Auto Assault is an Assault on the senses.
written by: Chris Moody on 5/12/2006 9:38:44 AM
Auto Assault is an interesting concept of the MMORPG. Not only do you get to create a character and build the character up the way you want, but you get to go around in a wide open world and destroy. I don’t know about you but senseless destruction in a game is fun.
The world you move around in is massive and highly detailed. There are all kinds of obstacles to both destroy and avoid. Creatures are everywhere out to kill and destroy things themselves. You find yourself with bullets and other things flying all around you. There are other players also out there on their own mission. Sometimes they help and sometimes they just get in the way. One nice feature of the game is being able to fire at will without worrying about running out of ammo and you don’t have to worry about dying. If you do happen to die while trying to complete a mission, you just have to restart from the last repair station you were at. You get to keep what you have already collected up to that point. Just remember how you got to where you need to go so you can get back there quickly.
You have as many and as difficult of missions as you would like to try your hand at. It is important to get some experience under your belt and purchase a couple of weapons. Certain weapons for certain missions, definitely makes it easier to complete. Who would figure you don’t want to bring a spitball shooter to a gunfight. There are missions that range from just patrolling areas to finding certain enemies and filling them full of lead or whatever other type of ammo you are using. The missions also vary by the type of character you are. This definitely gives you a wide range of variety to keep the game from getting dull.
The performance of the game is very good. There was some lag but I was also running with high levels of detail at 1280 x 768 on a basic cable modem transfer rate. I have no complaints once I was able to get used to the driving using the keyboard. The overall controls are easy to use and you do have the option of using a joystick or adjusting the keys the way you are comfortable using them. The aiming and firing of the weapons are controlled by the mouse which is pretty easy to get used to. Normally I wouldn’t be too happy with that but since you only need to use 4 keys to successfully drive the vehicles, I had no problems getting used to it.
The sounds are very good and dynamic. If you have a 5.1 or better speaker set up, turn up the volume and enjoy the Dolby surround sound. The gunfire, crashing, engine revving and background noises surround you in as good of a level of sound as your audio card and speakers can handle.
The longevity of the game will really depend on what you are looking for in a MMORPG. If like going out on your own and causing mass destruction without having to look for your buddy online then this game will be enjoyable for quite a while. There is plenty of things to do and enough variety to get you hooked. I kept telling myself only one more mission for a couple of hours longer than I was planning every time I played. There haven’t been too many MMORPGs that I can say that about.
If you have ever watched Mad Max and thought that that environment looks fun to live in then Auto Assault is the game for you. If you are looking for an RPG where you are interacting with people constantly and holding mind numbing conversations then this isn’t the game for you. I definitely like the ability to do missions and massive destruction on your own without having to have a group of friends all on at the same time to have any fun. You can still group up and work together if you want as well as interact with the other players in the game, but you don’t have to. You can do as much on your own as you would like. It never hurts to work as a team once in while to get through missions a little bit quicker and easier.
Overall, this is a good game if you are into driving games that allow you to customize everything from your skills to equipment. It definitely won’t appeal to everyone but then again what game does. It is definitely a free-wheeling go where you want type of game. Feel free to just roam around and earn experience points via just driving around and destroying everything around or actually accomplish the available missions and put some structure around your world. Or do a little of both. The key is have fun doing what you want to do.
