It’s Tuesday morning. I’m late. I’ve missed the embargo deadline for Rollerdrome. Throughout the video games press, web site authors have already printed previews and tales about their time taking part in Roll7’s blood-packed sports activities title.
However I can’t cease taking part in Rollerdrome.
As a substitute of writing, I as soon as once more queue the Barbican Enviornment competitors, the final leg in my six-level demo. The extent begins in a protracted, claustrophobic tunnel lit in crimson mild. I’ve every thing I would like – rollerskates and a shotgun – to placed on the present of a lifetime. Forward of me are echoes of a crowd clapping in unison, an ominous metronome inviting me additional previous the steel-latched mouth of the sector. They paid for a present, and I’m going to offer it to them.
Rollerdrome is a bloodsport funded by a mega-corporation in a near-future dystopia. Challengers journey the globe, competing in industrial arenas to climb the ranks of a televised competitors – all to distract the general public from a grim actuality. Every match-up shares a simple-but-effective system: drop into an enviornment, kill corporate-owned militia items, and skate in your life. It’s like Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater however with weapons. It’s nice.
Every little thing within the enviornment desires to kill you. Snipers, rocket-wielding commanders, riot guards, and even mechs are all continually focusing on you. One of many sport’s challenges is to know when to strike or evade, a tough lesson I discovered after a couple of deaths. In case you run out of ammunition, you need to carry out skate methods to generate extra. Low on well being? Kill enemies to regenerate or rapidly escape by grinding a close-by rail. If a sniper nest is out of attain, acquire some air on a close-by half pipe to shut the gap.
Rollerdrome is fast-paced and stuffed with spectacle, but it surely’s by no means unmanageable, due to the sport’s bullet-time function. Upon coming into bullet time, which you’ll be able to set off nearly any time, every thing slows down, giving time to line up cinematic kill photographs simply. Sure weapons have distinctive secondary mechanics that activate whereas in sluggish movement. The shotgun, specifically, has a deadly slug shot requiring a further timed button press just like an lively reload, and it’s pleasant to wield. Bullet time makes it straightforward to change between sluggish movement and real-time whereas stringing collectively combos, making a hypnotic move state I by no means wish to finish.
“Kara Hassan: Match Victory,” a faceless commentator pronounces after I extinguish the final of my opponents within the enviornment.
It’s too early to share a closing judgment – I’ve solely performed a small demo of a bigger challenge – however Rollerdrome may very well be within the operating for the best-feeling sport of the yr. We’ll have to attend to seek out out when it releases on August 16.
