Ultimate Arena FPS

EDIT 2 - Just got word that the project is officially dead and suddenly left Early Access - even before developing a planned "original" gamemode that was supposed to make this game unique - because of lack of sales, even though it's still sold at 10 bucks (it was 20 before). It's honestly a much more reasonable price tag, but the game still can't be considered as a finished one. At this point, the only way to revive it is to make it free-to-play. Microtransactions will do the rest, anyway. EDIT - [b]Quick note (more like a wall-of-text)[/b]: the devs hate constructive criticism, they ban you even if you point out the game's flaws and all that and have a strange habit to remove any criticism (even valid and constructive) on the forums and close threads. Examples: - http://i.imgur.com/BHKX7dA.png - http://i.imgur.com/d9aRcec.png - http://i.imgur.com/ErQ3X9i.jpg Permanent bans (both in the forums AND official group, very nice) and removal of the posts with lack of discussion. Not really surprising since the dev is the type of player who bans you from his server [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=383754505]for just killing him[/url]. I expressed my feelings about the game both in the forums and in this review because I wanted to see the game improve, not because of hate, but if the devs want to keep showing their ♥♥♥♥♥♥ attitude to people (even long-time fans from Youtube [the dev is a Youtuber]) and abuse their admin powers, I suggest you avoid funding this project. [h1]Original review[/h1] Let's be objective here: Ultimate Arena aims to "revive" the FPS Arena genre, taking inspirations from Serious Sam and Quake, but at the moment it fails to deliver in some aspects. First issue is its pricetag. 20€ for a low-quality alpha product is too much (since it is being developed by two guys only indipendently during their free time), especially since the FPS Arena genre is already struggling to get a solid playerbase even with free and technically-better shooters... just imagine how long UA will survive at that price. There's no guarantee the game will (drastically) improve once it goes out of Alpha stage even. That said, don't expect this game to compete with other actual fps arena shooters and take it for what it is. Now that I got its major issues out of the way, let's talk about the game itself. UA is made with the Unreal Engine 4, which delivers stunning graphics by itself, but the game looks dated. Most textures are okay-ish but everything else is poor. Dull lighting, very clunky animations and lack of shadows/ambient occlusion, with also some poor first-person weapon modeling and hands. Some textures also come from free assets found around the internet (apparently). Some effects like splatter, glowing pickups and particles are good enough but explosions, blood and general HUD should do with some tweaking to make them less annoying for the eyes and more fitting with the game's graphic style. Controls are "weird". Even by adjusting mouse sensitivity and FoV it still feels like I'm struggling to get total control of aiming, jumping and general movement. First-person weapon modeling is also affected by FoV, so if you set it high, the weapon becomes stretched. Also lack of v-sync and/or fps limiter might cause overheating for players with high-end PCs so that option should be a must. Nothing bad about sounds, but footsteps should be tweaked and change their sound depending on the surface. Only 3 maps are available at the moment, but I didn't find the level design to be quite engaging to be honest. Not terrible, not great either. Gameplay balance and pickup positions/respawn tweaks are needed to improve the experience. One thing that really bugged me is that, in most servers, you have to wait for the match to end first before playing (and matches last for 15 minutes), otherwise you get stuck in spectator mode and have to wait. Weapons are okay-ish, the generic ones you find in FPS arena games and shooters in general, nothing new here. I did find some good little touches though, like your knife covered in blood when you attack someone and the character's skeleton when you shoot it with lasers. If the devs put all the effort they can, it might become a good product in the future... maybe. But its pricetag is seriously holding this game back at the moment, and since it is still an alpha product, unless you're aware of Steam's Early Access practice and unfinished games, stay away until it is complete. For now, it's a no-no.