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Picked up a new game on Steam, turned out to be fairly entertaining.




Running With Rifles is, in short, a fast-paced, action-oriented top down shooter with comic graphics reminiscent of those little green army men some of us may have played with when they were little. The game is an indie project that has been in the works for about two years now, and even though the version currently available is still called a Beta it looks and plays pretty finished already. The whole premise of the game is all-out warfare between up to three different factions (Greenbelts with English, Brownpants with Russian, and Greycollars with German names) with partially different weapons (examples: M16, AK47, G36 for assault rifles, respectively) who are duking it out on half a dozen maps, with literally hundreds of little soldiers killing each other in a storm of bullets and shrapnel.

Dying in RWR is fast: every single bullet has the capacity to kill you, but the chance it actually does differs from weapon to weapon. Don't worry about getting killed, however, because as long as your faction controls at least one spawn point, you can get back into the action right away without delay. Killing enemies earns you XP, and participating in accomplishing objectives (such as capturing zones) grants you RP. The latter is short for Resource Points, and allows you to requisition weapons and equipment from your faction's armouries, ranging from different guns and grenades to kevlar vests, barricades and stationary mortars. Some gear is only accessible after achieving a minimum rank, which you do by collecting XP. Rank also grants you seating privileges over other players, radio commands for air and artillery support, as well as command over your own squad of bots. On the server I'm playing on from time to time, I have recently acquired the rank of Lieutenant and can have up to 9 AI troopers under my command, which you can control by declaring simple orders via the right mouse button.

Did I say server? Oh yes, RWR can be played in offline or in multiplayer. There's a couple servers available, the most populated of which has about 10-20 players online at any given time - though there has been talk of there having been a game with 83 players once. The most popular game mode by far seems to be Invasion, which refers to a straight territory control battle. The map is divided into different territories called "sectors", and whoever has at least 2/3 as many soldiers as the enemy there counts as controlling it. This results in dynamic front lines, and coupled with optional sub-objectives such as sabotaging (read: blowing up) the enemy's communications gives the gameplay a strategic component that rewards teamplay and coordination. A popular tactic is for the majority of players to focus pressure on a specific zone, whereas one or two teams go commando in the enemy hinterlands to either draw the enemy away or directly affect their resource generation. Such raids generally have its squad leaders require you to bring silencers, however, because the bots in this game actually do care for sight and sound - an infiltrator with a silenced SMG at night has a much better chance at staying hidden than someone who, in broad daylight, storms down a hill wildly discharging their assault rifle on full auto!

A somewhat funny detail is that the bots keep talking to each other - and not only in (somewhat) useful commands or alerts ("OMG Grenade!") but also useless smalltalk that kind of reminded me of the silly trash you sometimes hear between comrades in arms in various war movies. Especially if they sit in a vehicle and are bored.

Screenshots

The Greenbelts faction has occupied the central power plant in a game of King of the Hill. Some players have taken up residence on the power station's roof, laying down a kill zone of machine gun and sniper fire to keep
encroaching Brownpants forces at bay. Puddles of blood on the ground are evidence of fierce fighting that accompanied the push onto the compound. Note the medic in the middle giving first aid to an injured soldier to bring
him back into the battle. Another character on the lower right is using his radio to call in a squad of paratroopers to help secure the facility.


On this jungle-themed map, a platoon of Greenbelt infantry is pushing towards a set of ruins, but encounters unexpected resistance. At this point, it still looks like the fight could go either way. The tent near the top of the screen
is a so-called cache, where players can store weapons and equipment for later use anywhere and on any map of the server.


A strong force of flanking Greycollar infantry is pushing towards the center trenches, after having successfully destroyed a lone Greenbelts tank on its way to the front lines. One of the crew managed to make it out of the vehicle
but is obviously injured and attempting to (slowly) crawl away. If the Graycollars care for him at all, it seems somewhat more likely that they will offer him a quick execution rather than first aid.

Running With Rifles is available for $10 from Steam or directly from the developers' website.

Relevant Links
Modulaatio Games website, the developer (also offers a free demo of the game)
Official RWR Wiki with lots of useful information about the game's controls and features