From the trackway to the causeway - we take a look at Shootmania

It’s not every day you meet a team with a true ‘vision’, especially one where they have the means to carry it through. And we’re not talking some airy-fairy vision of making a better world, but more of a simple, yet sophisticated idea for a franchise. You’ve all probably heard of TrackMania, the skill-based racing game that’s as much about building tracks as it is racing them, and now developer Nadeo want to take it to the next level with Shootmania. But it’s not just another game with a similar concept, no sir; it’s the first step on a path to a truly multi-genre enterprise.
 

Different surfaces can give different weapons, in this case, one-hit-kill beam...

With the new ManiaPlanet system, Nadeo will be able to enable users to chop and change between core games at will. They like to liken themselves to Windows – they are a platform, an operating system, and apart from the core ‘tools’ that they will sell (I.e. the base game of Shootmania, TrackMania 2 etc…), everything else is down to the user, and they can use it at will. Complete with astounding community features, in-game advertising, server flexibility and a whole host of features we can’t even being to remember (seriously, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if ManiaPlanet started simply running your life for you), this base platform could be massive. But enough about that, let’s talk about the game itself.

Like Trackmania, ‘Skill’ is the core driving principle behind its FPS cousin. As such, it may seem rather simplistic compared to the current headliners in the genre. You have a stamina bar, which governs how what actions you can do and for how long (like running and shooting for example), and you have a health bar. In a typical mode, its two shots and your dead, and you get a point for each successful shot (if the game mode requires points, some modes like ‘Duel’ just go by kills). Your main weapon is a laser gun attached to one hand that fires bolts out as fast as you can click, and as soon as you jump in you can see the skill-factors that will lead you to victory – lead-distance, angle, speed… it’s like sniping on steroids.
 

For those that want to create, there's plenty of tools available

There’s something instantly addictive about Shootmania’s gameplay. Sure, other games like Call of Duty and Battlefield 3 have their draws, their own competitive incentives, but those rest more in progression as opposed to the pure “I scored better than you” mentality that this promotes. What’s more is that it takes a completely non-violent approach, representing something more akin to virtual laser tag than what you’re probably used to at the moment. Each level also has its own learning curve, and you’ll often spend the first few minutes trying to find out all its tricks so you can get one up over your opponents.

Also like its predecessor, this game is as much about creating the environments as it is playing a match. The tools in Shootmania are as comprehensive as ever, and with the object being to create maps for weapon-based contests of skills, the potential is that much greater. There’s the basic building blocks themselves, with some blocks granting special powers like catapulting across the map, floating, switching your laser to a mortar, or a one-shot beam…. There are lots of different styles as well if you’re going for specific aesthetics. You can have in-game interactive interfaces, there’s direct scripting, interface enhancements, you can directly overwrite parts of the system if you want it to do something else… the mind, it boggles.



Simple game-modes like capture the flag, deathmatch, duel… can be made all the more interesting with a good map. A simple ‘flag’ variant that involves a race between the two teams to ‘raise’ each other’s flags is made 100x more interesting when you’re catapulted onto a narrow ledge with the flags, with your enemy’s spawn point directly in front of you and their objectives directly behind you. And it’s not all about block constructions either – you may have a map where two bases are located in old ruins, separated by a natural ravine filled with luscious grass and rocky outcroppings.
 

You try shooting whilst freefalling down from a great height, see how you get on

Even though this is still a PC-only venture, the new FPS trimmings should make Shootmania a more accessible game as far as the market is concerned. We could go on, but to be honest it’s a bit much to take in all at once. Make no mistake though -from what we’ve played, Shootmania could be the new CounterStrike, and we’re rather impressed with what Nadeo have done. What’s more exciting though is to see their ManiaPlanet vision finally take shape – we sincerely hope things go according to plan, so we can see QuestMania and any future Mania’s after that. Shootmania: Storm is due for release on PC sometime during Q1 2012.

Most Anticipated Feature: Seeing what the community will do when they get their hands on the final product.