Recently, a multiplayer battle shooting game in the EA stage has quietly become popular on Steam. This game requires players to drive an interstellar pirate ship, search for ships in open areas, and engage in fierce jump-gang gun battles with AI enemies and player competitors, as much as possible. Take away the spoils, of course, don’t forget to drive back to your own ship at the end.
That’s right, this is a re-skinned “Escape from Tarkov”. The makers packaged it under the theme of an interstellar pirate, and created a diesel punk worldview with all seriousness. Therefore, players hold P08, MP40, Weapons of World War II, such as MP44 and MAT-49, boarded gunboats with riveted structures and rigid suspensions, and went into space wearing gas protective suits from the Somme battlefield. Although it is a bit fantasy, the combination of the thick oxygen mask + the confined space of the steam tube room is indeed very atmospheric, as if you are in a submarine.
The name of the game is “Maraders”, the looters, which sums up the core elements of the game very well. Before this, we may call this type of game “equipment-driven battle royale”, or directly call it “Takov-like game”. But when more and more imitators entered the game, obviously, this is a brand new category independent of BattleRoyal’s chicken-eating gameplay. When did this kind of looting get out of the category of eating chicken, and how did it achieve its unique charm?
New York Dark Zone: Eating hot pot and singing songs, he was suddenly robbed by gangsters
The biggest difference between the looting gameplay and the battle royale can be seen literally. The key to the battle royale is to escape, and life-saving is the priority, while the looting gameplay is to rob, and the main thing is to steal money. The earliest implementation of this kind of gameplay in commercial games was the PVP mode “Dark Zone” in the original “The Division”. . The original “The Division” itself was also an innovative “equipment-driven shooter”. Before that, only “Borderlands” brought Diablo-style ARPG drops to shooters, but Gearbox did not The idea of designing Borderlands as a service game.
From ARPG to TPS, the biggest advantage is that the output capability of the equipment greatly depends on the player’s shooting level, which makes the process of Loot more focused and has more presence. The problem is also here, the shooting gameplay also It makes the equipment-driven gameplay less sensitive to data, and too many monsters will destroy the characteristics of its own gameplay. Players can no longer verify the attributes of the equipment through “mowing efficiency”, so the strength of the equipment requires another Some releases are used to test, then this gameplay leads to the “dark area”.
The dark area offers players to fight against each other. The closer to the limit of the equipment value, the more they can withstand attacks or kill opponents more efficiently, so as to verify the meaning of equipment strength and Perk. At the same time, this gameplay cannot be purely Shooting each other is best related to the PVE gameplay of the body. So a prototype of PvPvE was born. Players need to kill NPC monsters to obtain dark zone equipment, and then safely bring them out from the dark zone, and then they can permanently log in to the character account. Numerically, the dark area can produce equipment with unique entries, and the weapons of the big road goods will also have higher attributes than the current version. Players who graduated in PVE will eventually go to the dark area to try it.
As a result, two types of players were born, one is a monster farmer who diligently moves bricks and sells them by himself, and the other is a robber player who is a full-time robber at the evacuation point. The design of the dark area of ”The Entire Realm” also encourages players to divide into two factions to fight against each other. In the plot, the latter is designed as a “renegade agent”. After attacking other players, the SHD watch representing justice will flash red and the radar will warn the surrounding. people. Dark area equipment is set to be “contaminated”, and must be isolated and transported through a specific helipad, and cannot be taken away with the player through the ground station, which is convenient for looters to lock and hunt. The snowballing effect of equipment values will encourage old players to turn into predators, bullying the weak makes the entire dark area perilous, and the experience of being knocked down by a magician is undoubtedly full of humiliation and anger.
In the second generation of the series, Ubisoft has the idea of making the “Dark Zone” bigger and stronger, hoping that players at all stages can participate in the plundering of the dark zone, adding the “Benchmarking Dark Zone”, the same name of the war There will be no attribute difference between equipment, so that players with low training levels can also have the hope of winning PvP. In addition, a talent tree for players with different strategies has been designed to more professionally implement the goals of evacuation and robbery, and the trend of free FPS Next, the new series “Heartland” is likely to be a game based on the “dark zone” gameplay.
“Sea of Thieves”: The hemp bandit you see is played by me, the hemp bandit I see is played by you
The success of “Dark Zone” has brought great popularity to “The Division”, and it has also made other developers see its prospects. RARE Studio first independently developed the looting gameplay into a game for sale. It can be said that “Sea of Thieves” is a game specially created for looting. From the theme to the setting logic behind it, it is very appropriate.
