Auto Assault
May 2,2006 - NetDevil deserves a lot of credit for trying something different in the world of MMO’s. Auto Assault has a lot going for it: a post-apocalyptic battlezone, fast and furious combat, and about a zillion tons of phat lewt to pilfer. Not to mention cars with guns, a crapload of particle effects, and destructible environments. In fact, Auto Assault implements action gameplay in an online RPG better than any game to date by virtue of these features, and when things are swinging, it’s a lot of fun. The problem is that it doesn’t do enough to broaden or deepen its focus beyond the fast-paced but superficial combat. Auto Assault boils down to a thin layer of addicting but mostly forgettable gameplay that may entrance you for the free month but isn’t apt to have legs beyond that. It seems we’re not the only ones to think so, either: all four servers have populations so low, it’s easy to forget you’re online.

As with most RPG's, you start by choosing a race and class. In the post-apocalyptic world, humanity as we know it has been decimated, and three races are rising from the ashes: traditional Humans (of course), Biomeks, and Mutants. Within each race are four prototypes, which have different names for each race but serve familiar roles: warrior, support, summoner, and spy. You'll choose your avatar's appearance, but you also get to customize your vehicle, with which you'll spend most of your time. You're hardly stuck with your auto's appearance, though, since you'll get the opportunity to trick it out in a variety of ways, or even purchase a brand new chassis later on. What follows is a quick tutorial that gives you a brief background on the state of the world, and then you drive off into the wild brown yonder.

Auto Assault’s exploration structure is similar to that of the now-defunct Earth & Beyond: you spend the majority of the game traveling in your vehicle, while tromping around the safety of towns on foot for trade and crafting purposes.  You aren’t limited to pure combat in the field, however, since there are still vendors and quest-givers out in the wilderness. In fact, there are missions to grab everywhere you go, and you’ll easily gather a dozen or more at any given time. You’ll always have something to do and a reason to travel in Auto Assault, which keeps grinding for the sake of leveling to a minimum.

The only problem with this is that it most quests are so similar, you’ll take them without reading through the descriptions and therefore missing out on a good deal of interesting lore. Mission NPC’s often go on at length about the quest’s purpose, and their monologues are well-written and highly readable. Still, the usual goal is to drive around and shoot stuff, and so all that intricate mythology take a backseat, particularly when NPC’s themselves make nary an audio peep. Experienced role-players often complain about having too few quests and too far to go, so Auto Assault gives you a bunch of them and makes it quick to travel to your goal. The snag is that the quick pace alienates the game’s backstory and underscores the genre’s continuing struggle to broaden quest structure beyond fetch quests and go-there-kill-that assignments.

But the going and the killing is good fun, if occasionally repetitive. Vehicles handle well in an arcade-ish, easy-to-manage way, although this is affected by the types of tires you equip and the terrain you’re traveling on. Snow tires sound like a good idea until you get into a skirmish in the sand and skid around uncontrollably when braking, or you find you need to stick to pavement because you move too slowly elsewhere. Auto Assault’s not a driving game, though, so don’t expect the feel of a racer or simulation. Yet it’s fun to play around with the loose physics by hitting the ramps strewn about, just to see if you can break your hang-time or distance record. You can race against fellow players on courses designated for that purpose, although it’s sometimes hard to find enough people to sign up.

It’s not about the driving as much as it’s about the shooting, though. Your vehicle can be equipped with a turret weapon that you aim with the mouse, front- and rear-facing guns, and a melee weapon. You fire all weapons at the same time, and a tactical arc for each weapon makes it easy to see where your bullets are directed. While Auto Assault gives you the impression that the combat is pure, real-time shooting, it’s still a series of blazing-fast turns that keep the action moving. Your enemies run the gamut of organic flora, infantry, other vehicles and more, and they’ll force you to keep moving just to keep your aim. Unlike in other MMORPG’s, you can’t remain in one place and hope to be successful, so encounters will have you driving about and blasting with glee.

The wild nature of combat owes a lot to Auto Assault’s destructible environments. Just about anything you see can be blown up: guard rails, infantry towers, lamp poles, you name it, it’ll explode in a smattering of fire and particles. And you don’t just do it for the joy of destruction, since you collect crafting materials by razing environments. The objects respawn just like MOB’s do, but the fast nature of travel and combat keeps their reappearance from ever being noticeable or awkward looking.

Games, News, Reviews, Media and More