Royale Island Showdown released this week as a new Battle Royale game and so I foolishly thought about giving the game a chance, since the pictures of it didn't look so bad (in hindsight I probably should have looked closer).
The first thing to point out is, that Royale Island Showdown may call itself a Battle Royale game for the sake of name recognition, but you can hardly classify it as one. There is a player maximum of 4 players (!), which is ridiculously low for a BR game. The twist of Royale Island Showdown is, that all human players also get 1 AI teammate as sort of a bodyguard. It is true, that I don't know any other game that does that, nonetheless this is certainly not all that revolutionary and doesn't really impact the gameplay. Not every 1 Life Deathmatch mode is the same as a Battle Royale game and I still have a hard time calling it that.
Movement actually works pretty well in the game and fells fluent, but the biggest issue of the game is its hit detection. It is not that great and too many shots don't register appropriately. It certainly extends the length of the matches (which are still short, as you could expect in a 4 player Multiplayer match with 1 life). This issue should be fixed, since it gives the game a bit of a weird feeling. Especially disappointing since the gunplay itself is actually quite alright, but the bad hit detection puts it down.
There are only three weapons in the game (Pistols, AR and Sniper) and no option for melee attacks. The gameplay options are therefore pretty limited. It is also disappointing, that there seems to be no zoom-in function for the sniper rifle, at least I couldn't get any button to do it. The bots may be a nice idea, but i found them to be way too dumb to influence the gunfights in any meaningful way. They keep following their human player and will occasionally shot, but I think they are too weak and they should definitely be improved.
The visuals of the game are super basic, there isn't much to see in this game. The graphics engine is okay, but the map is simply too empty. There are many grey ramps, some grey empty block buildings and a lot of green conical blocks, which are supposed to resemble trees. The player models are also only coloured mannequin versions, so this basic visual presentation may be on purpose. At least you can differentiate the teams well through the four colours (blue, red, orange, purple). The starting island btw is just a grey block, that has the letters "Starting Island" written on it, which should probably make this game win the minimalism award of the year (Credit where credit is due. The plane at the beginning of the match, from which players drop off, is a grey alien like space ship, which makes it the coolest looking part of the game).
Another problematic area is the sound department. Except for gunshots there are simply no soundeffects in the game whatsoever. There is no soundtrack anywhere, there are no footstep sounds and no sounds for collecting a weapon or a health item. Weapon shots do make a sound effect and they sound alright, but unfortunately this game also has an earrape-issue. I am referring to the fact, that the sound volume is by default set to a way too high volume and neither sound effects nor controls, visuals or anything else are customizable. The menu is as basic as it gets. You can choose to start an online game, a LAN game or quit. Once you queued up, you are on the starting island and there isn't even an option to get back to the main menu or to quit (you have to alt+f4 to get back to Steam). Same as Element Battle Royale I have to point out, that this game is probably closer to a tech-demo than a real game.
I queued multiple times within the first week of launch and was only able to once get a match going with 2 instead of 4 players. It is not really a good sign, if the game is already pretty dead within the first week, especially if you consider how few players are required to get a match going.
Pro:
- Bot teammate idea is not bad
- Online and LAN matches
- Movement and gunplay essentially work well
Contra:
- Bots are too stupid
- Visuals are very basic
- Sound is nearly nonexistent/ too loud
- No customizability of anything/ no options
- Hit detection needs to be improved
- Small population
Result:
Royale Island Showdown is probably a one person project and in its current state closer to a Tech-Demo than a full game. The visuals are very basic, sound effects are nearly nonexistent, customizability is nonexistent and it can take a long time to find another player to start a match. The gunplay functions well enough, but hit detection needs to be improved. The concept with Bot-Bodyguards is okay, but this game would need to get polish in every department. As it is, I can not recommend Royale Island Showdown. It may be worth a shot for 4 friends trying to play a new shooter, but even than, there would be many, many better ones out there.
3/10
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