The Good: Tumultuous cooperative
class-based survival, decent selection of class unrestricted weapons and
vehicles, upgrades isolated to a single game, $10
The Not So Good: Light on content (for now) means repetition, poor game difficulty balance due to overly expensive weaponry, no
allies in offline mode, inconsistent dino AI, repugnant voice acting, recycled
map design, some rough edges
What say you? A frivolous, chaotic,
inexpensive cooperative shooter in need of more dinosaurs and other assorted
improvements: 4/8
MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION
Jetpacks. Dinosaurs. Need I say more?
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
ORION: Dino Beatdown features excellent dinosaur models and
terrain, and below average everything else. First off, the models and textures
for the three dinosaurs in the game are done well and look great in
screenshots. However, dinosaurs exhibit abrupt changes into canned animations
that lack realism. Dinosaur damage is also disappointing: just spats of blood
and falling over (though the ragdoll physics can be entertaining). The solider
models don’t exhibit the same level of detail as the dinosaurs, with slightly
lower-resolution texture work and basically the same rough animations. Firing
weapons involves quick animations that aren’t as satisfying as in other
shooters as well. The map terrain looks great, especially rocky mountains, but
each map tends to follow the same basic design mode (narrow canyons separating
the bases) with different lighting and ground textures. In addition, dinosaurs
occasionally clip through game objects and the player (players can also occasionally
pass harmlessly through vehicles); seeing a dinosaur head floating in a wall
breaks some of the game’s immersion. Being picked up by the flying dinosaur
also looks wrong. Despite some areas that could use improvement, the texturing
buoys the graphical side of ORION: Dino Beatdown. The sound design is less
impressive, with basic effects for weapons and dinosaurs (whom don’t growl as
often as I would like). Even worse is the annoying and constant voice acting,
which spouts an unfunny quip after every kill. The music is inoffensive and
generic, although I will admit that some of the themes were memorable enough to
get stuck in my head for several days. I think that ORION: Dino Beatdown
delivers an acceptable presentation for the $10 price tag but definitely has
room for improvement.
ET AL.
ORION: Dino Beatdown is designed as a cooperative game to
play online, but there is a single player practice mode to acclimate you with
the game. However, there are no AI helpers to play with, and the game is really
balanced for a full five-person squad: the number of dinosaurs does not scale
according to the number of players, so a team of two has to contend with the
same number of enemies as a team of five that has two-and-a-half times more
firepower. There is a difficulty setting provided that adjusts the rate of
income and dinosaur spawn counts, but generally single player should be avoided
once the basic controls and mechanics are learned. ORION: Dino Beatdown
features three maps that all have the same general layout: hilly, narrow
pathways between mountains separate five bases. This means the desert, night
forest, and grassland biomes all play out the same. There are some hidden areas
to find and the occasional dinosaur between bases, but exploration is a small
part of the game thanks to the restrictive pathways. Joining a game is made
more difficult thanks to the somewhat buggy server browser (although it isn't
as bad as before the patch). While the
server browser finds servers quickly, it does have a couple of problems. First,
the server player count is incorrect (although not as bad as before the patch,
where it said all the servers were full) and you can’t sort the server list by
ping. Sometimes the server list does not refresh when the appropriate button is
pressed (usually after joining and leaving a match). You also cannot see the
other players’ classes when you join a sever (the “TAB” scoreboard is disabled
initially), so you have no idea if everyone else is playing recon and you
should pick something else to help out the team. As more evidence of the uneven
nature of the game, when transitioning from the main menu, some random person's
Steam ID replaces your own as it scrolls away; I bet its a developer and
someone screen-captured the main menu and made an animation out of it. Also,
loading screen hints sometimes have punctuation displayed as empty boxes. So ORION:
Dino Beatdown has some areas in need of attention.
Your objective: clear five waves of dinosaurs at each of the
five bases. You start at a random base (all of them have the same components in
a different layout), and once all of the dinosaurs are destroyed, you move out
to the next base of your choosing. The HUD is useful to get your bearings
(bring it up using the “F” key) by displaying base locations and buildings, but
needlessly obscures your view. Each base has a barracks where you respawn and
can purchase character upgrades, a garage for vehicle buying, and an armory for
weapon resupply, purchases, and upgrades. There is also a generator that needs
to be active for any of those things to work (reminiscent of the Tribes series
of games); the dinosaurs love to attack it (must be its shiny green hue), so it
must be repaired often (using the recon soldier’s EMP grenade is the fastest
method).
ORION: Dino Beatdown features three soldier classes, each
with specific advantages and disadvantages. The assault class gets a jetpack,
which allows for easy escape and dino sniping from hard-to-reach areas. The
recon class (fast becoming my favorite) gets the cloaking ability, and the
support class gets a medical gun for healing allies (and yourself). Each class
also gets their own grenade type (frag, EMP, and smoke, respectively) and
ability upgrade (jetpack hover, ninja (faster cloaked movement), and engineer
(repair vehicles)). Credits earned during a game by killing dinosaurs can be
spent on weapons and upgrades. Thankfully, credits are not persistent, so you
don’t have to spend weeks grinding through the game to unlock a shiny new
rifle. Another good thing: any class can unlock any weapon, and since you start
out with pistols (the support class gets a marginally better shotgun), you’ll
need more powerful weaponry to deal with multiple T-Rexes roaming across the
landscape. You can choose between a submachine gun, assault rifle, sniper
rifle, light machine gun, rocket launcher, high damage energy carbine, or a
laser rifle. Some weapons come with a firing mode selector (the “H” key) and a
zooming capability, but you must hold down the zoom control (the right mouse
button) continuously as the game lacks a toggled option. Four vehicles are also
available for purchase: a hover bike, combat jeep, mech (with extremely useful
missiles), and VTOL aircraft. While ORION: Dino Beatdown doesn’t have a super
large collection of weapons and vehicles, all of the basic types are included
to support a variety of tactics.
Unfortunately, weapons (and vehicles) are very expensive,
usually requiring survival across two or three waves to purchase the lowest
quality rifles; the best weapons and vehicles require survival basically
through all five base waves, which is impossible using the starting pistols you
are given. Fighting multiple T-Rexes
with a pistol is, frankly, a bunch of crap and a waste of time: the only viable
tactic is to hide in a building and pop out to take a couple of shots, which is
extremely tedious and not fun in any way. While the server can alter the
initial cash value, death is common within the first couple of waves simply
because you lack the firepower needed for success. It can take hundreds to
thousands of bullets to take down one T-Rex, let alone three at a time (animals
routinely wander in to the base that are not part of the scripted wave). Even
more insulting is the fact that you lose your expensive weapon when you die
(you can respawn after a round is finished by your allies), adding more salt to
the wound. There is also not enough downtime between waves to purchase items,
so you will routinely attempt to interact with the upgrade kiosk while getting
bitten in the rear by a velociraptor. In addition to buying new weapons, you
can upgrade their capabilities (increased damage, rate of fire, ammunition, or
faster reload time) for a price. In addition, you can upgrade your character
with additional strength, armor, or agility values. While ORION: Dino
Beatdown does provide several upgrade options through weapons, vehicles, and
upgrades, they are expensive enough where you’ll only be able to afford a
couple (if you make it that far).
Ironically, the content that ORION: Dino Beatdown lacks the
most is dinosaur variety. The game only ships with three scaly enemies to
contend with, each exhibiting specific behavior. First, the raptors are the
small, fast dinosaurs that are only a problem if they pin you in a corner.
Second, the Rhamphorhynchus (they
couldn't just say “Pterodon”?) is a flying creature that picks you up, which
might actually be good when being attacked by other dinosaurs. However, they
cause damage when you are in their clutches, so you should hammer the melee key
(“V”) to get dropped as soon as possible. The T-Rex is just a big freaking tank
that throws rocks (instantly killing you) and topples vehicles. The best tactic
is to hide in a building (preferably the armory, where you can heal, resupply,
and purchase new weapons): only raptors can attack you, as T-Rexes will only
clip through the walls and the flying ones can’t swoop down. Cloaking works
well against dinosaurs, since they will only track you if they can see you.
Using the jetpack also works, giving you access to cliffs and roofs to shoot
from. Only the support class is out of luck when it comes to quick dinosaur
avoidance, so he must be protected by members of the other two classes. The
free vehicles provided make attacking raptors a lot easier, but since T-Rex
will flip them over and the flying pterodon will snatch you out of the gunner’s
seat, they are not an option unless you have a competent, fast driver.
The dinosaur AI
isn’t very strong, as it exhibits some questionable behaviors. I realize the
enemy consists of “dumb lizards”, but more should be expected. Exhibited
behavior includes missing jumps, completely ignoring soldiers, getting stuck on
trees, rocks, and buildings, and colliding into each other (especially the
flying ones). Dinosaurs will, by default, simply run straight towards the
generator or the person that is shooting them, sometimes moving in a
crisscrossing pattern for no discernible reason. ORION: Dino Beatdown
works best when lots of dinosaurs are present and their behaviors aren’t quite
as obvious, since you’re too busy scrambling to shoot them.
Considering all of
the complaints I have levied against the game, ORION: Dino Beatdown is
fun if you have a coordinated team consisting of several upgraded classes with
non-basic weapons: an assault soldier in a mech, a recon with a rocket launcher
repairing the generator, another assault soldier using the jetpack and energy
carbine to distract the tougher enemies, a recon sniper up on a hill, and a
support soldier healing everyone while piloting a VTOL plane makes for
satisfying team-based gameplay. But the
combination of powerful dinosaurs and expensive weapons makes ORION: Dino
Beatdown too difficult, and most groups simply won’t advance far enough to
unlock all of those items.
IN CLOSING
The first issue with ORION:
Dino Beatdown is the lack of content,
which the pre-release videos promise will be expanded for free following
release. Still, having only three dinosaurs (ironically the most significant
limitation, given the game's title) and three classes means gameplay becomes
repetitive quickly. That said, the action is so fast paced that you might be
too busy shooting numerous giant lizards to care. The fast, plentiful raptor,
gigantic, hulking T-Rex, and annoying, flying however-you-say-it
all offer different challenges that work well together overwhelming
uncoordinated human players. The dinosaur AI is pretty simplistic: the
raptors go straight for the generator, sometimes ignoring you along the way,
the T-Rex loves to topple vehicles, and the Rhamphorhynchus picks you up at the earliest convenience. The solider
classes work well in concert: the jetpack-equipped assault and camouflaging
recon soldiers can avoid contact, while the support soldier heals everyone back
up. Points earned by killing dinosaurs and clearing levels can be spent on a
nice variety of new weapons and vehicles, and upgrades only carry over for a
single game (so you don't have to grind for a month to unlock one assault
rifle). I also really like that the unlockable weapons are not
class-specific, but I wish that everything wasn't so darn expensive on the
default settings: forcing each player to fend off multiple T-Rex attacks using
only pistols makes the game unfairly difficult and downright frustrating (made
even more so by losing your expensive weapons when you die). ORION: Dino
Beatdown could have greatly benefited from better balance that would offer
chaotic gameplay without taking ten minutes to shoot down one T-Rex using a
pistol. The base defending objectives (and encountering the same three
dinosaurs repeatedly) can get monotonous after a while, although frequent
episodes of constant action make this less of an issue. The environment
graphics are dinosaur models are both excellent, although some clipping
problems detract from the experience. And turn off the commentary the first
time you boot the game; you’ll thank me later. In the end, ORION: Dino Beatdown online could be a
riotous, hectic fight against gigantic dinosaurs, offering some fun for $10, if
you look past the content shortcomings, unwarranted difficulty, and a handful
of technical issues.
