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 Post subject: APOX - Review
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:33 pm 
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So my first review on this site, let me know what you think.

RTS generally stands for Real Time Strategy, unfortunately someone needs to tell the makers of APOX this, because after playing their game for a few hours I began trying to think up replacement names for RTS. Having thought about it for a while... Real Terrible Shit won. Real Tripe Sugertits was a close second mind.

So APOX then, a game that doesn't appear to know that RTS's moved on, not once, not twice but about 20 times since its ideas would have been cutting edge innovation. It would be unfair to completely slate the game without first talking about its good points, so here goes...

Right onto its bad points then, of which there are many. Now considering this game is on STEAM for the not to dirt cheap price of £12.99 (Putting it in the same price bracket as Company of Heros's as well as the entire series of Command & Conquer) you would expect its production values to be at least average, if not slightly good?

Unfortunately, whatever budget they did have to make the game, wasn't spent on its interface, blocky, slow to respond to commands, and just ugly were some of the things running through my mind on just the main game screen, get into an actual game and you are presented with a poor command and conquer rip off interface, the only thing I did like was the fact I could resize the mini-map. The rest of the interface is just poor and unresponsive.

So onto the actual game mechanics, this is an area the developers could really have spent what budget they did have to make up for the poor look and feel. Did you ever have that point at christmas where you had one present left? You know what I'm on about don't you, the stereo you'd asked for and not found in any of the other opened pieces of tatt you hadn't really asked for? right? Well imagining opening that final present, and finding not the cool stereo you asked for, but a pet hamster, a dead pet hamster, dead because your mother hadn't cut air holes into the box. Now bottle up that disappointment and then let it free when you get into the main gameplay of APOX. Thats the feeling I had right after I went into my first game.

The gameplay is just poor, soldier animation when attempting to travel across the map resembles a constipated diver trying to walk across a beach with his flippers still on, except this isn't a diver your controlling, its a soldier carrying a sniper rifle and a flamethrower, except the flamethrower is out of fuel and the rifle is out of ammo, so instead my soldier is armed with his trusty knife, now if I just get up close enough to those 10 enemy soldiers carry RPG's I'll be alright... wait, what? WTF? My group of sniper carrying flamethrower soldiers have just been wiped out because they couldn't get close enough to use their knives? Brilliant

Welcome to APOX's other 'feature' A feature that brings a whole new meaning to the saying 'You bought a knife to a gun fight?'
APOX has the normal resource features of most RTS games, you have salvage which is 'mined' from your salvage yard, fuel, which powers the small number of buildings you can make, Ammo, which is created in ammo dumps or your salvage yard and Metal, found from big destroyed vehicles around the map. Now none of this would be an issue if the resource management worked, unfortunately, like Hugh Hefners penis without viagra, APOX's resource management doesn't work.
Basically all soldiers need ammo to fire, makes perfect sense, what doesn't is that from one engagement with an enemy soldier, your solider will piss away the majority of his ammo. Let us hope real life soldiers are not as frivolous with ammo as these numpties, because if they are and we face a post apocaliptic future, then frankly, we are all fucked.

So engagements with the enemy become a battle of attrition, or who can not waste their ammo first. After this its back to your ammo dump to restock before sending your soldiers out again. Its alright though, they have their trusty knives in case they do run out of ammo. Just remember to tell your soldiers to use them from the inventory screen...

Vehicles suffer the same problem as soldiers, you need fuel to run vehicles, the problem is that vehicles in this game all appear to be V12 Veyron engines stuck into the shell of a cortina. cars bun through fuel at a stupid rate, the number of times I had tanks sat in the middle of nowhere because they had ran out of fuel was frankly embaressing. Although you can always send another vehicle to refuel the one that ran out, just make sure it doesn't waste its fuel too quickly getting to the stranded one, otherwise you may end up like me, with 10 vehicles all stuck next to each other, all out of fuel. Its alright though, its not like the AI will bother you if you are stranded...

