons why. Just entering the thread, saying how you'll never play F2P games and then leaving isn't exactly contributing to any discussion.

[DUFFMCWALIN]

You wrote "FPS lovers" in the title. You must have known you were gonna get people in here with all sorts of expectations. It wasn't clear from the title whether this would be SP, multi, F2P or whatever. So expect people to click on your thread and be disappointed if this isn't what they're expecting.

You should be happy that such a great game is free. It's really good and your missing out if you don't play it or don't have a pc to run it.

[Mrbob]

F2P is blowing up on Steam lately. It's been a good week for FPS F2P with Tribes Ascend just coming out as well. I'm hooked on Tribes but I'll check this one out too.

[ilnadmy]

Yet another reason to build a gaming PC. Dammit, I don't want to drop $1,300 to play awesome games with awesome graphics!!

[Des0lar]

Yet another reason to build a gaming PC. Dammit, I don't want to drop $1,300 to play awesome games with awesome graphics!!

I suppose you're joking. ;)

Oh god at least I hope so. I fail at sarcarsm on the interwebs.

[ilnadmy]

I suppose you're joking. ;) Oh god at least I hope so. I fail at sarcarsm on the interwebs.

Nope, not joking. I spent a week researching parts and asking around in the PC thread, and if I wanted to build a relatively powerful PC that will last me a few years it will cost around that much. Yes, I could build one for ~$700-$900, but I will just have to upgrade it sooner and I would rather get more bang for my buck.

[B00TE]

I tried this out awhile back and was pleasantly surprised. Definitely worth checking out.

[speedpop]

Going to give it a whirl and hope it gains some Australian gamers down the line.

[PedroLumpy]

I don't think everyone having wallhacks is a good thing.

[RibbedHero]

Nope, not joking. I spent a week researching parts and asking around in the PC thread, and if I wanted to build a relatively powerful PC that will last me a few years it will cost around that much. Yes, I could build one for ~$700-$900, but I will just have to upgrade it sooner and I would rather get more bang for my buck.

$1300!? a $600 will last a few years, especially with this console generation lasting as long as it has.

[Des0lar]

I don't think everyone having wallhacks is a good thing.

Oh but it is :) It makes you more careful of your moves. You can't shoot and look at the same time, so he could either be still around the corner or already gone another direction because he saw you too ;)

[thetrin]

Before you shit on the game, try it out. It's fantastic.

It really bothers me that people refuse to believe it can be good just because it's F2P. That's a really close minded way of looking at it.

I don't think everyone having wallhacks is a good thing.

You thought wrong.

[Kalnos]

the only part you may need to upgrade in 2-3 years at $700 is a video card depending on what you play and your resolution.

[Stahsky]

I had fun on it for a few days, but the F2P model didn't interest me. It had some nice gunplay though.

[Hazaro]

Nope, not joking. I spent a week researching parts and asking around in the PC thread, and if I wanted to build a relatively powerful PC that will last me a few years it will cost around that much. Yes, I could build one for ~$700-$900, but I will just have to upgrade it sooner and I would rather get more bang for my buck.

If you drop 1,000 on an i5 and a GTX670 you aren't going to have any problems for a long time running games.
I guarantee it.

GTX 660 will be the sweet spot when it launches soon if you don't feel like buying now. Also depends what you consider acceptable for PC games setting wise.

[RoboPlato]

I wish this game had also gotten a console release. It sounds way better than Tango Down and the F2P implementation in this sounds pretty good.

[Dice]

This game is having a really hard time selling itself to me. I might try it, but I'll probably bail out the second Mechwarrior comes out. The CoD playstyle looks like ass.

[Des0lar]

I wish this game had also gotten a console release. It sounds way better than Tango Down and the F2P implementation in this sounds pretty good.

May be happening with Next Gen if the big three allow for F2P models on their consoles.

This game is having a really hard time selling itself to me. I might try it, but I'll probably bail out the second Mechwarrior comes out. The CoD playstyle looks like ass.

Oh I also absolutely plan on playing Mechwarrior too!

Beauty of F2P, just play the games that interest you the most. Currently I am playing, Tribes, Blacklight and Dota 2. Hawken, Mechwarrior and Planetside will be added this year. I won't ever have time again for singleplayer games lol

[Mister Wilhelm]

I played this for a few weeks. Like others have said, you pretty much HAVE to spend real money to get anywhere because it will take you a long damn time to reach your preferred setup using earned currency.

