MCM Impressions: Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet

Hyped maybe, but this is honestly the Sword Art Online (SAO) game I’ve always wanted to play. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is a third person shooter/RPG set in Gun Gale Online. I’m not going to discuss its core mechanics or its progression, due to having only played a demo build. The two missions on hand feel like they lay the premise of what the core combat loop will entail: everything seen in Gun Gale Online as part of SAO2.

The gun’s aiming mechanics use a reticles that grows and shrinks based on the player’s current actions and can be modified with temporary buffs. This means moving, crouching and standing still will heavily affect your accuracy. Aiming took some getting used to, with the controls feeling slightly jarring with what can be described as momentum swaying. Coming from someone who likes playing FPS games with a controller, this is a little worrying to note. Part of this is a mechanical thing, with the sensitivity and ability to adjust the aim being brutal at times with the handgun. To be precise, the deadzone would change between weapons. This means there were situations that warrant different distances for each weapon, but given that the handgun didn’t suffer any form of damage dropoff. This method of gun balancing feels really off, especially when compared to Destiny’s method of balancing weapons. If it wasn’t for the “photon saber” which allowed for melee combat, I would’ve wanted to stop playing and try something else.

Soon(TM)

On the opposite spectrum with a sniper rifle (assuming it’s Sinon’s iconic Hecate sniper), it was a joy to use. The 3rd person aiming create a badass Gun-Fu master vibe, killing targets with single shots to their weak spots as you’re running past them. The one minor gripe I had with the sniper, is that it’s difficult to tell when Sinon had finished reloading from the player’s perspective. The UI tells you this, but when you’re busy going ADS (Aim-Down sights), being able to visually see when the reload is done is somewhat expected. I did hear reload sounds faintly, so maybe in a less noisy room that could serve as a “cue”.

In terms of negatives with the demo, there’s a slight camera weirdness to moving it around. As stated, aiming with the handgun is a nightmare and a test of patience with targeting crit spots. But outside of ADS, the camera controls felt both loose and wild for all of the wrong reasons. In order to move the camera in a semi-coherent manner there’d be a slight pause before the camera would move when using the right joystick. Also, using the grappling hook for fast movement and scaling walls/obstacles was like taking sharp turns in a rollercoaster. Where upon connecting with something, the camera would snap to it and snap at the end. Forcing the controls away from the player, it would unnecessarily swing round and, unless I missed a button input for locking onto a target, disorientate itself and stare upwards or from the direction I came from (despite looking elsewhere). This would effectively force snap my perspective, when I’m looking to hit something else.

Aside from all of that, I walked away from the demo at MCM pretty happy. This being a first for a Sword Art Online game since most of them had left a weird nagging feeling at the back of my mind. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is set to be released 23rd February 2018.