The AI is the final nail in this coffin, although if B&Q were having a nail shortage then I'm pretty sure we could restock the entire countries supply chain with the amount left over from this coffin.
So the AI then, in most RTS games you see the occasional case of the 'phantom pathfinding'. Situations where the computer believes you really did tell your army to walk through bullets and that big angry looking tank firing shells at you, rather then that flanking manourver you thought you had clicked. On most games though all it takes is a repeat click to force the computer to sort its pathfinding out, not this game though. If you tell your army to go somewhere, they may eventually get there, via Siberia, unless of course they get stranded because they run out of fuel...
The AI then, would give a retard school a run for its money. The actual enemies you will face are no better, the only tactic they seem to have is the tactic of sending an army direct at you, no flanking, no probing, just straight, barefaced attacks on you, the AI doesn't learn either, so it will continue to throw enemies at the massive defensive line you have built without any regard for the fact the back of your base is protected by a janitor with a rusty spoon. Sun Tzu this is not.
I would talk about the '32 player online' except their is literally 32 people online in the entire world on this, the majority I believe were looking for the exit, or failing that they had ended up stranded, out of fuel and ammo in the shitscape world this game inhabits.
I wanted to like this game, really I did, I gave it far to much benefit of the doubt, playing far beyond what I would normally give a pants game.
Score then, I know many people like a percentage score, but I'm a simple man, with simple ideas, a score of 1-10 is what I use. 10 has only ever been reached by one game for my reviews (FF7 by the way). You probably know the way this works.
1 - The devils faeces
5 - as average as your ex partners
10 - the Kelly Brook of gaming
APOX should come with a health warning, playing this game will make you want to top yourself.

2

_________________
I was owning the game, bam, 20 people dead, bam, bam, a few headshots, was up to 23 kills, two more to go, bam, another headshot, one more to Nuke. Then, the motherfucker slotted me hiding in the reed bed. Bye Bye Nuke
Guy Price - MW2
The man had never had a nuke on the game, I joined his game at the point described above, the guy who stopped he's streak at 24 and not 25? Moir
5 seconds after the game I receive a message, its one word, begins with C ends in T
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 Post subject: Re: APOX - Review
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:45 pm 
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Wii system code: 2445-8086-3386-0718
So... no good then? :)

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 Post subject: Re: APOX - Review
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:11 pm 
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Level: 7 Squire
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0 / 130
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69 / 81

Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:20 pm
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XBL Gamertag: DBFmancini
PSN ID: DBFmancini
Steam ID: DBFmancini
Game is bad mate, like really bad.

I'm sickened I spent money on it. I feel the need to scrub myself with bleach.

Let us know what you think to the review peeps and whether you'd like me to do some more and make it a regular thang!

_________________
I was owning the game, bam, 20 people dead, bam, bam, a few headshots, was up to 23 kills, two more to go, bam, another headshot, one more to Nuke. Then, the motherfucker slotted me hiding in the reed bed. Bye Bye Nuke
Guy Price - MW2
The man had never had a nuke on the game, I joined his game at the point described above, the guy who stopped he's streak at 24 and not 25? Moir
5 seconds after the game I receive a message, its one word, begins with C ends in T
EPIC WIN


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 Post subject: Re: APOX - Review
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:18 pm 
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Level: 78 Chump
HP: 12910 / 40346
12910 / 40346
MP: 19263 / 19263
19263 / 19263
EXP: 18622 / 18735
18622 / 18735
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Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 11:51 pm
Posts: 18622
Location: Bradford, UK
XBL Gamertag: Blokeh
PSN ID: Blokeh
Steam ID: Blokeh
Wii system code: 2445-8086-3386-0718
When it comes to reviews, you do them how you want, when you want, and use whatever scoring system you like. Unlike big-name sites, we want our reviewers to have their own unique styles, so you know they're genuine. You got more? Get them up!

Still can't believe you wrote all that and not one single STD reference to its name. :lol:

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~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Repost this if ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ you are a beautiful strong black woman ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ who don’t need no man ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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 Post subject: Re: APOX - Review
PostPosted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:45 pm 
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Glad you wasted your money, and not me :clap:

Shame though, looked interesting.

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