Roblox Nerf Strike Beta
Nerf Strike’s first beta release was live on Thursday and Friday. I had the opportunity to play the game in its current state and was very entertained. However, it is clear that there are still many steps to go before we can release it officially.
Pictures come from my live stream yesterday.
Mileage Varies By System
Roblox is a game that can be played on both mobile and PC. On Thursday night I tried to play mobile, but it was difficult to control. It seemed to shoot automatically whenever I looked at it. It could just be fat fingers. But mobile is also NOT the ideal platform for first person shooters, so Im going to ignore that entirely.
Friday evening, I played on PC.
Everything You Need To Know
This time, the open beta was focused on the basics. You will be presented with a screen to customize loadouts and a DEPLOY option for entering the game when you first join. For this beta, you had three Elite 2.0 blasters: the Commander, Warden, and Turbine (this one you could unlock with in-game earned currency). You had abilities with cooldowns, the Dart Device (a grenade) and a turret (an automated Vulcan). You could also choose the colors of your equipment.
In-game, the Commander is actually a slow full-auto (due to having slam-fire in real life? ), while the Warden fires all eight darts at once. The Turbine has a faster full auto, but seems to have lower stopping power. Of course, being an FPS, the darts have to go straight, unlike real life Elite darts, but theres still some ammo drop due to gravity.
I ended up using the Commander most of the time, as it had a good balance of rate of fire and stopping power. The Warden was just annoying. With the shotgun spread being inconsistent, sometimes people would miss at point blank, while other times they would get multiple hits from all over the map.
Its the initial beta, though, so weapon balance will be adjusted, especially as new things are added.
Movement felt somewhat slow, even with running. Although I was able to find the screen, I had trouble finding it. (Hopefully you can customize in the future).
Maps
Only two maps were available. The first featured two pirate ships as spawning points, with islands and structures in between. I enjoyed this map because you could quickly use the lift pads and cannons to jump in and out of the map. The other felt like a Halo arena, with two levels within a spaceship-like setting. The map was divided into spawn zones, which were sealed off by translucent shields that your team’s color blocked darts. Sadly, I did see some abuse of this (people stepping out, shooting, then retreating), and could imagine scenarios where a team in the lead could simply turtle and run out the clock. I would suggest a timer to exit the spawning area and block re-entry.
DEPLOY DEPLOY! DEPLOY!
It shows you who killed you and then takes you back to the menu screen. Id much rather be able to jump immediately back in, with a button press during the kill cam sending me back to the menu to make changes.
What Is The Overall Picture?
Although the beta was supposed to end today, I think it was a great experience for developers. Betas are great for finding bugs and getting feedback. They also help make sure that the basic functions work. We expect to see more betas in future releases, so keep checking back!
