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Official Undertow Gamertag Roundup - These are OUR waters!

Projects_Undertow_Main.jpg


So yeah, since nobody bothered to make a thread on his own (shame on you!), I figured I should give it a try since no one else is willing to put some effort in it. Mind you: I do not intend to arrange any kind of weekly get togethers as well, so somebody has to take that responsibility if you want it to happen. I will however provide plenty of other things, like footage, tips and several other kinds of information. Take Chair Entertainment's initiative to attract more players for instance: the following quotes have been copied from their forums, as well as blue prints of the majority of their maps. In other words: all credit belongs to them. I simply found them and made use of said knowledge.

Let's start off with numerous tips on how to play Undertow, in case you just bought the game:
Chair Press said:
UNDERTOW TEAM OFFERS 'TOP 10 TIPS' FOR DOMINATING IN UNDERTOW

Since its Thanksgiving launch, the award-winning Undertow has been the #1 selling Xbox LIVE Arcade game on the system. This week, the development team at Chair Entertainment Group is releasing its "Top 10 Tips" on how gamers can dominate multiplayer matches and master the game!

Upon first trial of the game you'll quickly discover the key is to boost!
around the levels and to rapid fire your unlimited ammo, but here are some additional tips from the experts:

1 - If you are playing with a buddy online, try to coordinate what units you are. One killer combo is the Destroyer and the Dragoon. The Dragoon can hide inside the Destroyer, protecting it from nearby enemies and shooting down enemy torpedoes, allowing the Destroyer time to bombard the enemy with its huge explosions.

2 - Low on health? Take cover and wait for your health to regenerate.

3 - When trying to take an occupied enemy Control Point, swoop in with a fast unit type like the Corsair or the Marine and drop all your depth charges on the enemy. When they die you will have enough time to neutralize the Control Point so the enemy can't spawn there anymore, allowing you to quickly take it.

4 - The Corsair, while not as strong as the Dragoon or the Destroyer, has an incredible rate of fire at a long (and relatively safe) distance. Try to find pinched-off areas where the enemy will bottleneck their forces, keep a steady rate of fire on that section, and watch the kills roll in. Even hitting the wall next to an enemy can be effective – Corsairs and Destroyers do a lot of splash damage!

5 - Remember that Undertow doesn't happen in space -- gravity is still a factor. There are serious advantages to having the high-ground in a face off.

6 - You can't shoot while using Turbo (X button), but you can use depth charges. Zipping by a pack of enemies for a bombing run is a good way to get some kills. You can hold up to five depth charges!

7 - Control Points don't have to be yours to get a shutout. Sometimes taking a Control Point to neutral can be advantageous if one is simply trying to deny opponents from spawning. Taking all the Control Points to neutral, and then killing all your enemies (before they can get another Control Point of course), is a quick way to win a match.

8 - Use cover. There are areas the two smaller units (Marine and Dragoon) can hide from view. This is a great way to take enemies off guard. Hide in tall grass, behind pillars, buildings, or in clumps of rock and debris.

9 - The five circles at the top represent the Control Points, and they're laid out from left to right according to where they are located in the map. You can see their timers counting down when you're taking a Control Point. The more team members you have taking a Control Point, the faster you'll take it!

10 - Upgrades are immediate - making you faster and more powerful! It also fills your health bar. Remember that during battle! If it's late in a match and you're getting owned, remember to check your points. If you have points – use them! Press the Y-Button to enter the upgrade menu, select the unit you want, and then press the A-Button to upgrade.

BONUS - Communicate! When playing multiplayer, put on your headset and talk to your teammates. The best way to decimate your opponents is to communicate your strategies!

Good Luck!
Now, because the community of Undertow is rather small, the developers are taking the time to host a session each week at Tuesday's. The specifics of this event are found below, should you be interested in joining them:
Chair Press said:
TUESDAYS @ 10 OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED

Following last week's successful trial, today we officially announced our TUESDAYS @ 10 player matches to the media.

Every Tuesday night at 10pm ET (7pm PT) the Undertow team will host and join Undertow Player Matches with fellow gamers. During that time, players will also have the opportunity to join members of the development team for Ranked Matches, during which they can gain achievements and additional game play tips.

TUESDAYS @ 10 is open to experienced players and those new to the game. Players can join in on the action by downloading Undertow, selecting Multiplayer, and then selecting Player Match.

