When the oil faltered and economics melted down, civilisation tore itself apart at a pace quicker than anyone could react to. When civilisation collapsed what replaced it was organised chaos, might became right as gangs vied for territory and power…

CrimeCraft: Bleedout is a Persistent World Shooter from Vogster Entertainment and what’s better is that it is another free to play on-line game.

The first thing that has to be said is that whilst I liked the game, it is a bit of a pig to initially set up. Although the PR company sent me the file on a disc this failed to install properly. Luckily you can get the file from a number of legal torrent sites. Once downloaded and run you have to register for the game, this is a pretty straight forward process and does not require the use of your credit card. Even so the icon only wanted to run in minimised mode, which meant a bit of manual alteration.

So I finally got the thing up and running. Following the scene setting introduction, the types of options are par for the course; you choose sex and combinations of clothes and hair. There are also the usual options to change basic audio and visual settings. The first time I played through I used the default setting which meant playing around with the WSAD keys which never feels good for navigation, so the second time I changed these to the arrow keys, this worked fine while you’re in the lobby, but the game defaults back to original keys during a mission, which makes the whole thing a bit pointless.

Following the various training missions you are let loose in the online world. The two things which impress you first is the smooth animation/game play and the level designs, not quite as good as a standalone game, but still pretty impressive for an on-line game. Part of the reason for this is the reworking that has gone into this latest update, Bleedout, which has kept the fast pace of the game and added better visual and audio layers.

The third person shooter has many of the same elements of other on-line games, including powering up, shops, quests etc. The game can be played as an individual, but the real fun is to be had if you can get a bunch of friends together in an attempt to take over the city as its crime lord. After the seemingly endless introduction missions you can play the game in either story-driven PvE mode or indulge in some PvP action with Shootout, Turf War or Smash-and-Grab.

The game still has a few bugs, but nothing which spoils the overall fun to be had. Of course, nothing in life is free and Bleedout uses the same financial model now found on smaller online games, which allows you to play so far, but if you want to really get on you have to buy a few extras, that said it’s not compulsory and if you’re just playing for fun not even necessary.

So, if you have had a belly full of orcs and fancy a free experience it may be worth having a look at CrimeCraft: Bleedout.

7

Charles Packer