There are some games, which on paper look like a pretty silly idea, but whose construction and presentation create an addictive experience. Rocket League was one such game, football with cars seems an unlikely idea for a hit game but the mechanics were such that it became a very popular title and I suspect that Crossout will soon be joining its august company.

Crossout is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, based in the post-apocalyptic world of 2047, where the globe has fallen into barbarism and the time of the faction has arrived. Upon the ruined earth the factions fight a technological battle for supremacy. Their choice of weapon is a myriad of different vehicles, think World of Tanks meet Mad Max, all at a breakneck speed.

The starting point for the game is your garage, here you will craft your unique vehicle from numerous parts which allows for thousands of different combinations to suit your game style. You can go for nimble and lightly armed to insane behemoths sporting armaments like rocket launchers and chainsaws. You can even go one further and create walking death machines protected by stealth generators and flying drones... Although, to be honest, it’s going to take a while to get to that level, but it does show that a great deal of thought has gone into the construction and individualism of the game.

At first glance the garage can be a bit of a daunting task as there are numerous options for you to take in. Here you can not only craft your vehicle, but also construct items which can be sold to other players earning you the coins you’re going to need for your own construction.

The first thing to choose is your faction. The game contains five factions, the Engineers are neutral as opposed to the other factions, the Lunatics, Nomads, Scavengers and Steppenwolfs. Fighting in these factions will get you unique faction rewards, which are awarded for successful battles. You can also increase your rewards by sporting your faction’s emblems and colours. The Engineers are there to reward you with increases in warehouse and storage space as well as increasing the maximum amount of parts your vehicle can sport.

Parts for upgrading your vehicle come in five levels, from ‘base’ to ‘relic’ items. Obviously the higher the rank of part the better it is. Here we are talking both defensive stats as well as attack stats for weapons and the power available. There is still a lot to explore in the garage, but the most important item is the ‘blueprint’ this allows you to take a snapshot of your current configuration so that at any time you want to revert to a favourite machine you can.

The game provides many ways to play through the game modes. ‘Missions’ is an 8v8 PvP mode where the contestants are evenly balanced, this works well in practice and should you not be able to find enough players then the game will be populated by very reasonable AI opponents. The PvE ‘Raids’ pit you against game bots.

If you can find another three players to join you then you can access the ‘Clan Battles’ pitting you against another four-player human clan for scarce resources. Lastly there are a number of ‘Brawls’ which you can engage in, which have win scenarios to complete.

I did have one initial complaint and that was that the controls were seriously sensitive. You can either try the alternative configuration or, like me, just stop pressing so hard on the controller.

So, after wading through all the set up and navigating the garage, what is the game like to play? In all honestly, it’s a big deal of magnificent mindless mayhem. Sure, you can remember that you have to capture the flag or kill a fixed number of other players, but in truth you’ll mostly find yourself in teams rushing headlong at each other to blow the pogies out of the opposition. Its fast and most decidedly fun.

9

Charles Packer