We appreciate all of your continued support and hope you'll join us (and invite your friends!) for some online Undertow action.
And to close the thread off, I'm going to write some personal impressions. If you don't care about what I have to say, just scroll down for a couple of reviews. Anyway: Undertow turned out very well in my opinion, and is one of the most underrated XBLA games to date (along with Gripshift). The game is very easy to get into: its controls are just like Geometry Wars' or Mutant Storm Reloaded's, but Undertow combines it with Battlefield-ish gameplay. There are four different classes to choose from (each with their up- and downsides) and the point of the game is to capture bases. 'Hover' over them for a given time, and you've conquered said point. The opposing force will naturally try to reclaim it, so it's basically a tug-of-war between two sides until either side has run out of points. You can do this by simply killing your competitors or by completely shutting them out by capturing every single stronghold. A slightly risky combination, but it works very well. Given the nature of Undertow (a multiplayer shooter), the game doesn't feel "right" when playing it in the campaign, since in this regard it's exactly the same as Chrome Hounds: the single player is nothing more than a tutorial if you will, driven by a few cut scenes here and there, plus an occasional mediocre boss fight. But once you do start with the multiplayer, the game becomes incredibly addictive, especially with a few friends. Audio visually, Undertow is one of the best games the service has to offer, but there are small things they could fix in a potential patch. Mostly the sound has some issues though, but the graphics are excellent 95% of the time: there's only slight screen tearing on specific levels and the framerate only dips when the action's really hectic. Oh, and you really should watch it in motion, since the stills aren't doing it any justice.

All in all, Undertow is one great game and definitely worth the 800 Microsoft Points, as long as you know people who play it. This thread should (hopefully) make it easier to find active members in its community, so if you own it, just drop your Gamertag in here. And I'm going to close things off with this short list:

Overview:
● Availability: out now!
● Price: 800 Microsoft Points
● It has a single player campaign (albeit short), which can also be played co-operatively with a friend.
● Supports up to 16 players, on- and offline through System Link.
● The netcode isn't shit! Allah be praised!
● It has split-screen for the multiplayer (obviously online as well) and the co-op.
● Undertow uses Gears' drop-in drop-out techniques in both multiplayer modes.
● If there's no one around for you to play against, just add bots. These will instantly be replaced as soon as somebody joins.
● There are eleven different maps, both symmetrical and asymmetrical.
● A blue print from eight of these can be found on the official site. *Click me!*
● They are apparently planning downloadable content. No ETA was given to my knowledge.
● Graphically: very solid. Near constant framerate and little screen tearing (only dips and tears when it gets really crowded).
● There are four graphical filters, just like Gears of War.
● You can zoom the camera in or out in the Options Menu.
● Sound: quite detailed, though certain samples get cut off too soon.

Screenshots:
undertow-01.jpg
undertow-03.jpg

undertow-02.jpg
undertow-06.jpg

undertow-04.jpg
undertow-07.jpg

undertow-05.jpg
undertow-08.jpg


Movies:



Reviews:
● Eurogamer - 8/10
● IGN - 8.7
● 1UP - 8.0
● Gamernode - 8.5
● Team Xbox - 8.8

Gamertags:
● MicVlaD (don't add me please, my list is practically full)
● PhlivoSong
● Trellisaze
● Gowans007
● Tomacco
● Creamium
● Radjago
 
I tried this game when it was released and wasn't really up to figuring it out. The other day I gave it a try again and had a blast with it. I bought it and was so sad when I realized that there was nobody playing it online. The lack of a good tutorial really hurt this game in my opinion. All it really tells you is how to capture points... would've been nice if it talked about units/controls a bit more in depth.

Anyway, add me to the list...

Gamertag: PhlivoSong

I'm hoping they release more content for this game, or... put it on sale for a week or two... just to get some buzz about the game again. This game needs a strong online community, I can only imagine how fun it is to play 8 on 8.
 
My tag is: Trellisaze

That's cool that the developers are getting more involved with the community. I'm interested in checking out those Tuesday gatherings now.
 

xblarcade

Member
Tuesday's at 10PM EST the developers of the game host a bunch of matches, it's a great time and still end up with a bunch of people.

Anyways throw me on the list: Tomacco
 
xblarcade said:
Tuesday's at 10PM EST the developers of the game host a bunch of matches, it's a great time and still end up with a bunch of people.

Anyways throw me on the list: Tomacco
Correct, and already added that to the OP when I made this thread.

But Europeans are out of luck with this, since the event is way too early for us. But I recently received a message from one of the developers that they're apparently going to look into this and try to organize a separate event for European gamers when they're in the office, so hopefully that'll happen some time soon.
 
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