The other night I was bored and looking for a game that would allow me to mindlessly shoot things while not being something I already had installed on one of my hard drives. Recently discussion surrounding Warframe as being a fun game that is similar to Destiny made me want to jump back into that. Finding out that the new open-world portion of the game is PC only for now (and I previously played the game on PS4) meant that I couldn’t access the new content on the console just yet. There was also a rather large patch for it since I hadn’t played in some time, so I was browsing the store as that downloaded. I stumbled upon the game Crossout, and was intrigued by the description. This felt like a sort of Twisted Metal meets Mad Max sort of game, and having now played it for a few hours, my suspicions were confirmed.
If you enjoy vehicular combat games, this is for you. It’s not going to scratch that Mario Kart itch, no this isn’t about racing and having some power-ups. Crossout has that great Mad Max-like post-apocalyptic feel to its world, but the combat feels more like Twisted Metal, though there are still differences to be seen. This is an arena brawl. You will spend most of your in-game time in combat, though objectives can change. You’ll start out with a rather rudimentary truck that doesn’t have much welded onto it, but through the game’s progression system you’ll unlock new vehicle bases, new factions, other abilities and can really make some crazy looking vehicles.
When you aren’t in combat, you’ll be in a lobby that feels similar enough to most games. A series of menus will allow you to craft new parts, unlock blueprints for vehicles, train your co-driver, and there’s even a marketplace where you can trade items for coin. It seems that much of the game’s items will be unlocked as you play, but there are RMT transactions for more coins that allow you to buy things off of the market or otherwise speed up your progression. This is standard faire, and I’ve fought against some people with much bigger and better vehicles than my own but was still able to out-play them, so it doesn’t feel too pay to win, which is a frequent complaint with F2P games.
Things can get pretty hectic on the battlefield, and you’ll see your fair share of the spectator screen, where you’ll watch your teammates after you die. Thankfully Mr. DoucheSteamboat here wasn’t too bad and our team won that round. Besides the requisite PvP modes it seems that there are some parts of the game that are PvE. The normal missions require you to use particular weapons and win PvP matches, but there are Raids where you have to participate in various modes like escorting and fighting off enemy AI. Nothing too difficult, and I think “raid” is used pretty loosely, as the one I participated in was for 4 players… not very worthy of the word.
Crossout is currently in Open Beta on PS4 and PC, though I’m covering the console version here. It definitely has room to grow, and though they are touting it as an MMO it clearly isn’t. I’d boil it down to being “like World of Tanks, but actually fun.” Here’s my current vehicle that I’ve modified to the point that I can’t do much else with it, for posterity:
I’d recommend the game based on the fun I had with it, though I don’t know how serious you’d ultimately want to get with it. Still, a good way to add some variety to one’s playlist!
Me Vs. Myself and I 