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HOT NEW PREVIEW!
Communications Briefing:
Massive Assault Goes Global
Product:
Massive Assault Network
Company of Origin:
Wargaming.net
Analysis:
Wargaming.net will soon be taking their flagship title Massive
Assault online with a re-release of the game, now with expanded
multiplayer components. Dubbed Massive Assault Network, the core
gameplay remains unchanged. This is a good thing, as it was pretty
perfect the way it was as I said in my initial review, http://www.gamevortex.com/gamevortex/rv_massiveassault.htm
l. The big change is they have expanded the multiplayer component to
include ranks, matchmaking, chat, and some new maps. There will also be
a subscription fee for using these services.
Since a single turn can take awhile to plan out, much less an entire
match, the focus isn't on playing one game at a time. Rather, it seems
to be set up for having several ongoing matches at once. It tends to
work like this; you come home, start up Massive Assault Network,
take your turn in several matches, and call it a day. The multiplayer
window has several tabs that lets you lists of all the games you are
currently in. One list shows matches in which it is your turn, and
another lists the matches in which you are still waiting for the other
player to take their turn. There's a section for matchmaking and
challenging opponents, and the last area is for chat. The interface is a
little non-intuitive at times. It took me awhile to figure out how to
send players messages in matches, and how to surrender, but on the whole
it's pretty easy to figure out.
However, since the actual game itself is really just Massive
Assault, my only question is, does it really seem fair to charge
people who own the original Massive Assault the price of a new
game to get a few extras that pretty much equate to something you'd find
in a patch? Current owners of Massive Assault will get a free
trial period where they will not have to pay the subscription fee; so I
suppose that makes up for it.
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