Holodrive - PC Review - by Whippy ⋆ Moé Reviews

Holodrive – PC Review – by Whippy
Action, Indie, Early Access
Developer: BitCake Studio Publisher: BitCake Studio
Release Date: Mar 24, 2016

Holodrive is an early access fast paced multiplayer platform shooter up. Developed by BitCake Studios and released on the 25^th of March (24^th in America) 2016. This is the first game from BitCake, and boy is it an interesting one. But interesting is the only thing I can say about it.

When I started up Holodrive for the first time, I was greeted by an excellent tutorial that taught me what to do; shoot bad guys, defend objectives, win the game. But I couldn’t help but notice that something was missing. The music was dull, mainly for the fact that there wasn’t any real music. This made the tutorial boring quicker than it should have. But I was blessed with some generic dubstep music, better than silence, but it won’t be in my Spotify playlist anytime soon. The first thing I noticed was the microtransactions option to buy keys to open a box full of goodies. The goodies range from cosmetic skins (which I’m okay with) to weapons that can give you an advantage. It wasn’t clear if I could unlock items by just playing the game, but I did get a few cosmetics during my time.

But how was my time? My time was occupied by either finding someone to shoot, or actually shooting. When I was looking for games to join I’d either be put into a lobby instantly with a few players, or I’d be in a lobby by myself. Sometimes I’d have to wait a few minutes for a lobby to be found, and when a lobby was found, it was just 1 other player. This is a disappointment, because when I was in having a battle, the maps felt like all routes were meant to be clogged with players trying to get to the objective, with non-stop action. But sadly, it feels empty with only 2 players on each team, and forcing myself to stop going to the objective to spend time looking for an enemy was not fun. But when I did find a player to kill, it was extremely satisfying to hear the ding when your foe was killed. To kill your enemies, you pick up rocket launchers, sniper rifles, hyper sub machine guns, shot guns, all the fun jazz. They all feel different and have their advantages and disadvantages. The only problem is the weapon selection system, when you have all the weapons in the game, which you lose on death and you have to find them again in the map, you can pick them by using the scroll wheel or by pressing 1 – 7 on the keyboard. You’d think if I picked up my sniper rifle it would be 2 if it was my second weapon. But no, it’s 7. Weapons have their own hot key no matter what order you pick it up in, this is annoying because I think that “oh, I just picked up a shotgun, 2 right?” nope, 5!

When you complete a game, you’re spawned into an arena where you can shoot the losing team with weapons, which is incredibly fun, while all of your stats appear on screen. This reminds me of when I win games in Team Fortress 2, but on a platform. If you’re the MVP of the game, you have a golden star above your head for bragging rights, which makes you a target in the scoreboard area.

But shooting is only half the fun. I have mixed feelings about the maps. One is very tight and action compact, with bullets flying everywhere, and is very streamlined and intense. The other gave me a headache with different colors, and I was hitting every wall, meaning I was being slowed down plus it was cramped and it just generally annoyed me. What also annoyed me was that there was no music in the game other than the main menu. Something rapid and fast paced like Hotline Miami would make things a lot more fun as I “get into the jam”. When there were more than 2 people on the screen, the action heats up quickly. Rockets flying across my screen, bullets in one direction while shells in the other, the objective just in my reach. But I didn’t feel a rush, I feel that the game should be a bit faster paced with more explosions and sparks need to be on screen to turn the intensity scale up to 11. But right now it feels like a 7, until you pick up a power up. These can double your speed, make you invisible, deal 2x damage, drop a trap power up, it’s excellent! These really kick things up a notch when in a hot zone.

The sound in this game (other than the music) is fantastic! When on the death screen overlooking the map, if you spawn in the left, the spawn in sound plays in the left ear, which is good when you’re trying to see where you’re spawning in. It’s just a shame that I’m deaf in my left ear. Oh the wonders of surround sound, you’re all so lucky with your two ear hearing. The sounds of the weapons blasting off is satisfying, especially when I’ve got the sniper rifle fully charged. It makes me feel like I’m about to shoot the world’s most powerful rifle, and if you hit someone while it’s fully charged, it’s an instant kill. Same with a rocket if it hits you. You will be hitting characters that instantly remind me of sackboy from the PlayStation exclusive Little Big Planet, just with a whole lot less character. My lil’ minion bores me, generic futuristic sack bags. He, or she, or it… alien? Does the same animation in the main menu, poking its tongue out while pretending its hands are guns. You can change the appearance by unlocking cosmetic items after leveling up or buying boxes to open. HoloDrive runs well, as my frame rate never dipped on the highest settings with a GTX 960, i7 4770, 16gb. With a low of 58 and a high of 61 frames per second at 1080p.

HoloDrive is a game that I don’t see myself returning to often. I found it fun to play a quick game while trying to kill time, its shooting mechanics made it fun, the momentum you can get from running down a slope makes things interesting and the power ups remind me of the fun days of Mario Kart! But with a lack of music and non-consistent map design, it makes it hard for me to return to it, especially when I have other games to play.