Also, I highly disagree that the base weapons allow you to be competitive. Even playing on the proving grounds (levels 1-10) I would run into guys that had much better guns than I had.

It jaded me on the whole experience that I could unload a clip and a half into a guy and he'd still kill me by turning around and hitting me a few times because he spent more money on the game.

[PedroLumpy]

Oh but it is :) It makes you more careful of your moves. You can't shoot and look at the same time, so he could either be still around the corner or already gone another direction because he saw you too ;)

I'm hardly convinced, but if you're enjoying yourself then go for it. Moving off and flanking a team is a risk. Someone should not be able to easily negate that advantage by just looking through a wall. I've seen variations of this mechanic in so many games now and it has barely ever worked. The types of actions it discourages versus whatever positives it may have are not worth it. In my opinion of course.

I played this for a few weeks. Like others have said, you pretty much HAVE to spend real money to get anywhere because it will take you a long damn time to reach your preferred setup using earned currency. Also, I highly disagree that the base weapons allow you to be competitive. Even playing on the proving grounds (levels 1-10) I would run into guys that had much better guns than I had. It jaded me on the whole experience that I could unload a clip and a half into a guy and he'd still kill me by turning around and hitting me a few times because he spent more money on the game.

Even assuming the starting weapons are 'balanced', not having access to a variety of weapons is a disadvantage in itself, as you are less flexible.

[PedroLumpy]

Oops dp

[Des0lar]

I played this for a few weeks. Like others have said, you pretty much HAVE to spend real money to get anywhere because it will take you a long damn time to reach your preferred setup using earned currency. Also, I highly disagree that the base weapons allow you to be competitive. Even playing on the proving grounds (levels 1-10) I would run into guys that had much better guns than I had. It jaded me on the whole experience that I could unload a clip and a half into a guy and he'd still kill me by turning around and hitting me a few times because he spent more money on the game.

Well, I was posting from my perspective, I am sure that others will have different ones. I had no problem competing with my assault rifle on the proving grounds. And even today I am playing on the "big boys" server and still I am regularly under the top 3.
If you look at the stats screen, most weapons are pretty balanced considering their range, damage fall off, and rate of fire. SMG reigns supreme in CCQ, assault rifle on medium ranges and all the others are somewhere in between, except for the bolt-action. The thing that really is worth investing points early on is a scope.

I'm hardly convinced, but if you're enjoying yourself then go for it. Moving off and flanking a team is a risk. Someone should not be able to easily negate that advantage by just looking through a wall. I've seen variations of this mechanic in so many games now and it has barely ever worked. The types of actions it discourages versus whatever positives it may have are not worth it. In my opinion of course.

There are ways to evade that though :) HRV blockers, false decoy "players" that appear on the enemy HRV. There's more to it than just wallhacking ;)

[Dice]

Hawken, Mechwarrior and Planetside will be added this year. I won't ever have time again for singleplayer games lol

Don't forget Firefall.

Why did I even buy games...

[dragonflys545]

Download it, Played it for 2 hours. Uninstalled it and thought it was meh. I think I'm really burn out from FPS.

[Mechazawa]

Problem this game is having selling me is that the weapon handling looks the same as the last game. In other words, terrible.

[Gaogaogao]

I really like this game

[Poimandres]

Going to give it a whirl and hope it gains some Australian gamers down the line.

Australian gamer checking in.

I'm looking forward to checking this out soon. The number of local players on Tribes Ascend is encouraging, so hopefully this catches on as well.

[PedroLumpy]

There are ways to evade that though :) HRV blockers, false decoy "players" that appear on the enemy HRV. There's more to it than just wallhacking ;)

That's nice and all, but that doesn't actually speak to why you think the wallhack should be in the game. What does it add? What sort of behaviour does it encourage that you think is good?

[thetrin]

Problem this game is having selling me is that the weapon handling looks the same as the last game. In other words, terrible.

Have you played it? If you have, and it still doesn't appeal to you, then whatever. But I actually like the weapon handling, and I thought Tango Down was crap.

