Today on “Games We’ve Barely Posted About And We Don’t Know Why”, Vogster’s Unreal 3-powered guns’n'gangs MMO Crimecraft. It’s like Warcraft, but with Crime instead of War. Teasing its name aside, it’s a fun idea – GTA’s on-foot element as persistent online world, in theory. In practice, well, we dunno. There’s a hint of sorts in that it doesn’t like to call itself an MMO, instead opting for “Persistent World Next-gen Shooter.” Seeing as it was released today, I’m rather hoping someone reading this has a pretty good sense of what it’s really like and if it’s any cop. (Cop! Ha! Sigh.) Care to share? Meantime, let’s have a look at some videos of the thing and have a nose at its odd subscription model.
The nuts’n'bolts description goes as follows:
Crime Craft is a Persistent World Next-gen Shooter (PWNS) that blends a gripping, action-packed shooter experience with the best community and role-playing elements found in massively multi-player games. Crime Craft is set in a gritty fictional city of the near future, following an ecological disaster of unprecedented scale, where the price of life is far less valuable than one’s reputation. Join thousands of players online as you learn the rules of the street, build your own gang and do whatever it takes to survive amidst the chaos. Earn a reputation. Build a gang. Kill the competition.
Which all sounds jolly good, and makes me wonder why it hasn’t been marketed up the wazoo. Are Vogster out of money, still gearing up to really hype the thing, or is something rotten? Anyone? Anyone?
What’s slightly sad is that it was originally intended to be free, but is ultimately a traditional you-buys-yer-copy-and-you-pays-per-month jobbie. Slightly worryingly, there are microtransactions on top of that, used for “speciality items like weapons enhancements, boosts, armor and more”, and bought in the form of ‘gold bars’. Hmm. Buying currency to commit crimes? This seems a little incongruous, somehow. Update: apparently this was ‘old information’. The microtransactions are now only for aesthetic gubbins; since this piece was written, the website’s been changed to reflect that.
First, a general trailer:
Kinda pretty as they go, and definitely Proper Shooting rather than Tabula Rasa or Mass Effect-style Pretend Shooting. For a better sense of that, here’s (embed/flash version not working, so click on Quicktime or WMV to see it once you go through the link) producer Michael Donatelli explaining how it’s a shooter with MMO trapping, classless and PvP-heavy. And below he walks us through a round of CTF:
I guess my initial thought is that there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of Crime beyond shooting other dudes, which is fairly easily done in other titles, but perhaps there’s something more heisty in the open-world element of the game.
Also, here’s some explodey proof as to how over the top it can be:
And here’s a hint as to what it’s got in common with more traditional MMOage, in the form of a Roguey, stealthy, backstabby character:
Again, anyone here playing, or tried the beta?
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They put stealth in this? Oh dear.
I’d like to see more of the open world though, see what stuff outside is actually like. Or is the ‘world’ more like a lobby and the action is only found inside instanced PvP battle grounds?
Looks suprisingly cool, especially the walkthrough. But I need to try it first(in form of a demo or trial) before getting into another mmo.
As of early beta (it may have changed since then), the “open-world element” consisted entirely of a hub world where you shop/craft/get missions for the instanced battle areas. Honestly, as an FPS fan looking for the next great MMOFPS, I have no idea how they’re going to charge a monthly for it. As a free game, it might be worth a look, but I can’t imagine paying real money for it.
you don’t why?
So, they’d want you to subscribe, AND pay more for bonus stuff? Bonus stuff that includes enhancements that give you advantages?
That just comes off as over-the-top greedy to me.
poor’s man APB?
Also, what’s with all this side-by-side development lately where we have two completely separate developers working on virtually identical games? Sorry to get a bit ranty but.. Prototype / Infamous, we’ve got two Spy MMOs coming out(The Agency and some other one), two crime MMOs coming out (APB and this), two superhero MMOs . . . this just off the top of my head, it seems like I’m forgetting 90% of the copycats I’ve seen.
The whole entertainment industry seems to have this fetish for throwing a bunch of money behind the same idea for multiple products, and it just dilutes how much money the idea is worth. Movies, TV shows, reality shows (of course), and now videogames.
Prototype and Infamous, had they each had their own parallel universe where they were made and put to market, would’ve probably sold three times as much. Instead, we get people confused about which game is which, comparing the two unfavorably both ways, not sure which is bettter but somehow feeling that both are lesser for it.
@ Mortiphago:
Sounds more like a rich man’s APB.
APB doesn’t have subscription fees, for one thing, and I (hope) it won’t have microtransactions, either.
And yes, my rant does come back to this. I’m with Morti, Crimecraft is quite clearly (at least according to hype) the inferior cousin of APB.
Funny thing is, once APB is actually out there and playable, it might be worse.. but since we have two games with the same concept being hyped, the game that’s more advanced (and farther away from playable) is clearly superior. Those who play Crimecraft though, are going to be less impressed when APB does come out, because they’ve already played a modern guns and tattoo mmoshooter. So, we got two games with the same idea, utterly sabotaging eachother.
