I have been a big fan of the Trackmania series ever since I first got my hands on Trackmania nations. Too many hours of my life were spent racing around their roster of tracks and the ones made by the community and I regret none of it. Then out of the blue Trackmania 2 Canyon appeared and I had to grit my teeth as I notice it now had a price tag. How long has it been since I saw the game arrive on steam and how long have I been putting off buying it? You can guess how excited I must have been when an open beta for Trackmania 2 Stadium appeared. However, even though my mind was set on Trackmania, I noticed something else has been opened to the public with a similar name. That game is called Shootmania.
At first I wasn't entirely sure if this game was going to be any decent as Iv'e always known Nadeo, the people behind Trackmania, to make racing games and not first person shooters but once I had dived head first into Shootmania I realised my assumptions were wrong. When I had to explain what the game was like to the rest of my group, I simply told them to imagine it as dodge ball with guns. You are dropped into a map with many players and the object of the game is to hit your opponents without being hit yourself. Get hit twice and you are eliminated until the next round until the last man standing wins.
However to actually be able to eliminate your opponents entirely and stop them from respawning, the flag in the centre of the map must be captured. This causes a huge tornado to start closing in around the arena and forces everyone to move towards the flag or risk being eliminated as the it wipes out those left behind. This means the remaining players are all closer together for a close-quarters finish. Considering the game doesn't actually come with a tutorial of sorts I had to find out what everything did myself and never before have I been ambushed by a natural disaster. That tornado seems to come out of nowhere and usually takes the less experienced players by surprise.
My main concern with the game currently, which also leaks into Trackmania because they both use the same 'Mania Planet' Hub, is the fact that you cannot accept friend requests. When I tried to add my friends to the game they appeared offline even though they told me they were in game and available. Hopefully they will get this sorted because a good number of us downloaded the game and have yet to actually play together.
Just like Trackmania, this game comes with it's own level editor. The controls are the same and so is the UI allowing the player to create their own storm brewing arena's which is an addition I hadn't expected to be implemented, but I am pleased to see Nadeo are giving the players the same control over the game that they always have.
Overall, I really enjoyed Shootmania. The very simple controls and gameplay make this an easy game to just pick up and put down whenever you feel like it. The level editor is a decent addition reminding everyone that this is a game made by Nadeo and boy do they love their creative community.
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