After experiencing the “dark zone”, players will discover the “law of the dark forest”. Compared with simply being a “gold digger” or a “looter”, it is the most reasonable strategy to flexibly change between the two identities. The first to eliminate any approaching target, it is best to be able to judge the strength of the opponent, bully the soft and fear the hard, and decide whether to fight or flee. The sea battle setting of “Sea of Thieves” perfectly fits this idea. Players with different team sizes will get three types of ships of different sizes. The open sea allows players to observe and warn in advance and avoid the attack of large ships.
Smaller boats have higher headwind speeds and quicker turns, enough to throw off opponents in a chase, while larger ships have more men, higher drafts, and more deck artillery. The nature of the naval battle also ensures that the firepower of the side naval guns cannot play a role in actual combat 100%. At the same time, the PvE mission requires some personnel to leave the ship and board the island, giving the small boats a chance to fight against the big ships. The most interesting thing is that under the leadership of looting, the boat can directly target stealing goods, without frontal kills, or even stealing all the goods. Under the guidance of the rule that everything is possible, even without hanging the skull flag, Sea of Thieves has become a game with “highly qualified players”, and everyone in it is like a robber.
Perhaps realizing the cruelty of this rule, RARE has reduced frustration in the game’s economic system. Players are only rewarded with skin accessories for selling loot. These items will not be taken away by other players, and each time they enter the game, they will only get one A splendid empty ship, even the magic side guns shining with the flames of hell, will not do any more damage than others. The victory or defeat on “Sea of Thieves” has some role-playing jokes. Attacking each other is not because there are any substantial rewards, but simply because you and I are both playing a pirate, which also makes the “player quality” better. Gao’s promotion, because even a cunning character with two sides and three swords is just a play within a play, without the slightest moral baggage.
“Escape from Tarkov”: You can’t work hard, how can you make money if you work hard
The final appearance of “Escape from Tarkov” completes the remaining puzzles for this type of game, a completely real outlaw place. After death, all equipment is dropped. The equipment obtained in the map can immediately increase the player’s combat power. A flea market and NPC vendors are set up, so that players can accumulate advantages before the game, and the deposit can be immediately converted into the next game. outside the game.
Players bring equipment into the battlefield, and equipment is produced in the battlefield. For a single player, this is a gamble. Stud with equipment as a bargaining chip, and card skills are their own FPS level. For the whole game, long-term gambling is bound to lose, and all the equipment produced will eventually return to the battlefield, completing a reliable closure.
The existence of the home system and the flea market is the finishing touch. The former can provide a guarantee mechanism. Even if you lose the poor and the white, you can make a comeback, but you need a lot of resources to build infrastructure, which is also the guarantee of the game itself. As long as new players enter the game, they will There is this need. The latter is an auction house between players, where all props can be freely traded, which ensures that everything produced on the battlefield will not become waste, and there is always a price waiting for it on the black market. These two mechanisms allow Escape from Tarkov to have a near-real economic system that provides players with a steady stream of motivation.
The game upgrades the “chicken-eating” and “dark zone” gameplay from “birds eat to death” to “man-made money to kill”, and with the various map mechanisms on the map, evacuation points with different conditions are designed, some of which need to be evacuated Items, some need to complete tasks, and some are open for a limited time. Players can also join the battlefield as a SCAV defender, receive free weapons, and add to the battlefield when the number of NPCs is insufficient to increase the difficulty of evacuation. These diversified design updates will also enrich the playability of the game, and of course bring surprises. probability of death.
A game full of gamblers will undoubtedly hope to become the game with the best quality of players on the planet. The last game that completed the closed-loop economic system in FPS was CSGO. It has been popular for ten years, and CSGO’s accessories system Just taking advantage of people’s love for beauty and comparison, for Escape from Tarkov and other future heist games, this may only be a lower limit.
Summarize:
Looting games can be regarded as random distribution at present. “The Division” is only logged in Ubisoft’s own Uplay store. Recently, several new derivative works have been opened, which are obviously the key bets; “Sea of Thieves” is Microsoft’s first-party work. The game is still being updated steadily, but there is no need to worry about the sequel; “Escape from Tarkov” is still in the testing stage, although it is stated that the official version will log in to the third-party distribution platform after the release, but the release date is far away.
At present, there is only one competing product on Steam that can come out, “Maraders”. Valve has the most developed game trading market and game item trading market today, and it will never let go of this potential stock. Under the attention of these traditional game giants, Tencent also targeted this market early, and developed it into “Dark Zone Breakout” in the form of mobile games that it is best at. The only thing lingering in front of business vision is the elimination mechanism of too cruel and tough guys.