Strikers Edge Review

Strikers Edge is a multiplayer focused game that has you throwing spears at your opponent similar to dodgeball. It is available on PS4 and PC.

Strikers Edge features eight characters each with their own special abilities that you can use in the game. Each character also has a “story mode”. I used quotes there because this isn't really a story mode as it's more of a time waster with a few lines of dialogue thrown in. Luckily, this doesn't affect the game much as the main mode that will eat your time is online play. However at the time of writing I haven't even been able to play many matches online, even though it's cross play with PC I have had many issues trying to find a game. This could be due to server issues, or it could just be due to a low player count. Either way I only got to play around five or six matches online and had to wait a considerable amount of time to actually get into the matches.

The PS4 isn't new to these fast paced games. There have been multiple releases that promise these types of enjoyable experiences, with games like Overcooked and Oh My Godheads. But there is something special about this game that really brings me back to play over and over again; it's probably because I really enjoy dodgeball in real life and have always wanted the video game equivalent. This game isn't exactly dodgeball but it's the closest we're going to get for now.

The basic premise of this game, your screen is split in half, you have one side and your opponent has the other. The objective of the game is to kill your opponent by throwing a spear at them and avoiding any thrown at you. When on the offensive, you have the choice of either throwing a normal spear or you can charge your spear and do more damage. On the other side, when defending you have a few moves to choose from. You can either dodge your opponents attacks which take up some of your stamina bar, or you can block your combatants attacks which also take up stamina and has only a few uses per game available.

You have eight characters to choose from, each having their own special move or ability. For example, Eir can charge an attack and it'll go much faster and does a bit more damage too. Blocking an attack as Eir also benefits you as you recover a tiny bit of health each time you successfully block an attack. However, as mentioned before, you only have a set number of attacks so this balances out the ability. She also has the ability to ignite trails caused by her charged shots, which could damage your opponent if you miss your initial shot.

At the time of this review online play wasn't working very well, so I played quite a lot of offline play and let me tell you the AI in this title is amazing. They are so much better than you could ever wish to be starting out. However I found with time I was learning new techniques and getting better at the game. But however hard I tried to beat the AI by a lot I just couldn't, and most of my games against the cpu were very close. I wasn't playing on the hardest difficulty either, so I am intrigued to go back and find out what the hardest difficulty has in store for me and whether I can beat them or would they hand my ass to me.

The graphics in this title are excellent. While they don't look fantastic as maybe a AAA game would, It has a certain charm about it that really pulls you into the world. Whether it's the character design that pulls you in with its incredible character models, or if it's the maps that are well designed and plays well this title is a great looking one.