Ravaged Review

By Kevin Mitchell  |  Posted: October 20, 2012

Playing out my fantasy of living in a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic future, Ravaged – developed by the indie team at 2 Dawn Games – breaks free from modern-day shooters and brings back the feel of old-school competitive shooters. Replacing perk systems and experience points with solid fast-paced gameplay, you will find yourself running, gunning, driving, and flying as you fight for survival across 8 unique multiplayer maps.

Bringing the "fun" back to the competitive online circuit, 2 Dawn has crafted an objective-based shooter focusing on teamwork to win the day. Battling it out with up to 32 players online, the two competing groups are the Resistance and the Scavengers. Each of the two groups has five distinct classes that fit well with the style of the game. The lightly equipped "Recon" class can traverse the landscapes at the greatest speed while wielding submachine guns – which are better suited for close-range combat. On the opposite spectrum, the "Support" class carries a light machine gun that can shred apart infantry in a matter of seconds but moves like molasses.

Along with your main weapon and side pistol, you can choose from a variety of melee and grenade weapons. Just watch out for a bouncing tennis ball bomb... yes, in the future, all tennis balls will be converted into weapons of mass destruction.

The two different game modes can be played across each of the different maps. In Resource Control, the goal is to capture the other team's gasoline tank and bring it back to your base – while at the same time trying to prevent the other team from stealing yours. It's essentially Capture the Flag, but with a twist – the twist being your gasoline tank (flag) isn't required to be at your base in order to score points.

Playing similar to other conquest modes, Thrust has both teams fighting over capture points that are scattered across the maps. Once a team loses all of their control points, they won't have any place to spawn – then it's just a matter of cleaning up the stragglers.

With vehicles making a major impact in matches, there are plenty of different options available. Do you hop in a heavily armored truck with a passenger machine gun attached to the door along with a grenade launcher mounted on the back, a modified car with a rocket launcher, or do you go for speed and precision and drive a single-seat ATV or a dune buggy with an exposed forward-facing minigun?

If you're feeling adventurous, why not test your skills in the gyrocopter – offering a one-of-a-kind view from the sky – if you can manage to stay in the air for more than 10 seconds? Once mastered, however, you will be nearly invincible – with most skilled pilots finishing close to the top of the standings in each game.

For the maps that don't focus on vehicles, the infantry action can be intense as the focus shifts to vertically focused maps. "Rooftop" features a war-torn frozen French town with infantry fighting for capture points on top of rooftops. "Canyon," on the other hand, has a large wide-open area prompting large-scale vehicle battles. No matter what map you're on, you will experience some of the best action moments in any recent multiplayer shooter. In the matter of a two-minute period, I was able to rack up 6 kills using a variety of vehicles, guns, and grenades – while still returning our stolen gasoline tank.

Visually, the maps are highly detailed with blowing sand in deserts and textures that show battle-torn vehicles from dents and scratches to mud and other various touches that help to bring the post-apocalyptic future to life. More importantly, the game is silky smooth even with a full server and countless explosions and vehicles on-screen. A major high point in the presentation comes from the amount of sound effects you will hear throughout a match. From the distant dull sounds of a far-off explosion from across a map to the loud thud of explosive shells making contact with vehicles right in front of you.

Simply Put

As with all online multiplayer-only titles, Ravaged will live or die by the community. The good thing is the game only costs $24.99, which is a perfect price point for impulse buyers looking to spend a few hours in a hectic fast-paced old-school style competitive shooter. The occasional players that don't help out their team do make for some frustrating experiences, especially if they drive a vehicle into a wall with you in it, but the included voice commands do help with communication between teammates.