It's fun enough, free-to-play, multiplayer FPS game, but not deep; Not a real "giant robot" game.

User Rating: 7 | Exteel PC
By geldonyetich | Review Date:
If you set the bar at extremely deep gameplay, Exteel only partly delivers. The core of the game revolves around WASD key movement and firing your weapons. You have a heat meter on your currently equipped weapons, tapping a key swaps out for your other set of equipped weapons at the cost of energy. Energy is also used for boosting (quick movement) and jumping. There's not true projectile tracking: instead you have to lock onto your targets by putting a rather large crosshair over them, tap the button, and you'll hit. Terrain sometimes can be used to your advantage... usually, your inertia will render you too sluggish to really use it.

There was a potential for there to be some better depth through the inclusion of "special moves" which consume SP (accumulated through battling). Unfortunately, the special moves are only rarely available, as accruing SP is a slow endeavor, and when activated they are often not as effective as just firing away.

There's Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Territory Control, Last Stand, and most recently a Capture the Flag modes. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are pretty much as you'd expect: most kills win. Territory Control has a number of positions in which the players can toggle ownership over by occupying with their Mechanaughts: most territory held for the longest amount of time wins. Last Stand is players versus AI in a kind of territory control where lost territories cannot be regained. Finally, Capture the Flag -- well, I haven't played this one, but I imagine it's about defending and taking flags.

Perhaps the worst thing about Exteel is it's a real grind. Upgrading your Mechanaught can be done on a part-by-part basis, with no sellback. You can expect to play through hundreds, perhaps thousands, of matches before you'll accrue the neccessary cash to fully upgrade your Mechanaught to the next level.

The slowness of the advancement encourages the player to purchase NCCoin (at $1 per 100 coins). About 350 coins ($3.50) will allow you to upgrade to a special kind of mech that lets you play in class until your toiling in battle finally earns you the next echelon. Those who never want to drop a cent on this game will be glad to hear that most of the upgrade parts need to be earned through playing the game.

In the end, Exteel is not what I'd call a giant robot game - it's not a simulation. It's more of a first person shooter-style deathmatch game: fire and strafe your way to victory. Play it as a twitch game until the grind drives you away. I'd rate it lower, but hey, it's free to play and the overall production and flow of the thing is decent enough.

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