Confession: I am bad at first-person shooters. At the first sight of trouble, I often run than stand my ground. When it comes to aiming, forget the broadside of a barn, I’d probably miss the ground if I tried to shoot it. So it’s difficult to get me into these games. Doesn’t stop me from playing them, but I just know I’m going to have a bad time regardless.
By some force of nature, I got ridiculously hooked on BattleBit Remastered. This ‘Minecraft meets Battlefield’ FPS game is incredibly popular on TikTok at the moment, with over 100 million views on the platform, and I can see why. BattleBit came out back in June, published and developed by small developer studio SgtOkiDoki, and is an unusual mashup of several genres and concepts.
This game is a large-scale military shooter akin to the Battlefield series, but what makes it truly chaotic is its 254-player servers. So many people killing each other in one space all at once gives the gameplay this loud, fast-paced, explosive energy that you can’t get anywhere else at the moment. There are over 45 weapons to choose from, all with their own customization options, and tons of vehicles like helicopters, tanks, sea mobiles, and so on.
Much like many other military shooters, there’s also a class system with recon, engineer, medic, assault, and support roles. What I find really interesting about the game is its dynamic day/night cycle. Most multiplayer shooters that I’ve played take place in either one. BattleBit maps, however, will progress from one to the other over the course of a game. This adds an intriguing layer of immersion to an otherwise hectic experience.
On top of that, BattleBit features fully destructible environments and levolution. This concept, popularized by the Battlefield franchise, means that you can pretty much destroy most buildings and structures on every map. It’s hard to describe the joy of bringing down an entire building with carefully placed explosives. Play it for yourself and you’ll see what I mean.
One of the best parts of the game is its proximity-based voice chat. Now, I like me some healthy trash talk. I’m not talking about racists yelling slurs at you or misogyny, but inoffensive lighthearted stuff. In BattleBit, this means that you can only voice chat with people close to you, both friends and enemies. It adds so much flavor to what would be an otherwise lonely experience going in solo. It also spices things up when someone you just killed gets salty.
This is all great because you can make a few friends (or enemies) while in-game. First-person shooter games in general are great for this, and other things. As we’ve written before, some FPS games can even help you understand yourself better.
The game is still in early access on Steam, so it’s bound to get even better over time. I am still awful at BattleBit and many other shooters, but being bad has never felt so good.
(featured image: BattleBit Remastered on Steam)
Published: Aug 1, 2023 04:27 pm