Crossout - gamescom Preview

Vehicular combat has had something of a renaissance in recent times. With the likes of Warner Bros’ Mad Max and Batman: Arkham Knight, games in a number of instances are harking back to the days when car combat was a huge genre.

The likes of Twisted Metal and Carmageddon have both, tried to to rekindle the ‘good old days’ of head on collisions and over the top explosions but fallen short of expectations. Crossout, the latest free-to-play MMO from War Thunder devs Gaijin, looks to truly bring back our obsession with destruction. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, you are challenged to build your vehicle and destroy everything else.

Unlike other MMOs, there are no character classes. Instead you are given free reign to design, build and test your vehicle, nothing is impossible. As long as you have the required parts and they fit, you can make whatever your car combat heart desires. If you ever played a street racing game before, then the customise tool is going to feel very familiar. Easy to use menus mean you can easily see what you have at your disposal and the drag and drop tool makes every small tweak and upgrade a dream to implement.

Car parts; be it weapons, shields or the more ‘real world’ wheels and cabin sections are earned through playing and levelling up, while Gaijin has also brought in a trade system enabling players to swap and exchange goods on the market.

Crossout’s true USP is in it’s diversity though. In only a small presentation and hands on I got the impression that no two vehicles will ever be alike. You can build big brutes, all terrain speedsters, attach jets to make your vehicle hover, flamethrowers, rocket boosts, you name it, chances are it’s there. But don’t just assume you can make a fast vehicle with every attachment under the sun and happily race around the maps though, because physics have a huge impact on your vehicle’s outcome. If the gun on the bonnet is too big, it’ll tip the car forward or if you add too much weight, the car just won’t move. Of course physics in a game of this ilk should be a given, but it’s a necessary hurdle and prevents dozens of overpowered vehicles roaming the map.

Once you’ve built your vehicle, given it a unique style and colour and are happy with it’s armoury, then is the time to take it onto the battlefield. One particularly ingenious feature Gaijin have added is a test drive mode, this not only allows you familiarise yourself with the car’s handling, but the test arena provides a stationary clone of your vehicle that you can unload your weapons at. Not only does this allow you to practice your attacks, but allows you to note any weaknesses in your car’s exterior that you can still address before heading out to battle, it’s a very simple idea, but one that I believe will be a hugely important part of the game as a whole and the line between victory and defeat.

Creation and confirmation aside, the game plays like you expect an MMO should. The mode on show at gamescom was a simple ‘destroy or be destroyed’ team death-match, which took place on a huge, but somewhat hollow and unpolished map. For all the beauty and intricacies of the vehicles, the terrain seemed a bit dated and like I’d seen it all before. The idea of a post apocalyptic setting allows for huge creativity, but there wasn’t anything exciting in the world, granted, I only saw a small snippet of the game, but they should have been putting their best foot forward. That being said, the combat felt solid, and every bullet and rocket fired with real force, your car changed depending on terrain and every hit received damaged your vehicle and had a physical as well as visual effect.

It might not be the path that MMOs have traditionally gone in, but the Mad Max inspired Crossout might be an alternative for fatigued fans of other genres as well as the way in for car combat enthusiasts. Customisation is the star of the show and will likely create a community of bonkers designers focussed on insane looking vehicles, but when push comes to shove, it’ll be the gameplay that keeps fans playing. It’s still too early to predict the reception, but from what I played, it’s great fun and offers something different.

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Crossout is currently in beta with a full release expected later this year on PC.