R3V3NGE

Overview

R3V3NGE is a shooter built on Unreal Engine by Polyland. This game can be played in first-person, with a third-person option in the works. Currently in beta, the player can enjoy the zombie mode, reminiscent of Call of Duty's Zombie mode, in which the player must survive as many rounds as possible. The current beta version is accessible only through access codes given out by the team and through collaborations.

The game carries no lore at the moment, but there are hints of one coming, with various media clips, such as a character waking up and finding himself hunted by zombies. Polyland, the studio building R3V3NGE, hints at the game being part of their Metaverse vision, integrating their Ready Player Me avatars. The team has secured a $2.5 million seed round and has been building since early 2022, with marketing for R3V3NGE starting late February 2023.

Players can download the game through the Elixir launcher once they have an access code. R3V3NGE has high system requirements due to its impressive graphics, requiring at least 16GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 970 / AMD RX480. The game currently has one collection live on OpenSea and Crypto.com, featuring loot boxes containing various items such as $ZION tokens and weapons, depending on the loot box rarity. The in-game $ZION currently carries no value as the game is only in beta.

Gameplay

After downloading the game through Elixir, players log in with their username and password. The main menu displays a character in a dark setting, with options like play, store, and settings. Currently, there is only one game mode, Zombies, a survival mode where players must endure as many rounds as possible.

In this mode, players start on the upper level with a pistol carrying eight bullets per round, a maximum shield of 50 hit points, and 100 health points. Each zombie hit takes away 20 hit points, and players die after eight consecutive hits. Health recharges when the player avoids hits for a while. Players also have about five seconds of sprint time in stamina.

As players slay zombies, they gain $ZION, which can be spent on purchasing weapons on the first lower level. There are various weapons available, ranging from submachine guns to semi-automatic weapons to shotguns. These currently cost one $ZION, which the player reaches around the end of round two or the beginning of round three. Players need to slay twenty zombies before being able to buy their first weapon. As each round progresses, the zombies become harder to kill, and different variants spawn, including sprinting zombies and exploding zombies.

At the current stage of the beta, this is the limit of gameplay. R3V3NGE plans to release further modes such as 6v6 team deathmatch, battle royale, and competitive free-for-all, pitting ten players of similar skill levels against each other. Once these modes are released, this AAA title aims to compete against the titans in the shooter genre, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield, which currently have a player base of over 100 million people.

Review

R3V3NGE is an incredible step forward in the shooter genre for web3 games, as it provides high-quality graphics using Unreal Engine with fun gameplay akin to that seen in Call of Duty Zombies. With partnerships with heavy hitters such as AtariX, the web3 arm of Atari, they are set to take the gaming scene by storm, providing another AAA title in the Polygon ecosystem. Being downloadable through the Elixir launcher gives the game an extra layer of security and visibility due to the creator partnerships held by Elixir.

When it comes to the game's graphics, they are of a high standard. For example, the shooting effects of the weapons and the spray of blood that emits from zombies are all very well detailed. This extends to the environment the player is in, with the lighting providing a well-matched ambiance to the situation. The only downfall in the current beta is that on the first lower level's left-hand side, players are likely to encounter lag for an unknown reason, causing them to slow down. Furthermore, once players complete the Zombie mode and return to the main menu, they cannot click any buttons except 'quit,' forcing them to restart the game completely to play again.

In regards to the game's audio, the main menu music sets the scene for the game and complements the graphics very well. Once loaded into the game, the ambient audio is at the correct volume level to allow for the zombie noises to come through. However, it is currently difficult to determine where the zombies are coming from using audio alone, as it does not seem to differ between left and right audio channels.

Analyzing the gameplay, it is fun and has a tremendous amount of potential, but with only the Zombie mode available in a small environment, players may desire more, as they would when playing the same mode from competitors like Call of Duty. The recoil on the weapons is realistic, as are the hit effects from zombies, meaning they have to be within melee range to have an effect.

Testing out a few different weapons in the beta allows players to get a feel for them and see how effective they are when battling, especially when switching between primary and secondary weapons. An additional great feature is the ability to play using a controller, although it is currently only available on PC. A drawback to this is that some functions do not seem to be working properly on the controller, such as buying weapons and adjusting sensitivity, which currently require a mouse.

Moreover, the foundation laid with the current beta serves the studio well, as it allows them to fix any bugs, such as the lag on the left-hand side of the lower level, before pursuing mass adoption with their other game modes. The graphics are on par with well-known competitors, and with the player base of these types of games being enormous, it is likely that a large number of players will shift their loyalty from competitors once gamers become aware of R3V3NGE and its earning mechanisms, provided that Polyland upholds the high level of gameplay currently seen. An area of improvement could be adding lore to the game, allowing players to feel part of the story and creating a storyline for speculation. In addition, a small tutorial guiding players through the controls could be helpful if they have not played this style of game in a while or at all.