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ShootMania Storm Review

Fast, fresh and very fun, Shootmania offers an exhilarating and focused albeit slightly anemic take on a tired genre

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If the game mechanics of Shootmania have been polished and refined to the point of near perfection, it feels like the developers are still trying to find a really good mode to fit the mechanics in to. There are a good number of different modes in Shootmania, most of which are enjoyable, but most of them feel like distractions rather than something you could sink a lot of time into. Currently the centerpiece competitive mode is Elite, where a single player equipped with a rail and three armor slots takes on three players who have rocket launchers and only a single health bar. The attacker must survive for around a minute before attempting to capture a 'goal' while the defenders try and eliminate the attacker. This is a fun, quick mode, but it is also quite simple and I found myself wishing there was a bit more to it after a few hours of play.

If Elite proves too intense for those looking to simply have fun with the game, Royal sees 16 players in a free-for-all fighting to capture a goal that will disable respawns and trigger a wall of death that slowly closes in around the center of the map, forcing players into closer quarters until only one victor emerges. Battle involves two teams alternating on defense and attack trying to capture a series of goals on the other team's side of the map. Other modes exist as well, and they are all fun for a time, but none of them feel substantive enough to support dedicated long term play for those of us who are not looking to enter tournaments and competitions. There are more than enough existing modes and content to justify the modest price tag, but the mechanics are so good it would be nice if a game mode with enough complexity to do them justice existed.

Shootmania Storm

Fortunately, being a Nadeo game, the community has been provided with the tools to do just that. The excellent track editor from Trackmania 2 has been revamped and put into Shootmania, allowing for the creation of not just maps but also game modes. Good user made maps and modes are currently a bit hard to come by as the game just launched, but if the game breeds a community as dedicated as its racing brethren, some very interesting content could emerge. Shootmania also borrows the regional ranking system from Trackmania, with players competing on regional and national leaderboards by doing well in games. Servers are automatically filtered with player ranking in mind, although it would be nice if you could sort them by ping as well. One thing I found a bit confusing is that there are sub-menus and separate rankings for some different game modes but not others. There is also the usual Maniaplanet weirdness of earning 'planets' without the game telling you what they are for (vehicle skins in Trackmania, no idea in Shootmania) .

Apart from the somewhat obtuse layered menus, Shootmania is one of the most technically proficient games I have ever played. The game has a lot of graphics options to play with, and when everything is cranked up, the game looks very sharp with gorgeous lighting and skies, detailed environments and colourful effects. My powerful gaming PC ran the game with everything cranked all the way up at well over 100fps with no perceptible stutters or frame rate drops. My less powerful laptop (dual core Intel CPU, GT540m and 6gigs of ram) was able to attain playable frame rates when I turned everything down. I experienced nary an errant pixel or crash on either system; load times are quick, even when loading user made content, and the net code based lag is something I have yet to encounter.

Shootmania Storm

The audio in Shootmania is also quite good, with weapons sounding rather cool; the rockets make a particularly neat sound as they whiz by your player. Different surfaces make different sounds when you run on them, and the energetic electronic soundtrack fits the science-fiction look of the game perfectly. Both the sounds and the visuals give the impression that you are playing something akin to parkour laser-tag rather than anything you would associate the term "first person shooter" with.

Once the novelty of the movement mechanics wear off and you have spent a few hours playing each of the six or so existing modes, you will have to make a decision: will you dedicate yourself to playing the game competitively, or will you simply view it as a highly entertaining distraction? Given my poor aim, my sentiment eventually fell into the latter category, but Shootmania gives a lot of incentive to get you playing it regularly with its regional rankings, competitions and general vibe of friendly rivalry. While I feel burnt out on the current maps and modes after around 20 hours play, I look forward to returning to the game every couple of months to see what new ideas the community has come up with using the editor and some imagination.

Our ratings for ShootMania Storm on PC out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)
Presentation
84
Confusing menus aside, Shootmania looks sharp and sounds great.
Gameplay
90
Superb controls support a simple but deep movement system and fast, precise action with a intentionally limited number of balanced, fun to use weapons.
Single Player
NR
None
Multiplayer
75
A good number of modes that all feel a bit too straightforward supported by Maniaplanet's ranking system and user made content.
Performance
(Show PC Specs)
CPU: Intel i5-2500k @ 3.3ghz
GPU: EVGA GTX 670 FTW 2GB
RAM: 8GB DDR3
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
PC Specs

95
Incredible polish and superb optimization with excellent net code and quick load times.
Overall
83
A great addition to the Maniaplanet universe, tight gameplay and controls make Shootmania a blast despite somewhat limited modes.
Comments
ShootMania Storm
ShootMania Storm box art Platform:
PC
Our Review of ShootMania Storm
83%
Great
The Verdict:
Game Ranking
ShootMania Storm is ranked #306 out of 1957 total reviewed games. It is ranked #32 out of 158 games reviewed in 2013.
305. The Last of Us
PlayStation 3
306. ShootMania Storm
307. Sine Mora
Xbox 360
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Screenshots

ShootMania Storm
10 images added Apr 13, 2013 19:33
Videos
ShootMania Storm - Gameplay Trailer
Posted: May 29, 2012 00:20
ShootMania Storm - Launch Trailer
Posted: Apr 11, 2013 23:34
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