Long Live Santa is Christmas themed Meme Battle Royale game. This is not a large scale BR game for 100 players, but a smaller (20 players max) game on a tiny Christmas map and with very limited gameplay options. The fun of the game comes from the absurdity of different Santas beating the crap out of each other. Long Live Santa doesn't want to be taken seriously, but was instead something like a thank you gift by the developers of 'Clone Drone in the Danger Zone' to their community.
The most important weapons are Santa's fists, with which players can box each other into the Nirvana. I however have to say, that the fists are quite inaccurate and hit detection with them seems to be rather random. From my experience players are just spamming the attack button and jumping around each other, hoping for the best. Luckily there are two additional weapons in care-packages that drop from the sky. The sword, which has a longer attack range and is therefore slightly more accurate than the fists. Nonetheless, all melee attacks, including the sword, do not offer a great precision. The combat generally seems to be more about spamming the attack button and hoping for the best. The only really different weapon is the crossbow, which offers the best precision. I would generally say it is the best weapon. You just have to keep in mind, that other players can close the distance quickly through the jumppads.
Carepackages can also contain reindeers. Players can ride on them and let the reindeer attack the other players. It seems to me like the reindeer does more damage than the fists or the sword, but is also a bit more difficult to hit the opponents.
There is also a stamina system in the game, which contains both running as well as attacking (the regular run speed is really slow and makes you an easy target). I like that the stamina system brings a bit of diversity to the gameplay, but the combination of movement and combat definitely does feel clunky nonetheless. Attacking while running is nigh impossible (at least if you want to actually hit something) and combat without running seems, because of the lacking precision of nearly all weapons, still too luck based.
Long Live Santa may not be a particularly well known game (I only stumbled on it per accident), but still regularly gathers one or two handful of players into a match (which is more than some famous BR games can say nowadays). Matches are usually very short and never took more than 5 minutes at the most (this obviously depends on how many people are playing). There is a lobby browser to find matches and after one match ended, the countdown for the next one will already begin. Long Live Santa is clearly aimed at playing multiple short BR matches in a row.
The game has very minimalistic visuals and uses Pixel graphics (similar to games like Pixel Strike 3D, Pixel Battle Royale etc). I am personally not the greatest fan of this visual style, but it annoyed me less because they captured the Christmas theme pretty well. The objects on the map are all well designed and fit in (gimmicks like clouds in the background sky for example are also made of pixel blocks, which at least fits into the mood of the map). The middle of the map has a small area, which looks like a boxing ring, where all players start. Then there is one corner with a couple of Christmas trees, one has some jumppads to traverse on the other side of the map and there is also a mountain, on which players can climb (dead and burning Santa and a reindeer carriage on top of the mountain). The mountain is unfortunately very glitchy and often players manage to hide inside the mountain, where they can't be attacked anymore. For a fun game the map is nonetheless not bad, but for a Battle Royale it would be way too small.
What I really liked was the sound (volume unfortunately not customizable). The ingame and menu music are remixed tracks of Jingle Bells and Merry Christmas, which is just awesome. Controls on the other hand are customizable and simple, same as the visual resolution.
Result:
Long Live Santa is a really funny game, but not a great Battle Royale. The chaotic gameplay might still be some fun, but the lacking precision seriously holds it back. If you however can get involved with the Christmas theme and the absurdity of the scenario, than the game is great for a couple of shorts matches to goof around as Santas. You should just manage your expectations and not compare this to middle or large scale BR games.
5/10
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen