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When Riot Games first announced Valorant, the hero shooter genre was already well past showing its age. And yet, it managed to stand out with its focus on tactical shooting, realistic weapon behavior, and competitive-focused gameplay. What does that say about Bad Guitar Studios FragPunk, arriving several years after Valorant with its own twist on this specific hero shooter sub-genre? Just that a deck of cards cant always revitalize an experience, even if the overall fundamentals are worth checking out.FragPunk occurs in a sleek futuristic setting where a mysterious reality-altering material called Glunite has been discovered and harnessed into Shard Cards. Activating cards can result in all kinds of effects, from flipping reality to changing the behavior of guns. As such, various mercenaries known as Lancers want to get their hands on this material to make more cards. To what end? The cinematic trailer does shine some light on this, but good luck trying to learn any of that in-game."At its core, FragPunk is more or less akin to Valorant. Its 5v5, each player controlling a unique Agent er, Lancer. You have the Buy phase, where you acquire primary, secondary and melee weapons."And thats fine. It provides enough reason to fight other Lancers, though I question the practice of using Shard Cards to obtain more material to make more Shard Cards. Perhaps theres something about the endless cycle of battle for potentially limited resources.At its core, FragPunk is more or less akin to Valorant. Its 5v5, each player controlling a unique Agent er, Lancer. You have the Buy phase, where you acquire primary, secondary and melee weapons. Each of your abilities has specific charges that wont replenish mid-combat. The main mode is Shard Clash, where one team is in charge of planting a Shard Convertor while the other must defend. Play enough rounds, and both sides eventually switch roles.The cards are at the heart of the experience. Before a round, each side can invest Shard Points into a card of choice, adding a modifier to tip the scales. Activating Big Head Mode for enemies, increasing the size of their head hitbox and allowing for easier headshots; deactivating healing for the enemy team; enhancing a random weapon in your arsenal; and one of my favorites, putting all of your reserve ammo into a single magazine and unleashing it all in one burst are some of the highlights.Depending on the effect, players must invest more Shard Points into a card to activate it, and you can field multiple cards at once (or refresh a current option). Its also possible to strengthen a cards effect with more Shard Points, thus turning a relatively normal option into something far more potent."Otherwise, adding cards to this kind of competitive shooter format isfine. Theyre only active for that specific round and not the entire match which is understandable to prevent things from falling into complete anarchy."Shard Points are obtained from dealing damage, assists, kills, and whatnot. Thus, even if your team is curb-stomped in the first round or two, its possible to make a comeback using more potent Shard Cards from the points accumulated thus far. However, a more complex economy is notable only in longer Shard Clash matches.For the regular Standard format, where its four rounds to victory, snowballs feel way more likely with little chance to turn things around other than raw skill. However, the same applies to a team that invests too many Shard Points when things are going well, potentially ending up on the back foot if your opponents turn things around.Otherwise, adding cards to this kind of competitive shooter format isfine. Theyre only active for that specific round and not the entire match which is understandable to prevent things from falling into complete anarchy. I did enjoy swapping out the tried and true SMG for an automatic shotgun once Dragons Breath became active, unleashing a swarm of hail and dealing ignite damage over time to an unlucky enemy. But these instances of drastically altering your overall setup felt few and far between. If anything, theyre fun modifiers which spice up the otherwise overtly familiar gameplay.FragPunk tries other ways to change things, like a knockout system for weapons. If youre defeated in a round, your previously chosen weapon is locked out, so you need to select another (or loot it from an enemy). The visual style is also super colorful, brimming with graffiti and effects that stop just short of feeling too overwhelming at times."Everyone has their quips and voice lines, even the announcer (to an annoying degree at times), but they otherwise come off as strangers to one another."The shooting mechanics and overall weapon feedback feel enjoyable enough, even if theyre leaning away fromyour typical tactical shooter. The Duel is a substitute for overtime and pits teams in 1v1 battles until one side is completely wiped out, which is neat.But they cant hide FragPunks most glaring problem in a nutshell youve seen all this before, albeit in other, more compelling titles. This includes the slower, more methodical movement that encourages corner peaking and not simply rushing in, swapping to your melee weapon to move a bit faster. The maps with multiple sightlines and flanking routes, though they dont feel as naturally integrated at times as Valorants (even if they beat it in terms of sheer visual fidelity).The various Lancer abilities are also nothing too out of the ordinary, ranging from your typical scanning, turrets and remote-controlled allies to detection beacons, camouflage and entering the void to avoid damage (but not being able to see enemy players). It all works well enough, though there are some periods of awkwardness, and very little feels non-derivative, which is a shame because of how cool the Lancers themselves look.Then again, their sleek designs belie the lack of organic interactions between the characters. Everyone has their quips and voice lines, even the announcer (to an annoying degree at times), but they otherwise come off as strangers to one another. I would argue that this kind of approach to character interactions would make more sense in Valorant rather than FragPunks more casual, over-the-top identity, but your mileage may vary.When youre bored of Shard Clash, you could try other modes like Team Deathmatch or Infection. The latter seemed promising but turns out laughable, given the lopsided advantage survivors have over the Infected and how annoyingly long the matches can last. Otherwise, you have the standard challenges and events, the latter focusing on completing additional tasks. Thus we arrive at the sheer amount of currencies and microtransactions inherent in FragPunk."Even without the sheer abundance of monetization, FragPunk is a solid if mostly inspired (in the nicest way possible) competitive shooter."I get it its a free-to-play game, its all cosmetic, Valorant charges plenty of exorbitant prices for their skins, and even Overwatch 2 brought back loot boxes. But even if you can justify all that, theres no denying that FragPunk makes it needlessly difficult to navigate all of this. I still dont know what Weapon Keys do, why soda cans are gacha, or even how we got to this point. Even if you ignore all the cosmetic nonsense, you still have to unlock additional Lancers with Gold or FragPunk Coins (acquired by spending real money). At least all the Shard Cards are free forever.Even without the sheer abundance of monetization, FragPunk is a solid if mostly inspired (in the nicest way possible) competitive shooter. The bombastic style and gunplay can be fun, especially with the unpredictability that the cards add, but the real meat of tactics and depth of weapon mastery feel somewhat wanting. Whether it can evolve further and establish its own niche or fall behind its superior inspirations remains to be seen, but for now, its enjoyable enough.This game was reviewed on PC.
