The hero shooter space is in an interesting place. As Overwatch’s luster fades it’s taking the whole brand with it- and now the remnants of that space need to fight to say that they’re good enough to compete with Blizzard’s genre-defining shooter, but also different enough to not give you that “more of the same” vibe when you restart a digital painting because it crashed and you lost all your progress.
I’d been putting the hours into Strinova– a game whose beta happened over the last weekend. The game’s international release is in the works, and it’s got a particularly unique twist to it: at any point, your character can turn into a sheet of paper. This includes Zelda-style running along walls, gliding and, most importantly, dodging bullets with the kind of side profile that makes idols weep.
Become 2D To Save Your Life
Surprisingly, the Stringify mechanic, as it’s called is far from the only thing the game has going for it. That’s not to say it isn’t also isn’t a massive change- the fact that it’s as natural an action as crouching means that a lot of fights suddenly feel really tense when someone starts Stringifying. It’s a skill I feel would be absolutely dominating in more serious play, since it makes 1v1s particularly tense, but also loses out to ambushes (as long as you shoot the wide end of the character they still take damage).
It creates a really interesting all-or-nothing to how combat works, because all Stringify does is nullify one style of approach. That means while Stringify can beat a straightforward dive or rushdown, you can just as easily bait it with a good flank and score some easy kills.
Chaotic Deathmatches
The real magic for Strinova, to me, is its Team Deathmatch. Rather than just pit two teams of 6 against each other it opts for a much smaller 4-way 3v3v3v3. It makes team fights absolute chaos since you never know when you’re going to suddenly find yourself the biggest threat on the map and have 9 anime girls try to gun you down.
It helps that individual unit kits are also fairly interesting- I gravitated towards a duelist named Flavia, whose response to getting shot is to turn invincible then blind you. Characters in general feel very good at their specific roles- Another girl has a giant machine gun and the ability to turn it into a turret, further increasing her dakka while letting her tank damage better.
It should be noted that on the Overwatch-Counterstrike scale Strinova does err more to the Counter Strike side of things. Unit abilities aren’t always mega flashy- one girl just covers the floor in paint, letting you track footprints to see where people have gone. It’s still a heavy fundamentals game with a bit of flash and spice- but it’s not anywhere near the loud arcadey mess many people might be expecting if you hear “hero shooter with anime girls”.
Unfortunately that approach does tend to hurt it just a little- I’m not a particularly big fan of the guns in the game either, since they all run the gamut of pretty standard assault rifles, SMGs and sniper rifles. It’s definitely a matter of preference- I can see reasons why they’d not want the game to have a bunch of cartoon weapons flying around but at the same time even a little silhouette variance would have been a big help to feeling like they were part of the characters’ identity.
Watching Strinova With Great Promise
Still, as far as the new wave hero shooters go, Strinova looks to be in excellent shape. It’s visually gorgeous, has actually unique gameplay features and will be releasing on mobile, Considering how many hero shooters are in development now, Strinova has more than enough to make its own unique identity- and I’m looking forward to its eventual full release.
I think the deathmatch format is a particularly standout winner- more chaotic teamfights is, in my opinion, more beginner friendly- you’re less likely to be fighting anime SEA:L Team 6 when there’s two more teams looking to gun everyone down.
There are gripes to be had, for example its UI, which can feel a little counter intuitive when you’re trying to learn what every character does. There’s also the fact that Stringify doesn’t work on all walls, which tones down some of the crazy plays.
But still, if you’re looking for a game that’s more than just a 6v6 brawl Strinova is one to watch. Just remember sometimes it pays to be 2D.
