Looking for a multiplayer game

[Jeivar]

I logged about 600 hours in Team Fortress 2 back in the day. It was just a handy game to jump into for half an hour when I couldn't think of anything else to do, and I would probably still be playing it if something hadn't gone wrong with my country's internet, and now I can't connect to TF2 anymore.

I would like to have another good quick in-and-out game... one that doesn't have a subscription fee.

I don't know much about Overwatch, other than that it has a delightfully colourful set of characters, and at a glance I quite like For Honour.

Thoughts? Opinions on either of these?

[warty goblin]

I didn't like Overwatch very much. The guns had lots of color but little to recommend them in terms of feel or personality, and there's no loadout customization or weapon modifications, so you're basically stuck with whatever option you find least uninteresting. The characters feel so relentlessly marketing-focused I found it impossible to care about any of them, except a slight irritation that they wouldn't shut up. Less personalities, more collections of catch-phrases attached to walking merchandising plans, none of which impact the gameplay at all. The maps were fairly OK in that nondescript multiplayer map way, but the objectives were stone-cold boring. The most interesting part of the game are the powers, but they're mostly stuck on timers or charge gauges, and they just weren't cool or creative enough to be worth putting up with the slow-ass movement and shonky guns. Sprinting is a special ability for crying out loud, sprinting. It's worse than when Far Cry 3 made cooking grenades an unlockable skill.


I really can't stand the menus in For Honor. Which is petty, but dear god are they bad.


Really, the best suggestion I can think of is Titanfall 2, which is pretty much perfection in multiplayer shooter form so far as I can tell. It's got the best damn movement system in a shooter since ever*, really marvelous gun feel, and except at the real tip-top of the skill ladder, still somehow makes a substantial variety of playstyles completely viable. Plus giant stompy robots that play completely differently from the infantry, and interface with the infantry combat in surprisingly deep ways. This adds a huge amount of variability to a match, since at first you're fighting infantry, than you're maybe fighting a single Titan on foot, then you're in a Titan in a giant robot battle, then most of the Titans are dead, the survivors are wounded, and it its back to foot combat, then more Titans drop, and so on. The occupants of the battlespace pretty much continually change, and the gametype designs mean that pretty much the entire map is in play at any given time, so you never end up pounding your face against a fortified chokepoint over and over again. The only problem is that on PC, it's got a weeny player count anymore.



*Which probably means since Tribes.


Edit: Fired up Titanfall 2 again last night, since the new matchmaking patch dropped. It's sweet, and running along the side of a building 30 feet up at full pace, rounding a corner and machine-gunning some ground-pounder into paste is still just the best of things.

[divitorobert]

Tf2 is made to be cartoony but cod isn't meant to be super animated an humorous like tf2.

[Fri]

Paladin is basically a free version of Overwatch. Never played it, but maybe you could check that.

For Honor basically has the gameplay of Dark Souls but focused on pvp, which sounds fun.

I used to play Hawken, which is class-based arena shooter about mechs. But it's years ago.

Recently the "arena shooter" I play is World of Warships and I got quite obsessed with that. But warning that it's not for everyone though. I'm a bit of a naval ship fan, and I love looking at battleships trading shells across kilometers, but it's not your typical game. It's very slow, with your battleships turning in term of minutes, trading artillery shells from half the maps, and a ship could easily got their magazine exploded and blown up in one or two shots, and then you won't respawn. You either stay in the match to watch the rest of the battle, or exit and play other matches with your other ships.

[Knaight]

I've had some fun with Robocraft, though I bailed after some changes nerfed my preferred vehicle type dramatically. There's also Tribes: Ascend, in a more conventional shooter vein.

[Cespenar]

I've had some fun with Robocraft, though I bailed after some changes nerfed my preferred vehicle type dramatically. There's also Tribes: Ascend, in a more conventional shooter vein.

I used to play Tribes: Ascend a lot, though I wouldn't call it "conventional", really. How is the player base these days?

[Knaight]

I used to play Tribes: Ascend a lot, though I wouldn't call it "conventional", really. How is the player base these days?

No idea. I'm not really into shooters, I gave it a try briefly because it sounded fun and was free and put it back down.

[N810]

I've had some fun with Robocraft, though I bailed after some changes nerfed my preferred vehicle type dramatically. There's also Tribes: Ascend, in a more conventional shooter vein.

You might want to give Robocraft another look, they just went alpha.
After being in beta for so many years, they really changed the main
battle mode considerably, and a lot of newish revised maps to go with it,
mostly making steeper hills smaller map and more cover.
also there is now a rotating challenge arena where there are different
rules and types of bot allowed and this rotates every couple of weeks.

[Knaight]

You might want to give Robocraft another look, they just went alpha.
After being in beta for so many years, they really changed the main
battle mode considerably, and a lot of newish revised maps to go with it,
mostly making steeper hills smaller map and more cover.
also there is now a rotating challenge arena where there are different
rules and types of bot allowed and this rotates every couple of weeks.

Is the stick of helium with one oversized gun mounted on the bottom viable again? It was cutting the flight ceiling to half the former value that did it in for me.

[N810]

Is the stick of helium with one oversized gun mounted on the bottom viable again? It was cutting the flight ceiling to half the former value that did it in for me.

I don't see many blimps or satellites anymore, possibly because of the anti-aircraft flack gun.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I'm personally a fan of Heroes of the Storm as a quick action game (15-25 minute matches) with a topdown perspective, flashy abilities, and a bit of a more involved macro-game than your traditional FPS.

Battlerite is a super-fast topdown dueling game focused heavily on character abilities; it's a reboot of the old game Bloodline Champions. I really liked the time I got to spend in the open beta weekend for this game.

[Psyren]

If you like TF2, you'll probably like Overwatch. It shouldn't be too hard to find somebody with a copy who can let you play for a bit to verify that, or watch some youtube videos.

[kleon]

If you like TF2, you'll probably like Overwatch. It shouldn't be too hard to find somebody with a copy who can let you play for a bit to verify that, or watch some youtube videos.

Thanks, I'm also a fan of TF2, will try the Overwatch)

[gooddragon1]

Depending on how you play, planetside 2 can be fast paced. Particularly in biodomes.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Uh... crap I don't really play multiplayer to kill time, I play it for challenge.

For Honor is basically a fighting game, but with shallower mindgames, AKA less depth. Also Domination mode sucks, and that's what they're promoting. If you really want, I can recommend some fighting games.

Overwatch should work. Haven't played it myself, but the "lack of customization" is a major part of the design, it's not like traditional shooters. Instead it has more varied abilities from hero to hero.

[Knaight]

Yet another option is Helldivers - it's cooperative instead of competitive, but it works for quick drop-in and drop-out gameplay, and it has a decent range of difficulty.