Naraka: Bladepoint Review

Naraka: Bladepoint Review

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What is it? Martial Royal Royale and close combat and long-range combat.
Estimated payment: 20 USD/18 GBP
Developer: 24 Entertainment
Publisher: NetEase Games Montreal
Comment time: Intel Core i5-9600K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070 Super
multiplayer game? 60-player battle royale, plus deathmatch mode
Association: www.narakathegame.com

At first I didn’t take Naraka: Bladepoint seriously, and it didn’t give me many reasons. In its tutorial, a battle royale game focused on melee combat teaches you to combine repeatedly by clicking-no problem, I like clicking-and then introduce its strange counterattack system without really explaining it. After that, it will secretly pair you with the robot in your first game. The robot behaves like the mosquitoes that recently transplanted their brains into the human body. Even if our Australian players stuck to the ground due to lag, we easily won the first trio game.

However, after a few games, the true nature of the 60-man martial arts battle royale became apparent. The moment before you were Donnie Yen, and the next moment you are scrambling to find the “pick up” prompt to let the long sword fly out of your hand in the whirlpool of particle effects. However, it was too late. As the Fist of the North Star villain Kenshiro said: “You are dead.”

Humble beginning

Obviously, the battle royale of martial arts cannot be mastered in one tutorial. Skills are often transferred between shooters, but choosing a new melee fighting game sometimes means suppressing everything you learned in the previous game. For me, the last one is Chivalry 2, in which medieval battles are carried out at a speed of 90 bpm, and the attack will take into account the weight of the weapon, the direction of swing, and the rotation of the torso. Naraka is more or less the opposite.

Humblely, I went back to the poorly localized menu to find the training mode, which was a bit shaky but got the job done, and Narakapedia, a useful guide that introduced the idea of ​​skipping the tutorial altogether. When I grew from Naraka: Bladeboy to Naraka: Blademan, I started to see a complicated, sometimes unstable but sometimes elegant game of skill.

Naraka is a fast and aggressive battle royale game.

The first thing I learned is that those basic combos are easy for good players to counterattack. However, you may be tricky and end the combination early, or use charge attacks, which are less predictable and can be cancelled. There are other complexities and skills to learn. Once you learn, my favorite mind game in Chivalry 2 will appear. They are just hard to understand, because everything about Naraka takes place under the influence of the magical and physical lightness of Chinese martial arts novels, which is visually dazzling. (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is probably the most mainstream example of this type.)

The animations are fast, light weight, and timing games are more memory than intuition, and it feels a bit old-fashioned. Close combat tests how much you know about the attack mode of each weapon—there are katana, giant sword, long sword, dagger, and spear—and whether you can predict when your opponent will launch a counterattack (or you can use them to wait The fact that you are doing this).

Not every battle is a brain: spam attacks sometimes work, while classic fighting games are frustrating. In this case, you are avoiding, but your character is repeatedly stunned by a combination, which is a good example. Came out. But there are also beautiful moments of patience and cleverness to win victory. Old fashioned or not, it’s fun.

Naraka’s genre inspiration also has a great, modern result: no fall damage. Being able to move freely, double jump, use hooks to fight between buildings (and other players), and climb trees and towers (you have mastered all the parkour skills of Assassin’s Creed) what a comforting thing.

Naraka is a fast and aggressive battle royale game. You can be invisible, but crouching is not absolutely necessary when you cannot be killed in the bushes 200 meters away (Naraka has bows and guns, but nothing can compare with PUBG rifles). The quick and loose free fit of seven heroes and their special and ultimate abilities. For example, the wandering monk Tianhai’s big move turned him into a six-armed giant; he is not the one you want to find in the bathroom.

Shooting and robbery

Although I don’t like being sniped, long-range weapons still have some shortcomings. Non-firearms are good: a repeating crossbow with a ridiculously fast rate of fire, which is useful for enemies that complete the retreat, and a normal longbow.The latter is not the most satisfying bow I have used in the game-Team Fortress 2 Hunter’s headshot still surpasses it for me-but I like the small starburst effect and satisfying Flying wing When you pull back, you make a sound that indicates an increase in strength.

