No Man’s Land: It Sneaks Up On You

“Think places, not spaces.”
–Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game

 

I have a confession to make.

I kinda like this game. Okay, I really like this game. And I highly recommend it.

That wasn’t the case when I first played it. When I first tried it, I found it to be a cumbersome, confusing jumble of controls that made no sense. Nothing felt familiar.

This is a big deal. Right or wrong, console games (and the various genres they inhabit) have a common vocabulary. Certain buttons do certain things. Certain types of games are expected to handle a certain way. Games which deviate from this formula feel alien, and their steeper learning curves are a risky gamble in a gaming industry that’s utterly and totally saturated with enticements and attractions screaming at a consumer from every angle, where the margin of forgiveness is slim and attention spans are shorter than the typical reality TV star’s career.

Let’s cover the most important, polarizing element of No Man’s Land, from VEEMEE, right up front: this isn’t a free-roam shooter.

This is extremely important, because it’s an assumption you’re going to make going into it. Oh, it’s a third-person tactical shooter; I’ll just run around the map.

No.

If you’ve played the Uncharted 3 Total Game Integration in Home, then you more or less know what to expect: navigating between set waypoints. Granted, VEEMEE’s done an excellent job with this format, but if you’re expecting the freedom of a typical disc-based shooter (which this game is doubtlessly going to be compared against), you will be sorely disappointed.

It gets worse. Although the lack of a free-roam environment is likely necessary due to the limitations of Home’s infrastructure, the waypoint system does present some real challenges. For one thing, although there’s a wealth of waypoints to choose from, it can be very difficult to select waypoints if they’re set very close together.  And while you’re moving between waypoints, you cannot run-and-gun, nor can you reload or switch weapons. Some of this may make it into a future update, so we’ll see.

Oh, and close-quarters combat? Forget it. If you end up taking cover on the opposite side of a barrier from an opponent, it’s basically a blind-fire crapshoot, because although you can strafe (with difficulty) within the waypoint zone, your instinct to just stand up and shoot can’t be fulfilled by the control interface.

On top of that: in Deathmatch mode (one of two modes presently available for the game, the other being Scavenger, which is a sort of a beefed-up Capture The Flag variation), the spawning system, at least at the time of this writing, can be manipulated by a clever fireteam. The game doesn’t appear to take enemy proximity into account when respawning you, so there was one gaming session in which the fireteam I was on got utterly massacred because our opponents figured out exactly how to triangulate us at just the right distance to keep us spawning right in the middle of them. To be fair, this was acknowledged during the beta testing and likely fixed by now.

Needless to say, after my first session with the game, I was pissed. Yeah, the game was pretty enough — the battlefield is actually quite an amazingly detailed environment for Home — but it felt like I was fighting the control interface at the same time as my opponents, and that clunkiness had me to the point where I was almost ready to ragequit and dismiss the game as a bad idea that would end up doing little more than giving traditional console gamers yet another reason to write Home off as a quaint experiment gone wrong. The problem with a game that looks like it could be a disc-based title is that I expect it to behave like one, and it amplifies the disappointment when it doesn’t.

But something happened: I changed my mind.

I don’t mean I simply decided to like the game. I mean I changed the way I look at it.

I’ll explain. After racking up craptastic ranking stats and signing out of Home (muttering to myself in anger), I downloaded Ultima IV to my PC and decided to play it again. Now, those of you who know me know that I’m a huge fan of the Ultima series, and in particular the Age of Enlightenment trilogy. So I figured I’d reopen one of my favorite games from twenty-five years ago and jump back in like it was the old days.

Holy fark, I was lost.

As a gamer, I’ve gotten so used to the modern handholding most video games come with that I was embarrassed to realize that I’d completely forgotten the (wholly keyboard) game interface Richard Garriott had programmed. When I was a kid, I owned those classic Apple-II games; in a sea of 1980’s brown-haired suburban geeks, I was Captain N, beeotch.

I stared at the computer screen, completely dumbfounded by the fact that I had no idea how to play one of my favorite games.

