RAMS (PC) Review

 

Research Automatic Military System is a game, that tries to be more than just a Battle Royale, but fails in most ways imaginable. Let's start with the good, the visuals are very beautiful. I liked both the optics in general as well as the design of the map. The matches take place in a large forest area, which looks really idyllic and peaceful (not what you typically expect from a Battle Royale, but I like the design quite much). The forest is only divided by two suburban towns and a handful of industry plants. Even though I visually like the design, there are just too few POIs for a Battle Royale map. The map was supposed to get expanded and updated in the future, but that never happened. There is also a player limit of 30 people for a match, which is honestly too low for a BR game. Another aspect, that probably didn't work out so well, but at least was a cool idea, has been letting all players start inside of a train, that was constantly cruising across the map. Players could choose for themselves, when they wanted to hop off. In reality however players were often just waiting for the first to jump out in order to rush him.

Something that RAMS does well, is the option to switch between first and third person view. Shame however, that in third person perspective sometimes clothes of the character will be clipping and crouching animations for example look a bit weird. Gunplay is also not amazing. It sure looks smoother than the worst games of the genre, but it could still use more polish.

The most controversial aspect of the game is probably, that weapons and ammo can be bought outside of matches and players can start with them, which obviously gives them a gigantic advantage in comparison to people, who don't buy weapons before the matches. There are also only very, very few weapons and ammo hidden on the map, which makes buying them essential. This feature was probably implemented in order to create this 'more than just a BR' theme, the developers where going for (They also planned to implement some kind of skill system further on). In reality however this idea was a mess and lead to players getting quickly destroyed by others, who bought their equipment. Sure, you would get the ingame currency by just playing matches, but this can be no excuse. In a BR game you should never make some players start with such big advantages. Balancing in RAMS was therefore a disaster. 

Part of the 'More than a BR' narrative was also, that the menu of RAMS was a house, which functioned as a base. This house was also part of the BR map and players apparently were supposed to be able to upgrade it in the future, or something... In any case players could walk around there, while queuing for a match and buy as well as sort their weapons and ammo for the next match. This house as a menu is a cool idea, but in my opinion only a bonus and far less relevant than the actual matches.

RAMS problems in combination with an asking price of around 15/20 Dollars lead to the gaming flopping in the steam charts from the start. Even on launch day there were barely more than a handful of players, who all abandoned the game quickly. Devs promised some "massive updates", but never delivered.

(Edit: According to Steam user reviews the servers don't seem to be working anymore for around 3 years now. It seems deeply troublesome that the game is still being sold on Steam)

 

Result:

Beautiful visuals are nice, but they don't make a great game. RAMS had some cool ideas with the house as a base approach or the train, which was cruising around the map. Unfortunately nearly all of these ideas were executed poorly or simply didn't work out. The ability to buy weapons completely unbalanced the game and the lack of marketing and relatively high asking price lead to a nonexistent playerbase from which the game never recovered. RAMS promised much more, than it could deliver and shows that a nice facade isn't enough, if the content sucks.  

 

3.5/10