Firearms, pistols and rifles are not a big problem for me. The pistol can fire multiple bullets at a time (you know, like you do with a pistol), which adds a bit of risk and tension, but in a game full of fast, light characters, the spread of thick bullets is not satisfactory. The rifle behaves like a bolt rifle, which also feels inappropriate. One advantage it offers is that it zooms in a little when you aim at the target, but its straight-line flying bullets move too slowly to reliably hit jumping and grappling enemies. It is effective for players who check inventory, but it is not a video game weapon that I find interesting.

However, unless you are in a terrible situation, you may never be trapped by a weapon you don’t like. Naraka’s loot collection part is very simple, it encourages entering the battle instead of looking around for better things. No need to worry about the type of ammunition. Ranged weapons are reloaded with the same consumables used to repair worn-out melee weapons, they are very common. There is only one type of healing item and one type of armor repair item (with multiple rarities), and they work fast, which means that if you can escape the battle, you can completely reset before rushing back.

(Image source: 24 Entertainment/NetEase Games Montréal)

I do miss the pleasure of searching for worldly treasures a bit; I remember that in the early days of PUBG, I really wanted to find any kind of range, and I didn’t feel that way in Naraka. There are some silly late game drops that add interest to the final lap and make the risk of competing Nakara equivalent to a PUBG airdrop worth the risk: flamethrowers, high-speed rocket launchers, and spinning blades that wield like a siege hammer. Souljades, you can store small spells with special effects in your inventory. It also adds a bit of fun to the loot game, but usually the super rare ones I find are not suitable for my needs. Mainly, I only want the highest rarities of armor, spears and bows I can find, and many inventory upgrades I can find.

On the other hand, the loot you can collect between games is not simple, there are many ridiculous progress tracks and currencies. There is a battle pass with a basic advanced track, the price is 1,360 gold coins, of course only a little more than the 1,200 gold coins you get for 9.25 dollars, so you have to add 240 gold coins for 1.85 dollars or buy 3,000 gold coins for 23.15 dollars . Very cool clothing can also be purchased directly for just over 1,200 gold coins. There are also non-premium currencies and daily challenges as well as loot boxes that I can’t bother. I like Naraka, but I don’t need enough new clothes to collect tax from every area of ​​the menu every time I log in. In this regard, it is worse than the Rainbow Six Siege. (Although I admit that I spent money on siege costumes, so maybe I will change my tone).

However, part of this messy menu does modify the functions in the game, adding maintenance chores and meaningless uncertainty to the game. This is not “pay to win”, but unlocking the -2.40% sprint energy cost modifier has never made anyone smile. It just doesn’t need to be there.

(Image source: 24 Entertainment/NetEase Games Montréal)

When I started Naraka for the first time, I noticed some surprising drop in frame rate, but I had to adjust a few things correctly in the graphics menu because it now runs very well on my RTX 2070 Super. This is not an amazing game, but it seems to be enough: when you try to pick a little martial arts hero, welcome simple color schemes and shapes, see temples and sparkling snakeskin energy fields instead of Russia and the United States Industry and commerce. Complex.

Naraka is the most popular in China, where it was developed, and some players complain that the regional jumper is lagging behind. When we teamed up on a North American server, an Australian friend did get stuck or moved irregularly from time to time, and the delay was too bad to be handled more gracefully, but I personally did not notice that high ping players were dominant. Some players have reported specific issues with frame rate drops or delays, although developers have been paying attention to them on Reddit-there is no guarantee that they will be fixed, but at least it is exciting to see this communication.

(Image source: 24 Entertainment/NetEase Games Montréal)

Even if it is not as popular in the United States as elsewhere, I am not the only player in California. A cool feature: local leaderboards. I’m the 17th best Sky Sea in Auckland, although that’s only because he is unpopular, and because it thinks I live 40 miles north. It needs some adjustments, but I like the depth of the statistical records, and Naraka is also surprised by the other extras. You can create custom private matches, and you can customize hero faces using the powerful character creator (maybe too powerful). There is also a deathmatch mode, which is very interesting.

There are other disappointments, but they are interesting disappointments: a novel reminder that Naraka is an unusual game. For example, for battle royale FPS players, a potential surprise is that Naraka works best in a single player game, and you won’t end up with impossible 1v2 and 1v3 melee combat. I still prefer to play a trio with my friends, but I like the tension in a large single-player melee. Everyone wants to be killed, but they are always on the verge of running away, playing cat and mouse at the same time. When the two recover When healthy players follow each other in the woods, Naraka’s thrills are the best in its class.

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