That’s when it hit me. Maybe the problem wasn’t with No Man’s Land. Maybe the problem was what I’d been expecting from it.

I was expecting your basic third-person shooter. A sort of generic SOCOM experience, for lack of a better description. And when I didn’t get that, I was pissed — not necessarily because of the game itself, but because it wasn’t what I personally was expecting. I’d gone to a Hummer dealership looking for a Ferrari.

Thing is, though, a Hummer can be a pretty awesome driving experience, too — just in a very different way.

No Man’s Land is a very different sort of game. And I have to admit: it’s a surprising amount of fun once you embrace it for what it is. If you’re going in expecting Modern Warfare, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you go in expecting a sort of post-apocalyptic Valkyria Chronicles, it actually makes sense. This is a game which values team tactics, coordinated strategy and utilizing cover, rather than just Rambo theatrics. The clunky navigation system places a premium on thinking in terms of places rather than spaces.

And you know what? I like that.

I’m not into shooters. My opinion of shooters is much the same as my opinion of rap music: a bloated genre that started with a few real gems and then turned into a sea of lookalike mediocrity. Shooters usually involve little more than juking back and forth, taking turns killing each other. And because they’re free-roam environments, people feel like they’re Delta Force commandos because death carries a relatively low penalty.

Also, don’t even get me started on the craptastic behavior of some of the players involved in online shooters. I’m a former martial arts instructor who owns actual assault rifles. You really think I want to listen to some pre-teen talk trash at me just because he thinks he’s macho from a few thousand miles away? There’s a huge difference between playing online and being on an actual battlefield where you’re truly being shot at. The heroics disappear real fast in favor of some solid cover and teamwork.

Ironically, it’s the very restrictions that limit No Man’s Land which, paradoxically, make it feel more real somehow. In an actual combat situation, you’re not running around pulling Rambo theatrics. You’re taking cover and working with your teammates so you don’t get shot. Which is exactly what this game is simulating. So, in a very odd way, No Man’s Land is perhaps more realistic.

There are a couple of other benefits to the waypoint navigation system as well. For one thing, I suspect it’s what gives the game its outstanding collision detection and lack of lag. For another, waypoint navigation makes the battlefield essentially glitch-proof (or, at the very least, highly resistant). And this is fantastic, because while I personally don’t mind people glitching their own estates, glitchers who disrupt games need to be beaten so severely that their unborn children will be stunted.

A couple of other cool tidbits about this game: as soon as a round starts, a microphone chat channel is automatically set up for you and your fireteam. So if you’re using a headset, chatting with your teammates is a breeze. This makes tactical coordination much easier. And, another nifty little secret…from what I learned in some discussions during the beta testing, the game penalizes ragequitters.

It doesn’t kick in right away, mind you; connections can drop. But if a repeated pattern of quitting mid-game shows up, points start getting deducted. Which, of course, affects rankings. I love this. Even when I get ridiculously frustrated at a game, I don’t wuss out in the middle of a firefight. I took plenty of lumps during my learning curve, and I’ve earned my stats honestly.

Speaking of rankings, by the way…I haven’t looked at the stats recently, but I’ll wager my latest round, in which I went twenty-seven kills to six deaths, probably helped.

I’ve got the hang of this game now. And it’s actually a lot of fun. It’s not a traditional shooter, but it’s a shooter I enjoy. It’s different. It’s more like an S-RPG crossed with a shooter. When Cubehouse and I stumbled upon No Man’s Land on display at E3, I was shocked to find myself genuinely enthusiastic to play the game again.

What’s even more interesting? Watching the reactions of people who played the game at E3 and had no idea, until after they’d enjoyed it, that it was a Home game. And the shocked reaction, every time, was wonderful to watch. Let’s face it: Home needs games like this if it’s going to appeal to the broader PSN audience out there.

