ArchAngel: Hellfire does a good job with PvP. The maps are nice, the mechs and controls are solid, and there isn’t a lot to dislike about what Skydance Interactive put together. I will say that the co-op isn't as interesting as the PvP, but that’s not the reason you will want to play Hellfire. Hopefully more updates in the future will improve upon this solid groundwork.
Reviewed on an HTC Vive w/ NVIDIA 1080 – We didn’t get to review the first iteration of ArchAngel, but we’re happy to add our two-cents in for Hellfire. Having been a huge fan of Battletech, Robotech, and MechWarrior, I’ve always dreamed of the moment of stepping inside of a large mech and going to battle other players in a most realistic simulation. The closest I have every gotten was the Battletech simulators introduced in the 90s and were huge cases you climb into, would be shut-off in (via a large door) and go up against other players in similar simulators. This was a huge hardware undertaking and only existed, at least after the 90s, in local Dave & Busters (prior to DB, they existed only in a Chicago arcade, which I visited once — $5 a game). The experience of being in a mech is one thing, and the Battletech simulators certainly emulated that quite well, but feeling the mech move around, launch itself in the air, and just generally being in that mindset that you and your mech’s life is on the line is a wholly other. That’s what you get from ArchAngel: Hellfire and its focus on straight-up PvP battling inside of a virtual reality environment that convinces your brain that all hell is breaking loose (fun times for the mind).
Starting with PvP, the game is broken simply into PvP experiences, as well as co-op. You have a Team Deathmatch mode (2v2, 1v1), Quickplay, and private matches. The TD is probably the more fulfilling out of the bunch, as you can go head-to-head with friends and absolutely enjoy the engrossed feeling of controlling a mech, communicating, and potentially conquering. The demo we played a few weeks back with the developers really showed off how much fun it is to go head-to-head against other players. The communication was thick and necessary to take out other mechs, mainly due to the map sizes, which are something to behold when playing 2v2.
The maps range from a variety of creative constructions. The two maps we played involved a large desert base that had ramps, tracks and crevices all over the place, good places for your to move and hide, which made 2v2 quite fun. There other one was based on a multi-tier snowy mountain. The level is circular in the middle, but branches off into 2-3 additional smaller circular spaces. In 2v2, the mechs have a chance to space out a bit, move around the map and find a comfortable spot to either wait to attack or wait for an attack. The middle of the map slopes down into some electronic cavern, so you can wait and hide, or just use this particular spot to rethink your strategy.
Going back to 2v2 , the map is barely small enough to house 2v2, which is fine because it does give you a chance to breathe or break away in the middle of action. That’s what I particularly like about the maps, as they are friendly enough, as well as methodically built to allow for breaks in action. There’s going to be a lot of action when you start going after enemies, who are firing everything they have to prevent death.
Playing 1v1 on the same maps will find you getting lost from your target quickly. Having a big map with a small amount of PvP folks can be a downside to matches in Hellfire, of course that is depending on strategy. For example, the first match I played was against another editor and had us in a desolate city landscape (lots of broken buildings, things laying everywhere, a more detailed TANK! TANK! TANK! respectfully). It was 1v1 and it felt like we were mostly just hunting for each other, yet were running circles around each other. It was slow moving and not as exciting as 2v2. Most of the maps are big, detailed, beautiful, and sometimes empty on action with 1v1. That said, if you are into that stealth strategy with hunting big robots, then maybe 1v1 is your calling. For me, it was something I didn’t feel was as engaging as 2v2, but to each their own.
As you move around the maps, you will find items that will keep the battle tilting from one team to the other. These items consist of energy boosts, temporary shield boost, and a variety of weapon boosts to make the fighting more interesting. Anytime you can motivate your player to keep moving and constantly creating the action through rewards is a good time. For example, you will want to get more shield to have the upper hand against other players (not that it isn’t common sense, but the shields make a difference). You will come out of the shadows to replenish energy, as well as obtain power-ups to give you a clear advantage, though brief. The inclusion of these items makes the game a bit deeper and makes the mechs more interesting to play with, especially with the variety of mechs you have as options.
The mechs you get to choose from are categorized as light, medium, and heavy. Just like what you would find in the old MechWarrior games, you have speed differences with each, some are clunkier to move around than others, and power differences. Depending on how you want to move and attack, and that solely depends on your strategy in the game, equals out to how much you use one mech over the other. I do appreciate the variety and least amount of complications that went into the different style of mechs, as games like this should be about quickly choosing a giant robot and going straight to gameplay. I’m sure that Skydance did this on purpose and I absolutely commend them for it. The action and strategy should be the focus, rather than complication of the mech. Having said that, I hope sometime in the future they come out with updates that allow for individual pieces to be added, upgraded, or adjusted. That would provided added motivation to succeed in the game, as well as give players reasons to keep playing it. That’s what made MechWarrior such a fun game, and the monetary system inside of it, and it would add some additional depth to AH, though it doesn’t necessarily need it.
Staying with the mechs, the controls of the robots are super easy to pick up on. I thought that there would be some sort of complication to the game, where I would have to worry about pulling levers, pushing buttons, and keeping my eyes off the action in preparation for it. That’s not the case with Hellfire. The devs looked to make the controls seamless, as switching from guns to missiles to other things was just a push of the button on the HTC Vive. Moving the mechs, launching them into the air was just as simple. Two controllers working together to look, move, and launch couldn’t have been laid out better. The one caveat I had, and something that I asked during the match I played, was the turning of the mech’s head to see around. You can freely turn your own head in the cockpit with the goggles, as that won’t affect the mech’s head, but moving the mech’s head was a quick, mechanical shift with the controllers. There is no slow turning, it’s a quick move, almost a mechanical jerk. The devs told me, and I could see this, that if it wasn’t quick, then there would be a potential for someone to get motion sickness, plus it would affect the action on the screen. It makes sense, especially if you ever played a VR game with bad head movement (see Detached for details — that one almost made me vomit), plus the action reasoning was spot on. Once you get used to the mech head movement, then you’re in business. It’s a bit of an adjustment, though, so prepare yourself. Overall, the movement of the mech is simple, fun, and it doesn’t distract from the onscreen action.
As for the presentation part, you will feel like you’re in a cockpit of a mech. You will see some gorgeous details, depending on GPU, in the environments, and in movements of the mech. Hellfire is one of the better looking VR experiences on the market, especially in the PvP category. The 1080 card we were running was handling frame rate, textures, and presentation in general quite well. I suspect you could use a lower card and get the same results. I was very impressed with the visual construction of the game.
Overall, ArchAngel: Hellfire does a good job with PvP. The maps are nice, the mechs and controls are solid, and there isn’t a lot to dislike about what Skydance Interactive put together. I will say that the co-op leaves a little to be desired, but that’s not the reason you will want to play Hellfire. Hopefully more updates in the future will improve upon this solid groundwork.
