First of all, it is very pleasant to note that despite its exclusively multiplayer aspect, the game benefits from a scenario and a universe relatively worked and correctly staged. The introductory cinematic thus exposes us to a futuristic context, where the android Ivy presents a funny weather report. The predictions are not about the weather ahead, but the probabilities of dinosaur invasions via wormholes. For its part, the AI Leviathan is responsible for guiding and training fighters in exoskeletons in order to eradicate the prehistoric threat. For the players, all this translates concretely into PvPvE (players against players against environment) with five against five. Each participant can customize their human avatar (head, hairstyle, tattoos, make-up, outfit, etc.), then put on an exoskeleton to choose from a dozen and divided into three main roles: Assault, Tank, and Support. During our test we had access to five different “exo-characters”: Deadeye who combines ranged shooting and grenades, the agile but fragile Zephyr, a melee adept, the Barrage explosives specialist, the Roadblock tank capable of attracting enemies to him and deploy a shield, and Witchdoctor, the typical healer. It should be noted that players can change class at any time, including in the middle of the game, and assign additional and class-independent equipment to each armor (laser cannon, mega-leap forward, repair field, etc.). ). All the conditions seem to be met for everyone to play a particular role, but for the moment Deadeye has a little too much player preference (including ours). The balancing of the classes must therefore still be worked on, but it is not surprising at this stage of development, especially since the cast is still missing five exoskeletons.
DINOS CRISIS
In order to overcome all the dinosaurs that almost literally fall on their heads, the exoskeletons have a classic but effective range of movements (shooting, aiming, jumping, sprinting, rolling-type escape maneuvers, etc.), but also more unusual abilities. Thus, “craft chips” can appear in the scenery depending on the number of enemies killed. Picking them up allows you to place walls, when and where you want, that stop enemy attacks but allow allied fire to pass. Even better, the Leviathan AI sometimes gives players a Dominator, which allows you to take control of a big dino, which is obviously a hell of a good idea. Who has never dreamed of embodying a chewing T-rex or a Triceratops capable of rolling over poor humans, even if they were reinforced with exoskeletons? We were able to test these different possibilities in the game’s main mode, entitled “Dino Survival”. It pits two teams of five players against each other, who start on opposite paths and must complete similar objectives, with victory naturally awarded to the group that completes them first. Leviathan then acts a bit like Left 4 Dead’s invisible “Director”, and generates missions that vary from game to game.
In sometimes urban, sometimes virtual settings, we have thus been able to witness invasions of multiple “cannon fodder” raptors, which sometimes land literally by the hundreds when Leviathan decides to launch a super swarm. We also had to face mutant dinosaurs covered in explosive pustules, aim for pterodactyls in the sky, fight good big emblematic saurians (T-Rex, triceratops, ankylosaurus…), or even defend a transport vehicle against all these beautiful people. This whole PvE part comes to a climax where the two teams end up meeting each other. We were able to discover three variations of this final section. The first involved escorting a data cube to a finish point and then defending it against the opposing team. In this situation the players face each other in the same street, and it is important to use the walls and other shields. Much more open, the second event asked us to pick up energy cartridges scattered around the sets. Knowing that killing an enemy allows you to take possession of his energy, the PvP feeling is more present than ever.
Conversely, the third final mission seen asked us to cooperate with the other team, to take down a neo T-Rex covered in pustular, fire-breathing, and explosive spore-generating weak spots. These objectives have proven to be sufficiently varied to keep us busy for a short day, but we will obviously need a lot more in the final version to avoid the effects of repetition. In the meantime, we clearly enjoyed this game session, driven by good shooting sensations, matchmaking without unbearable waiting, and graphics that were not necessarily revolutionary but sufficiently advanced to be pleasant. The dinosaurs moved by the RE Engine are not lacking in realism. Finally, the PvPvE formula chosen seemed particularly judicious to us, because even in the event of final failure against the opposing team, there remains the satisfaction of having emerged victorious from all the previous PvE objectives.