@Stromko Could it appear that they almost try to STEAL the money out of your pockets?
@MunnyFan: Well, they are trying to convince us to invest our money in make-believe gold, and that’s a pretty wild take on a popular con right now if the many advertisements for fly-by-night gold for cash / cash for gold companies are any indication.
It seems to me that subscription to play OR cash for content are both successful models used by many companies. A company expecting us to both pay to play, and pay cash for content and/or to be competitive, is just incredibly .. tacky.
It just goes back to the simple fact, there are successful MMOs that ask for subscription fees, and successful MMOs that let you pay money for more stuff. Why do both? The only game I can think of that lets you buy more stuff with cash, and has subscription fees, is SecondLife. I really don’t think Crimecraft is going to have the thriving sex and sleaze market that makes SL so successful.
Call me a negative person, but the trailer was just horrible. Shitty mechanics which have been borrowed from more succesful games and implemented in a way which looks to be much worse, and not an iota of originality.
The review for this one is probably gonna look like the new Wolfernstein’s review younger brother who nobody gives a shit about. That bad.
Has everyone forgotten about Champions Online and Cryptic Bucks?
This game is as MMO as Helgate London was. Which isn’t a bad thing. I played the heck out of Hellgate London. The problem with this game is microtransactions AND having a monthly subscription fee. At least Flagship studios had the courtesy of offering a “free version” of Hellgate London, these guys are just money-grabbing whores.
But it does look much better than the crapfest that is Fallen Earth
Also, just curious, will the game be released in Europe?
*insert rant about the lack of an edit function here*
I tried the open beta, and was really not a huge fan. The game would have been a decent f2p, or even a buy the box + item mall. But it’s NOT worth a subscription, imo.
The basic idea is that the city parts are mainly lobbies, all you really do in them is run between a stores and banks and the auction house (as you can join matches from the map). The cities are well made but wholly unnecessary.
The combat boils down to either a pretty standard deathmatch/ctf/whatever TPS, or players vs a map of bots. There were only three PvE maps in total, so they get really boring after a while. The main focus of the game is the PvP element, which is rather bland imo.
The balance was horrible when I tested, out of the “special” weapons, the sniper rifle was the only good one, and it was SO good that everyone used it. Also, there is no separation of levels in pvp. You can easily be matched with people at level cap playing a new character.
You get to carry three weapons into a fight. A side arm, a rifle/shotgun, and a special weapon. You get three skill slots for things like thrown grenades, but if you use passives, they fill these slots as well. You also get two slots for drugs.
The clothing adds a very piddly amount of resistances, and there are only 4 gear slots. The difference amounts to dieing in one hit from a sniper, or living with two health.
The quests dry up rather quickly, leaving you to grind contact missions from a telephone (think achievement style kill x with y in one round stuff) for money and exp.
I would play it as a f2p type game if I had nothing else at the moment. I might be tempted as a box only no payment afterward. But box + monthly + mt? No. Just no.
@spoon: Thanks for the description. That jives with what most people are saying.
I was looking forward to this game, but I think I will wait until it comes down in price … in some way.
@ZIGS: It’s just my opinion, but Fallen Earth is/was way better than CrimeCraft, and I’m not a huge fan of Fallen Earth.
@Spoon: That’s a perfect description of the game. I agree on all points, except I wouldn’t be tempted to buy the box at all.
@PaulMorel: This is the problem with it being a box + subscription model, especially with a game that is so PvP/multiplayer focused. You may not have a long enough window to wait. If the game doesn’t catch on, and even if they don’t shut down the servers before then, you might be literally unable to play the game because the player base just won’t be big enough to support it by the time you pick it up.
That’s the reason why it’s so baffling that there’s been so little marketing for it. Forgetting the persistent world stuff, imagine releasing a mutliplayer-only shooter with almost no marketing push, no buzz, just near radio silence. Wouldn’t it be marketplace suicide?
beta was horrible. Gameplay system was unentertaining and navigating around the game space was painful at best. Thier attempt at quests was horrible. They need an actual writing staff if they want to pull of any kind of questing.
Heck, just get a high schooler that can write decent and clear directions. Half the quests sent you in the wrong direction from the objective.
Yea, yea, it’s just beta… but it sure seemed like a complete oversight in quality/design to try and show people your game in that bad of shape.
So they want us to pay a fee, and then pay more for advantages in a pvp game?
FUCK OFF YOU GREEDY BASTARDS
On the other hand, maybe this is a ruse by the APB developer to make them look better. Those cunning men!
I mistrust anything that gives people who cash out a specific advantage over people who don’t pay. Furthermore, I double-mistrust something that makes you pay first, and then pay MORE for a specific advantage.
Oh, and @postman: definitely rich man’s APB.
Reminds me a bit of The Club (which in itself wasn’t bad for a couple of hours), but with a much more open world.
Easier said than done.
Awaiting news that the server(s) were shut down in max 6 months…
Hahah, “Crimecraft”
I’ll wait for ABP
This game’s name far too blatant. This is the other side of the coin to that “Edge” trademark train wreck.
