Crucible is the video game equivalent of chop suey. This free-to-play shooter blends elements from popular multiplayer titles, such as Fortnite and League of Legends, in an attempt to reach the widest possible audience. However, in its quest to satisfy everyone, Amazon Game Studios overlooked several basic shooter necessities, such as a mini-map, communication tools, and satisfying weapons. Crucible has solid character designs and cool customization features, but thePC gameis ultimately a hollow and forgettable experience.
The Gameplay Essence
The sci-fi shooter features 10 selectable characters that are a mix of human and alien fighters. Thankfully, the characters' differences are more than skin deep, as each warrior has unique attacks and abilities. Some use conventional firearms (like assault rifles and pistols), while others wield wilder weaponry (flamethrowers, blades, and acid guns). As cliché as it sounds, there’s a character for everyone.
The game takes place on an alien planet, Crucible, where two factions battle over a resource called Essence. There's no in-game explanation for why Essence is important, but in terms of gameplay, it’s the primary method to level characters.
Crucible has a decidedly MOBA-like leveling system. Capturing Essence by downing foes and killing the local ecology unlocks abilities within a character's tech tree. Each tech tree branch contains multiple abilities, so there are many customization options. For example, you can equip fast-loading guns or a larger grenade supply. You select abilities prior to a match's start, so you needn't worry about fumbling through a menu in the heat of battle.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (for PC)
Modes
At the time of this writing, there are three available modes: Heart of the Hives, Harvester Command, and Alpha Hunters. Each type is lifted from another game.
Heart of the Hives is reminiscent of MOBAs likeHeroes of the StormorLeague of Legends．在这种模式下,两个四个战斗小组the hearts that lie within monstrous plant-like creatures that attack with long tentacles and explosive projectiles. The first team to capture three hearts wins the match. Doing so isn't easy, as teams not only contend with the hive, but the opposing squad, too.
Harvest Command is Crucible’s take on Domination matches found in games likeCall of Duty, Halo, and practically every other competitive shooter. The object is to capture as many Essence Harvesters as possible, while fending off foes who share the same goal. Your team earns points for each Essence Harvester it claims, with the first team that amasses 100 points standing tall as the victor.
α猎人是专为fans of thebattle royalegenre. LikeFortnite, Crucible tosses you into a fight to the death within an ever-shrinking map. Most battle royale games have maps that can host dozens of players, but Crucible's maps top out with eight teams of two. If your partner falls, you can team up with another solo player. That said, it's everyone for themselves when there are only three players left, since only original pairs can win as a team. The prospect of forming a tenuous alliance with a player you inevitably have to battle puts a unique (and welcome) spin on the battle royale formula.
The need to gather Essence is a common gameplay trait in each mode. As previously mentioned, Essence levels your character, which, in turn, unlocks new abilities. Leveling your characters as quickly as possible should be a priority, so you can avoid potentially lopsided battles with players who have unlocked more abilities than you. As a result, you must be mindful of both your main objective and how much Essence you’ve acquired
If you’re new to competitive gaming, capturing enemy harvesters or hive hearts can be thrilling. That said, if you’ve played Domination (Harvest Command) or Capture the Flag (Heart of Hives) before these modes may bore you. Alpha Hunters' twist on the battle royale formula makes it the most compelling of the three modes. Unfortunately, Alpha Hunters lacks a hectic feel due to its map's relatively small maximum player count.
Maps and Communication Tools
在地图上并不是一个问题,提供you have a nimble character. Sluggish characters (like the brutish Earl) have a harder time traversing the world. The main navigation issue, however, is the lack of a mini-map. Unless you know your way around the environment, you’ll need to frequently stop and pull up the large map. Unfortunately, doing that leaves you vulnerable to attack from wildlife and other players. It’s baffling how something as simple as a mini-map doesn’t exist in a game with so large a world.
Worse, there are no in-game means to communicate with other players, either through voice or text chat. If you want to speak with other players, you must join the CrucibleDiscordserver by clicking the associated tab in the game's main menu. I don’t need to explain how cumbersome, let alone unintuitive, this communication method is. While this curbs toxic language during matches, it’s just another point against the game. The included pinging system could have aided communication, but in its current state, the system only really works to identify health orbs floating across the map. It’s supposed to ping enemies, but fails to accurately do so most of the time.
Weak Gunplay
Among Crucible’s many issues, the most egregious is its gunplay. All the firearms, including the assault rifles, shotguns, or pistols, lack a sufficiently satisfying impact when fired. Their weak sounds FX don’t help matters, either. Solid gunplay could have elevated Crucible into something decent. Sadly, shooting is the weakest link in an already flimsy chain. Crucible's melee combat fares a bit better, but only because the attacks feature cool animations.
Battle Pass
Similar to Fortnite, Crucible has a season-based update structure. Each season has a Battle Pass that rewards players with new skins, emotes, and minor experience boosts. There are two ways to access Battle Pass content. The first is a free path where players can unlock content by completing daily challenges that level up the Battle Pass. Each subsequent level offer better loot and perks.
There are also weekly and seasonal challenges. However, you only access them by forking over real-world money ($9.99 for the full season). If you’re really into Crucible and plan to stick with it for the long haul, then paying $10 for the Battle Pass is a great deal. Casual players, on the other hand, are better off with just unlocking the free content.
Visual Design and Specs
Crucible has a decidedly stylized graphical style that recalls a Pixar movie. Amazon Game Studios obviously spent considerable time ensuring that each character’s personality came through in their design. The same isn’t true of the map and the things dwelling within. Though there is certainly a great deal of environmental variety, nothing is visually impressive. Crucible is not a visual showcase of any sort.
To play Crucible on PC, you need (at a minimum) a computer packing an Intel i5-3570CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660GPU, 8GB of RAM, 15GB of storage space, and the Windows 10 operating system. These aren’t taxing specs, so most moderategaming rigscan run Crucible without trouble.
The game runs well on my gaming desktop, which has an Intel i7 4790 CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU. The frame rate fluctuated between 80 and 90 frames per second during matches, with graphics options set to High and the resolution set to 2715 by 1527 pixels.
There are numerous graphics options, including frame rate limit, brightness, contrast, and gamma correction. In the advanced graphics sub-menu, you can enable low or high texture quality, model quality, shading quality, post-processing quality, and more.
Crucible features Easy Anti-Cheat, which is a third-party DRM. It supports bothmouseandkeyboard inputs, as well asgame controllers．
Why You Should Game on a PCIt's Nothing Special
In its attempt to appeal to the widest swath of players possible, Crucible ultimately fails to deliver a compelling experience. Aside from the colorful cast of characters who genuinely play differently from one another, this is a generic online shooter you’ll forget the instant you step away from it.
As is the case with modern online games, Crucible will likely receive a slew of updates that aim to fix its underlying problems. That’s all well and good, but hoping a game evolves into something worthwhile doesn’t help its current state. If you’re looking for an online shooter with originality, you’re better off playing one of the games Crucible takes inspiration from, such as Fortnite, League of Leagues, of Call of Duty.
For more Steam game reviews and previews, check out PCMag'sSteam Curator(Opens in a new window)page.
Crucible contains elements from several popular online games, but ultimately fails to deliver a compelling experience of its own. Though a decent attempt by Amazon Game Studios at creating a multi-layered shooter, the game is too generic to wholeheartedly recommend.
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