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We have a lot of respect for the indie game development process. Setting out to create a game by oneself, or with the help of a small yet dedicated team, can’t be easy, especially as the standards set by indie games continue to skyrocket. Many indie productions are respectable offerings which understand their limitations and work within them, creating (for example) enjoyable 2D puzzle-platformers or narrative experiences which we love.
That said, sometimes we wish an indie developer would break the mold and shoot for the moon. This does happen, of course, but nowhere near as often as we’d like. Luckily, we have developers like Lucas Wilde. Wilde is a one-man development racket who has a couple of Android war games under his belt, and now he’s turning his attention to the world of the online FPS with Bullet Force Multiplayer. Bullet Force Multiplayer is a fun game that you can play right now on Poki, but there’s so much more that’s worthy of discussion in this surprisingly rewarding and well-crafted shooter.
If you’ve played any multiplayer military shooter before, you’ll be in familiar territory with Bullet Force Multiplayer. The game takes a lot of its cues from incredibly influential FPS titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Battlefield, so many of its modes, options and gameplay quirks will be well-known to aficionados of the genre. That said, it’s worth considering the size and scope of Lucas Wilde’s game; this entire experience was created by a single person, and Wilde is very young to boot, so there may well be even greater things to come from him in the future.
Of course, whether the game is derivative or not doesn’t matter if it’s enjoyable, and it’s here that Bullet Force Multiplayer absolutely shines. The game is the multiplayer contingent of Bullet Force, which features a single-player mode with bots. Other than that, though, Bullet Force Multiplayer is admirably crammed with features; one doesn’t really miss the single-player mode, because the meat and potatoes of any military shooter is its multiplayer mode, and Bullet Force Multiplayer delivers in spades.
Bullet Force Multiplayer offers four modes across four maps, and which mode you pick will change the way in which you interact with each map significantly. Team Deathmatch, for example, leads to players arbitrarily assigning certain areas as forts to be defended from the opposing team, with the team in the lead usually sieging the one that’s behind. Free-For-All is a much more motion-oriented mode, as you won’t be able to hunker down with like minded players; everyone’s out to get everyone else, so you better keep moving if you want to survive.
Conquest is a team-based Capture The Flag-style mode which sees players collecting flags for points, and like Free-For-All, this mode is much more geared towards moving around the map, discouraging snipers and other stationary play styles in favour of mobile scout-style play. Finally, there’s Gun Game, which swaps your gun each time you die, leading to a complete change of play style with each death.
The central gameplay mechanics and core engine of Bullet Force Multiplayer really need to be solid to stand up to this kind of variety, so it’s lucky that they absolutely are. Bullet Force Multiplayer shooting is fast, intense, and frenzied, with kills often happening in a matter of one or two seconds. Luckily, respawning is just as immediate, so death never feels like a hindrance; rather, it encourages players to think twice about their positioning and movement, so they can get the drop on the player who wronged them a few lives before.
The speedy play of Bullet Force Multiplayer is augmented by a staggering number of weapon combinations, each of which has its own drawbacks and benefits. Heavy weapons like the rocket launcher may seem like destructive monsters, but their reload time is long and their ammunition is scarce, so you’ll need to be absolutely sure of your shot before you take it. Conversely, machine guns can be fired rapidly and ammunition is plentiful, but damage is much lower, so it takes more time to kill another player.
Factor in perks, killstreak bonuses and secondary weapons and Bullet Force Multiplayer threatens to become overwhelming with the sheer amount of options at play. It never does, though, thanks to well-balanced gameplay mechanics and good map design. Perks never feel cheap; there are some which might look difficult to balance, such as the perk that hides players from the minimap, but they’re still fully visible in the game world, so this perk just kicks a crutch out from under the opponents and forces them to rely on their skill rather than minimap-watching. The perks in Bullet Force Multiplayer actually feel better-designed and less unfairly advantageous than many of their triple-A counterparts.
All in all, Bullet Force Multiplayer is a game that’s more than capable of competing with its larger stablemates. The scope and size of the maps might be a little smaller, and there might be a little less variety in weapon types and killstreak bonuses, but Bullet Force Multiplayer is an independent effort which more than manages to match its big brothers for fun. Considering the size and scope of Bullet Force Multiplayer, the options it offers are ridiculously varied, with each weapon loadout feeling different between maps and game modes. Whether you’re a genre vet or not, you owe it to yourself to check out this gem of a game.