That's nice and all, but that doesn't actually speak to why you think the wallhack should be in game. What does it add? What sort of behaviour does it encourage that you think is good?

it works similar to linking in Metal Gear Online. It allows you to see where hot spots are and flank enemies, or assist teammates not directly in your view. It's essentially a 3D radar. It gets you back in the fight more quickly (you also can't just constantly use it. You can't fire your weapon with the visor on, and once you use it, it's out of commission for 10-15 seconds)

Download it, Played it for 2 hours. Uninstalled it and thought it was meh. I think I'm really burn out from FPS.

That's essentially why I stopped playing the game. I actually like the game a lot, and encourage everyone to try it, but I personally am just totally burnt out on FPS games.

[ilnadmy]

If you drop 1,000 on an i5 and a GTX670 you aren't going to have any problems for a long time running games. I guarantee it. GTX 660 will be the sweet spot when it launches soon if you don't feel like buying now. Also depends what you consider acceptable for PC games setting wise.

Alright, well I may have to rethink my build then when the GTX 660 launches, although I do enjoy running games at max settings if possible. Every day on this forum gives me another reason to build a PC, especially since we're not seeing a new console generation for another year or two.

[PhiLonius]

Looks interesting but Steam won't let me download. Keep getting an error.

nvm. Got it to work.

[tci]

Looks quite good. I will most likely test it this weekend.

[Des0lar]

That's nice and all, but that doesn't actually speak to why you think the wallhack should be in the game. What does it add? What sort of behaviour does it encourage that you think is good?

Well first and foremost, it gives you vision of enemy movement ( of course), what that triggers is mostly that you try to find a way to flank them. The fact that most players just look foward gives you the option to "evade" being seen by going a different route than most people. Also, it forces the enemy team to do 2 things: either they all go after me, leaving another flank open for direct assault by my team, or they send just 1 or 2 guys after me, which could spell their doom if I'm by chance a much better player. Oh and the best thing of all: It completely discourages camping.

[PedroLumpy]

it works similar to linking in Metal Gear Online. It allows you to see where hot spots are and flank enemies, or assist teammates not directly in your view. It's essentially a 3D radar. It gets you back in the fight more quickly (you also can't just constantly use it. You can't fire your weapon with the visor on, and once you use it, it's out of commission for 10-15 seconds)

Again all you do is basically describe what it does, and offer up a reason why it 'isn't that bad.'

You mention flanking, do you think this encourages flanking?

Well first and foremost, it gives you vision of enemy movement ( of course), what that triggers is mostly that you try to find a way to flank them. The fact that most players just look foward gives you the option to "evade" being seen by going a different route than most people. Also, it forces the enemy team to do 2 things: either they all go after me, leaving another flank open for direct assault by my team, or they send just 1 or 2 guys after me, which could spell their doom if I'm by chance a much better player. Oh and the best thing of all: It completely discourages camping.

Okay, so are you saying that having people be able to see you moving to flank them makes it easier for you to flank them? The way you put it makes it sound like the enemy team knowing where you are somehow puts them at a disadvantage.

And how does it discourage camping?

[Des0lar]

Again all you do is basically describe what it does, and offer up a reason why it 'isn't that bad.' You mention flanking, do you think this encourages flanking? Okay, so are you saying that having people be able to see you moving to flank them makes it easier for you to flank them? The way you put it makes it sound like the enemy team knowing where you are somehow puts them at a disadvantage. And how does it discourage camping?

You really don't see how everyone knowing where you are discourages camping?

Also I'm not saying it makes it easier, it makes it even. I am not trying to convince you that this is the best possible way of doing an online FPS, but I am saying that this is something fresh (at least I haven't played a game with this mechanic before), and imo not worse than having no wallhack. I encourage you to try it out at least, and see for yourself.

[Teknopathetic]

Instead of going over theories over why a game mechanic does or does not work, maybe you should just play the game first. It is kind of free.

[ilnadmy]

Instead of going over theories over why a game mechanic does or does not work, maybe you should just play the game first. It is kind of free.

This wouldn't be GAF if people didn't debate games they have never played.

[Sophia]

Instead of going over theories over why a game mechanic does or does not work, maybe you should just play the game first. It is kind of free.

Free, and being on Steam it downloads at like the speed of light. :D

Can't wait to try it out.