My review for the Jagex / Steam version of this game, that include classes and more game modes.

Hey r/AceOfSpades. I just wrote a steam review for this game. I'm a big fan and have played around 150 hours of the Jagex version. Its online play was effectively broken until a recent renaissance during the last few months.

I would like to share my review with you, as i understand many of you are sticking to the very enjoyable classic CTF mode. I thought you may like an idea of what's happeni6ng with the current working version.

Cheers!

The review ( Review date: Feb. 7th 2014 // Version "Battle Builder Public Beta" from Oct. 2nd 2013 )

Summary

Ace of Spades is not only a superb game, it is predictably the first of a new subgenre of first person shooters that will bring gameplay strategy to a whole new level. I don't say this lightly. Its main innovation is that it allows heavy map modification in game. It's a delight to play. It is well balanced regarding classes, the graphics and art stle are not for ooh's and ahh's but appeal in a naive and amusing manner that doesn't require heavy graphics. There is a special kind of delight you get when you see a blockheaded man that looks like a Lego person with a gun teabagging his dead opponent. Oh, and the game awards points (although not many) to the teabagger. This adds to a light hearted, funny, yet violently competitive game experience. The user base is immature to an extent, but within a very reasonable degree for an essentially online game suitable, regarding content, for children/young teens and anyone older. The community as about large enough to enjoy the most popular game types with large amounts of players within any regular western playing hours, but it's difficult to find the least popular game types, particularly at the odd hours.

Rating / Score

I'd give it a solid 8.7/10. I highly recommend this game to anyone with an interest in First Person Shooters, even those who found the genre vaguely lacking in the past. Here's the breakdown.

Who this game is for

People who don't dislike first person shooters, players who have a knack for turn based or real time strategy, people who can enjoy a game with non high-end graphics and a retro art stle. People who don't mind a 100% online play game with no single player (besides the map editor), people who don't mind patches taking long to release, people who like lego, people who are constantly fighting and player killing in Minecraft and would like a faster pace.

Who this game is not for

People who don't like first person shooters, people who require realism and detail in graphics, people who want role playing game aspects in their first person shooters, people who want in-game levelling in their first person shooters, people who dislike children and teenagers to a large extent (i have found myself snapping and then apologizing to the most exasperating ones), people who require large communitites to play competitiviely regardless of daytime.

The good

Innovative, strategy-oriented, dynamic, fast paced, lots of creative and destructive chaos happening during gameplay, competitive, ruthless, funny, light in tone, decent user base, balanced, good for short bursts of fun with no story mode or single player. These aspects are accomplished masterfully in my opinion and justify the game completely, despite its sins.

The bad

Delightful as this game is, there is definitely room for improvement in the following aspects (i'm talking to you, Jagex). No single player practice against bots. This can make the game difficult to pick up for newbies. No story mode. No ability to create crude story mode quests through events and triggers in the map editor. Some gameplay aspects could use progress (such as inclusion of of more responsive/offensive infrastructure in the buildable set e.g. vehicles, traps) and the long time the community has taken to start playing custom maps in any widespread and meaningful way has seemed rather long. This is an indication of a small community that still needs growth. Maps are also, in most cases, torwards the large side, making 2 vs 2 player battles rather uneventful, yet recommendable for not so experienced players as they can be slower paced. During regular play hours finding 18 and less player games is usually possible within deathmatch mode, but not necessarily other game types. At least 8 are needed in a map for good fun in my opinion. Jagex has been slow in the past to release key patches. There was a large delay in a particular patch which basically made regular online play feasable. There was an issue where finding populated servers was very difficult.

The Boil down

The game is relatively cheap. At the time of writing this review it's around USD $15. If after reading this, you think you may be interested, i'd say give it a shot. Also, if you buy this game, all of your wildest dreams will come true. ;)

Anything Else?

Yes, if you would like to check a game that attempts something similar, look up Guncraft.

The part where i stop writing

Thank you very much for reading all the way down to here. If you're a skimmer you get partial credit. I hope you found my review useful! Happy gaming.