Rising Eagle, A free "realistic" near-future multiplayer tactical FPS Options

[Blade]

After a few months break, I've recently started playing Rising Eagle again. And I was surprised by how much fun it actually is.

It's a multiplayer FPS trying to simulate infantry battle in a near future (2040) that was released as a commercial game but was finally made freeware. The only game type available is nothing revolutionary: your team has to control most of the control points of the map at the end of the game.

What makes it good is the use of realistic near future tech, and the way it forces you to rely more on tactics and intelligence than on reflexes or experience. First of all, it's got a pseudo-realistic damage system: it doesn't take many bullets to kill you (though a bit more than in other tactical FPS), especially in the head. It's nothing special, but they found IMO a pretty good balance between being unable to do anything once someone has shot you and being too tough. Because of this, you'll be able to dive for cover once someone starts shooting at you but you won't be able to just stay there and shoot him back (except if you've got the heavy exoskeleton but more on this later).

Then comes the tech, most of which is in Shadowrun. There is:
- Smartlink (or whatever it's called in that game): it explains the crosshair, the hud and so on, but the guncam also allows you to zoom in (at far range you'll be limited by the weapon accuracy rather than the zoom) and to shoot around corners without showing yourself.
- Hacking: There is at least one turret on each map. Those turrets can be hacked remotely (LoS is required, and there is some range limitation too) by the battle hacker (one character class). The hacker needs to succeed a minigame involving boolean operators to be able to turn the turret on or off, to synchronize it with his own gun (shooting in the same direction as he is), to activate the autodestruction or the autorepair (when it's broken). The battle hacker can also hack enemy mines.
- Hydraulic jacks: every character is equipped with hydraulic jacks. They let you jump very high (about one story high, a bit higher, with a "recharging" time between two jumps), fall from very high (no limit) or run very fast for a few seconds. The hydraulic jacks, combined with the pretty good map design, the fact that a lot of walls are destructible and the smartlink systems gives a lot of freedom of movement, which really changes from other FPS (you don't always go the same way).
- EMP grenades or mines that turn off your hud and smartlink for a few minutes
- Airstrike/Smoke screens/Air Recon/EMP strike that can be sent anywhere on the battlefield (with limited uses, slowly recharging), taking care of campers.

All in all I recommend it highly to you.

[Wounded Ronin]

Sounds cool. Even better if it forces people to think in terms of boolean logic.

[hobgoblin]

tried it, and most of the time i ended up at the other end of some run and gun tactics...