First Look: Shootmania Storm – Battle

First Look: Shootmania Storm – Battle
 

What is ShootMania?

With the prior success of their Trackmania series, Ubisoft have been gracing the face of e-sports with their newly anticipated first person shooter, ShootMania. Although this new addition to the ManiaPlanet platform developed by Nadeo is still in its BETA stages, it is already boasting user generated content and perfectly balanced competitive play. Unlike the complexity of Quake (with a magnitude of different weapon and item spawns to keep track of) and Unreal Tournament (with advanced game mechanics to be mastered) ShootMania makes the gameplay and controls accessible to all skill levels, while still allowing the best to stand out.

ShootMania holds many different game types for multiple players to take each other on simultaneously. ShootMania Storm title modes include Melee, Royal, Battle, BattleWave, Siege, and Time Attack; with multiple modes which have been created by the players themselves. Whilst each mode has specific objectives there are always opportunities to pick off the opposing team members, either you shoot or you get shot. 

(Opposing team taking a capture point)

Title mode: Battle
A firm favourite of mine is the Battle mode. Battle is a mode where one team must capture the pole of the opposing team to win the round. This mode utilises the weapon type rocket launcher, each player will be given two armours with a Rocket Launcher removing one of those armours upon successful hit. Once a player is hit twice they will be eliminated and respawn back at their team’s base. There are poles located close to the enemy team’s base which a player must stand on to begin capturing.

At the beginning of a round the first team to stand on the opposing team’s pole will begin their attacking phase, once there are no players attempting to capture a pole by standing on it a timer will begin to count down (fifteen seconds). Once this timer reaches zero the opposing team will then have a chance to capture poles. This process will continue back and forth until either a team captures every pole or the time limit for the round is reached (five minutes). Should the time limit be reached the team with the highest percentage of pole capturing (managed to stand on the poles the longest) will win the round.

(The blue players must capture these three points, on this map, in order to win the round) 

 

Beginners Tips:
At the start of the round your goal is to quite simply get to the opposing teams capture points (poles) before they get to yours (to begin the initial attacking phase). This initial lead can on some maps secure you the win, as capture points can be extremely far away from your spawn point. I would suggest during this first rush you ignore the enemy completely, dodge as many rockets as you possibly can, and stand on that capture point. Even if you’re eliminated heroically on the fields of battle, you’ll have given your team a fairly big advantage within the first ten or so seconds.

(Pushing forward to attack a capture point)

Alternatively you could take a more defensive position, make your way to your own capture point (the furthest away from your spawn). Get there as quickly as you can and brace yourself for the flood of enemies your about to face. Here your role is not to eliminate players but to simply prevent them from stepping onto the capture point. This can be achieved by shooting the ground near the enemy (this will bounce them back) or body blocking them as players cause collision. NB: Eliminating the enemy at this point is not always a good idea as they simply respawn at their base and make it harder for your team to initiate the attacking phase.

Another point to note is that on some maps there are rail pads. A rail pad turns a players gun into a Rail Gun, the Rail Gun will one shot kill any player it successfully hits. It is important to take note of where these are for each map, as running in sight of an enemy stood on one of these when you’re trying to capture an objective will almost definitely send you back to your spawn. It is also important to take advantage of these Rail Pads while defending, increasing the amount of time you are attacking is vital to winning rounds in the title mode Battle.

(Near miss! A player close to being eliminated by the opposing team on a rail pad)
 

To conclude Battle provides a player with an extremely fast paced, aggressive first person shooter experience. Challenging players to make calculated risks between diving the opposing team’s objectives and defending their own. These short but intense rounds keep players alert and absorbed in this simplified concept of a first person shooter. Described as 'pure multiplayer delirium/easy to play, but hard to master' I could not agree enough and express nothing but absolute excitement for the future of first person shooters in e-sports.