It’s not a perfect game, mind you — but once I got my own biases out of the way, and looked at the game for what it is, I have to say it’s a pretty damned awesome experience. Granted, some things could be tweaked; dodging enemy grenades can be a real headache, because there’s a lag between your input and your avatar actually moving. And there’s precious little incentive to use anything other than the absolute heaviest armor, given the fact that the game’s waypoint navigation system places less of an emphasis on evasion and more on placement. But even here things get unbalanced, as it takes two headshots from a sniper rifle to kill someone using a heavy helmet.

The biggest problem I can see with No Man’s Land is that a lot of people are going to go into it with a completely incorrect expectation of what sort of experience the game will deliver, and be disappointed as a result. The control interface does feel cumbersome at first, and it has a longer learning curve than many might expect. I personally believe that unless this game is marketed correctly — as a “strategy shooter,” for lack of a better phrase — there’s going to be some backlash from people who had exactly the same reaction I had when they first sit down to play it. Except they’re not going to bother trying to adjust their thinking and adapt to a new experience; they’ll simply conclude it’s a flawed game crippled by the limitations of Home as a platform. The only way to combat this is with some preemptive marketing which clearly sets the tone in the player’s mind that this is a different sort of game — a cover-based shooter instead of a free-roam shooter.

As for me? I’m enjoying the hell out of this game, and I do recommend checking it out. If you embrace it for what it is, it’s actually a very clever — and, yes, addictive — gaming experience. Home games have to be appealing for years at a time — something which is a very hard trick to pull off — and VEEMEE’s come up with something that will stand the test of time. No Man’s Land can rightfully take its place as one of Home’s finest games.

  • Graphically outstanding.
  • Excellent collision detection.
  • Minimal lag.
  • It *grows* on you.
  • Clunky interface.
  • Steep learning curve.
  • Will not satisfy those looking for a free-roam shooter.

June 20th, 2012 by | 5 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.

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5 Responses to “No Man’s Land: It Sneaks Up On You”

  1. KrazyFace says:

    Hmm, seems I jumped the gun, so to speak. Although it still sounds less about co-op and more structured around the ideal of shooting your friends (or strangers) in the face still, this review has changed my mind about it a bit. I’m now willing to take a proper look at this and at least try it, rather than writing it off as yet another FPS.

    Well done Norse, I think Duce would be proud.

  2. KrazyFace says:

    Sorry for the double post but, I’ve just had a go. You were right, it’s certainly NOT an FPS, it’s worse! I never finished that Uncharted fiasco in the Action District before because the controls were fiddly, inaccurate, and badly positioned. This it seems, is just a really, really big version of that. They say first impressions last, boy is that true.

    I have to say to you Norse, you’ve done well to give it such a good write up, but I don’t see myself coming back here anytime soon. It’s a nice idea, but (and I can’t believe I’m actually saying this) it would have been better as an FPS, instead of this jerky, anti-intuitive re-skin of Drakes outing in Home.

  3. MsLiZa says:

    I haven’t tried No Man’s Land yet but I can relate to the article.

    That’s sort of how I felt when I first tried Novus Prime. I think that I was expecting Salt Shooter in outer space which, to me, seemed like a cool idea for Home. When I saw what the game was, I absolutely hated it. But here’s the rub. After realising what Novus Prime was all about, I gave it another try a few days later and still hated it. I haven’t played it again to this day. I know that your a fan of NP, Norse, but I found it torture to play the first few levels to win the reward. I can’t imagine why I even bothered with that.

    I thought that the UC3 game in Home was pretty fun so maybe I’ll have a better experience with No Man’s Land. I’m not liking all the talk about needing expensive upgrades just to be competitive though. We’ll have to see.

    • MsLiZa says:

      Damn…I can’t believe that I typed “your” instead of “you’re”

      That’s what happens when I’m reminded of Novus Prime, I guess. I’d hate to think about what would happen if we got started on Slap Happy Sam.

  4. bIgD-420 says:

    Wow great article Norse I believe we have played in Game before. There are still a lot of flaws w the Mae VeeMee should fix. Lag issues, can’t get to your friends game, NEW MAPS soon, more guns ect.

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