APB is going to blow this game out of the water and then run over it in a bright pink hummer. Several times.
And then it might shoot it just to make a point.
I have heard nothing good about this game at all.
Crimecraft. Seriously?
That’s like trying to establish a cinematic modern FPS game and calling it “Call of honor: Modern Warfighter”
They deserve any and all pisstaking about that freakin title.
“Hmm. Buying currency to commit crimes? This seems a little incongruous, somehow.”
Why, no, it makes perfect sense! After all, having been robbed blind, players will immediately feel inspired to do the same in the game! I tell you, it’s all in the interest of the player.
@Spoon: Played the Open Beta, and that pretty much covers it. The world felt completely unnecessary (and having to run everywhere was just fluff to kill time). Once I got to whatever arbitrary place I was going, it was just menu-time.
One thing you didn’t touch on, which I’ll add: I tried to spend some time crafting, as a source of revenue, and just as an additional reason to bother. Because the necessary drops were so rare, it was easier for me to sell what I did find in the marketplace, and then use those funds to buy the ingredients I needed to level up my crafting skill. Auctions could take days, or if I wanted to “Buy-it-now”, I could just pay premo-price. Kind of killed the whole aspect for me.
Really, I just want to play an FPS version of Warcraft, which this obviously is trying to market itself as. It also obviously fails. I don’t really mind having to go kill X number of murlocks. It’s just all the boring clicking that sucks. I want to go shoot them in the head. And when I stumble into a PvP area I want to shoot the enemy in the head. And then for fun make some PvP arenas or something. Obviously PvE would be great too. This formula seems really easy; what’s the problem?
I don’t want to play this, which sounds like just the multiplayer version of a generic shooter, but I have to walk around a lot to actually start a match.
While I’m think it’s a load of shit too, I will point out that your ’subscription fee’ gives you a monthly allotment of gold bars to spend on cash shop items, on top of what you feel willing to spend, or so the Steam description says.
An interview with the devs basically said APB is an MMO with shooter elements, Crimecraft is a shooter with MMO elements. Crimecraft is really supposed to be about the shooting, with the mmoy stuff added on outside. But their primary focus is the instanced combat arenas. Something about APB being about the player, and Crimecraft being about your gang too.
They also state that you won’t get any advantages from purchased items – they’ll all give you unique characters and gangs, but nothing else. They specifically mentioned never being able to buy the Sniper Rifle of Doom.
I played the beta for a while, and I agree that it would be a fine buy + item mall game, but it’s certainly not worth box + sub. Especially given the fact that things like Section 8 are coming, I can’t see paying $50, plus subs. The combat wasn’t bad, but wasn’t spectacular. It was much more on the level of Combat Arms or the like than TF2.
ReturnToNull: It does indeed. You also get 250 bars with your purchase of the boxed game. Looks like 250 bars is about $12.50 or so. So I guess buying the game for $50, get two months of subscriptions (dunno how much that is) and 250 bars. $50 – $12.50 – $30 (assuming $15/month) is $7.50 for the game (minus whatever gold bars you get per month).
Still, I ain’t picking it up.
If this has a subscription then it is doomed. With something as polished and good looking as APB on the horizon this doesn’t look to be up to much.
“An interview with the devs basically said APB is an MMO with shooter elements, Crimecraft is a shooter with MMO elements.”
It’s more like, APB tries to be a good example of both a shooter, and an MMO.
Crimecaft half asses everything.
Buying the gamebox ~ Buying your car.
Paying a monthly fee ~ Putting gas in your car and paying the insurance.
Buying via RMT shop ~ Buying a new radio or getting a new paint job, etc.
*mi mi mi @ suscriptions* Do you want race against a 500 HP car with your 90 HP trash can? Told the owner to detune his machine? *LOL* Come on, wake up ..
This game sounds more like a an expensive, 500HP car that has no traction to put any of the power down (ie: good idea, poor implementation). And a real car has far more applications than this game does. Your analogy kinda sucks, Spooky, sorry.
This seems to poach alot of themes from APB (crime stuffs) and Global Agenda (“third person gametype/objective based shooter with MMO elements”) and maybe other stuff. And both of those games look way more interesting and way more polished than this.
Don’t get me wrong, it could end up loads of fun, though beta impressions above seem to suggest otherwise. But ultimately it wants too much of my money for what it is.
Interesting. Crimecraft’s PR got in touch to say that apparently the microtransaction guff no longer buys skill perks – just aesthetic stuff. They’ve only just updated the website to reflect that: http://www.crimecraft.com/shop
postmanX3 says:
@ Mortiphago:
Sounds more like a rich man’s APB.
APB doesn’t have subscription fees, for one thing, and I (hope) it won’t have microtransactions, either.
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! how are they going to even be able to make money to pay their server. how can people get more stupid than that on earth ! Seriously ….. no subscription……. and no microtransactions…. hmmm is the mighty god off mmo going to give them money ?
Am I bad person for wanting this to fail?
Not often do you hear about a game which has seemingly no positive aspect (judging from the above comments).
I take comfort in their failure, and I question myself for it.