Fast paced chaos and vehicle focused combat makes Ravaged worthy of its $25 price point, despite the lack of diversity in modes and maps.
Ravaged
Developer: 2 Dawn Games
Price: $25
Platform: PC (reviewed)
A Steam copy of Ravaged was supplied to us
Ravaged is an online multiplayer only first person shooter that places an emphasis on the use of teamwork and vehicles played with a post apocalyptic backdrop. It was released after a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign back in May of this year.
Two factions (the Scavengers vs. the Resistance) are fighting for control of the wastelands and each have a different but equal arsenal to wage war. That is the extent of the story. No attempt to inform the player as to the natural disasters responsible for the end of the world, and no signs of hope for the future due to the lack of any narrative context.
Ravaged is one of the first games in a string of new PC titles that are designed to go back to the basics. No killstreak rewards. No weapon unlocks. No experience points. Instead of these first person frills that a lot of modernized shooters have been putting focus on, Ravaged puts the light on solid combat and gameplay.
While this is the first title from 2 Dawn Games, they have a background in competitive multiplayer shooters, including Battlefield and Desert Combat. This is evident by the way the core mechanics play.
Ravaged’s shooting feels a lot like a Battlefield game. The guns are all skill based, and the more you play the better you get. Most of the weapons are bare bones iron sights but a couple of the classes have assault rifles with more modern sights. Bullets are effective against other players. There is a close range class, a sniper, a light scout style option and a heavy weapons.
The most satisfying class I tried was “the Bodyguard,” which gives you two RPG style weapons at spawn. The primary rocket has a strong arc to it, and once you get a feel for it, taking out a full vehicle will be achievable and watching the destroyed hunk of metal come to a flaming halt is a very rewarding experience.
While combat feels familiar, driving the different vehicles feels fun and fresh. Like the different classes, each side of the battle has their own set of murder carriages. The aesthetics on the Scavengers’ side are all exposed framework, and look much more homemade. While those at the base of the Resistance look like they were around when there was society and order, but have been re purposed. Ravaged offers vehicles with multiple seats, multiple turrets and multiple weapons, all equipped with boost and power slide controls. However, the game also gives the lone wolf player a chance to run off with an ATV. These little guys are great for jumping gaps. Using the mouse while driving an ATV will shift the players weight, allowing for tighter turns and angle control for landing jumps.
Ravaged mostly focuses on land combat, but experienced players will be able to fight from the air using a helicopter and a gyro-copter. Another example of how this game feels like the Battlefield games is because the air controls are exactly the same. Players who mastered the difficult skill in previous games will feel right at home, circling around and pouring out destruction from the sky. Novice pilots will add a layer of entertainment to the game, by flying straight up and crashing, usually in under 10 seconds.
The best way to use the vehicles is to fill em up and blast through to your opponents base to steal their resources. This is when the game is most enjoyable. Traversing large maps with a car full of maniacs blowing up everything that gets in the way. Because of this, the time spent outside of these scenarios can feel tedious, and even boring.
The battles take place in large wastelands. While the game shipped with 8 maps, the servers that are populated are usually only on their flagship map, Canyon. The flow and size of this map makes it always easy to have a vehicle, and easy to find where the action is at even when the player count is well below the maximum of 32.
Some of the maps in Ravaged are humongous, full of valleys and varying terrain that, while is fun to drive, is a pain to have to walk. These maps popup less often in the official servers, and when they do, the number of players is usually very low.
Take “Rooftops” for example. The path for vehicles circle a frosted village full of accessible rooftops to fight on, as the name implies. While the developers attempt to diversify things by throwing players into a different climate is great, this map diverts the combat to the edges, and wandering around on foot will feel like you are alone in the antarctic. The large maps with lots of areas without much going on could have been prevented by offering different modes which could control the flow of battle.
Ravaged’s most popular mode is a modification of the Capture The Flag classic. Players fight their way into the enemy base to steal their resources, which is represented by a gasoline container. Once acquired the player can jump back into their car and zip back to home base for points. At the same time, players can capture locations around the map. Once controlled, these points can be selected for strategic spawning.
While I haven’t seen any other game types in the wild, in earlier play sessions during the beta I was also shown a straight forward deathmatch on one the smallest map, “Oil rig” No vehicles and a lot of vertical combat. It’s experience a good change of pace and a great way to get a feel for all of the different classes.
The Final Word
2 Dawn Games has proven with Ravaged, that Kickstarter can deliver games which are fun, engaging and high quality multiplayer experiences. The chaotic vehicle combat is what makes Ravaged interesting and will keep you coming back for outrageous carnage, and at $25 for a solo entry or $59.99 for you and three other friends (4-pack of keys) its a low price for the hours of fun, despite the lack of variation in maps and gameplay modes.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
