GunZ: The Duel

For a few months this was the game i was addicted too in my teenage years. Its a third person multiplayer game, in which it offers some very standard modes like death match and capture the flag. It had a pretty toxic community, and frequent hackers as was often in these smaller online games.

What wasnt standard about this game was the gameplay. It allowed the player a lot of transversal options like wall running and dodging, as well as swordplay in addition to the guns. Soon bugs were found that allowed players to climb walls through slash and dashing them, and instead of fixing this bug the developers officialized it, as it made their game much more entertaining and different from the competition. It also made it a very skill based game, and i remember the cramps i got in my hand by playing the game the way it was meant to be played. Since everyone played like this at higher levels, it was really a case of "if you cant beat them join them".

Despite the hand cramps, its a really satisfying game. The players have large healthbars, and so fights can take a while to get resolve and its a test of endurance as well as skill. It offers an unlockable system as you gain xp, and you get acess to more powerful weapons. Its also shameless about being pay to win, but i was never too bothered by this fact.

Later in its life cycle it introduced some coop missions. They were a fine diversion but too clunky and unfinished to be anything more than that.

Overal its a really unique game, but unfortunatly its dead nowadays. The option available is its sequel, but the trouble with pay to win structure as well as rampant hacking are more prevalent as ever.