Big Time

Introduction

Big Time is the flagship title of Big Time Studios. The game is a cooperative RPG that combines fast-action combat, the collectability of NFTs, and a history-spanning adventure. Big Time puts a lot of emphasis on playing with friends and joining other players’ parties to work together in clearing the various dungeons spread across the game’s vast universe.

All of this is done in an attempt to uncover a mysterious threat that’s tearing down the very walls of time itself. The latter statement isn’t just for show as well, and you realize that when you see Albert Einstein randomly standing next to a T-Rex dinosaur on the sea shore of Epoch City.

Big Time offers unlimited adventures, with an extremely distinctive art style, stunning visuals, and a vibrant world.

Gameplay

Every dungeon is procedurally generated, offering players precious NFT and non-NFT loot along their way while offering a special experience every time you boot up the game. This leaves you with almost neverending content to chew through.

However, this is a double-edged sword that so far has proven to be a blessing and a curse for Big Time. Players are able to play the game for countless hours grinding for newer, better, or shinier gear than what they currently have. On the other hand, this process happens while facing the same dinosaurs about 60 times.

The NFT loot distribution is purely arbitrary, at least based on the hours we have put into the game. It doesn't necessarily go towards the best performing players in your group nor the most influential member. It sometimes goes to the least contributing member of your party, and if you aren't a premade group of friends, it can be irritating at times.

Since we are on the topic of groups, Big Time allows you to take up to 6 players with you in your party to conquer dungeons. Each one of them has various monsters lurking around it, with objectives you need to complete before facing the dungeon’s boss fight.

These objectives can vary from disarming bombs and collecting flowers to slaying certain types of enemies. Not only that, monsters in Big Time will often drop clothing and armor items inspired by different time periods, allowing you to express yourself in a way that reflects you the most and show off your fancy gear to everyone online in your lobby.

The objectives have improved slightly over the course of the beta phase updates released so far. However, Big Time still suffers from the objectives' purpose mostly being chores rather than drawing you in to the game's rich lore and vibrant universe.

Often times you will find yourself dedicating your Shadowblade to just blaze through enemies, completely ignoring them, to complete the collecting flowers objective for example. Add to that the final objectives sometimes being completely tedious and time consuming for no other reason than just keeping you inside that dungeon to slay 20+ enemies with no real major difference in the loot you receive along the way and the one you get at the end of a dungeon.

Time & SPACE

Time Machines and SPACE are another core gameplay mechanic in Big Time. Players will earn their first Time Machine in the early stages of the game, and from that point onwards, you can expand it and personalize it as you wish to reflect who you are. This isn’t all what they do though. Time Machines of certain levels will allow you to unlock unique playable features and utility.

The question here is, how do I upgrade and expand my Time Machine? Well, the limited-edition SPACE NFTs come into play. SPACE comes in five rarities; Rare, Mythic, Legendary, Epic, and Exalted. Each has three sizes; small, medium, and large.

All of which are currently available on Big Time’s open market for purchase, and each piece expands your Time Machine in correspondance to the number of plots included in each SPACE depending on its rarity and size.

Players will first have to choose a starting class. Players will not be able to change classes until they find a pocketwatch by defeating enemies. Pocketwatches allow players to switch between different classes. Pocketwatches for each class are used to save players’ progress as they level up.

However, it is worth noting Big Time puts you in a spot where you need to make tough decisions with pocketwatches. The need to start from scratch when equipping pocketwatches from a different class is completely understandable, but what feels difficult to digest is the reasoning behind starting from level 1 when you are upgrading your pocketwatch within the same class.

It deters you away from equipping a better pocketwatch within your same class unless it is a significant upgrade. While playing, I often found myself just sticking to my common Chronomancer pocketwatch just because I don't want to lose all the progress I made with it to equip an uncommon with slightly better stats.

Summary

Having said that, Big Time is the closest thing we have in web3 gaming to a replayable, enjoyable, and cooperative game that keeps you coming back everyday to grind away for better gear to stand out from the crowd. The feeling when you see a flashy character in the game's world brings memories of World of Warcraft and other MMOs we used to play growing up.

For now, the game's shortcomings lie in its "grind" being a little too repetitive and not innovative enough at times. Add to that the regular pocketwatch punishment, even when upgrading within the same class. 

There are other factors contributing to making Big Time unique. Its gameplay-first approach, unique art style, unorthodox token economy, and its stellar team. We haven’t touched on the Big Time team yet, but it is one of the main attributes driving the massive success and anticipation built around Big Time.