Citizen Conflict: A Review of Alpha 4.0 release - Dystopia at its finest
We tried and tested Citizen Conflict’s alpha 4.0 release. Here’s what we took back from battle arenas.
A market with Web3 games has seen its mistakes and glories, with many promising titles slipping down the slope and unexpected surprises that dazzled established mainstream gaming communities. Especially hero shooters based in futuristic themes spreading on the landscape of raging dystopia have proved to be a hit-or-miss effort. Clearly, the market is saturated and it’s getting harder to hit all the right chords with your ‘Next big shooter game.’
With a curiosity scented with a grain of skepticism, we took a daring stride right into the gorge of another dystopian hero shooter. We tried and tested Citizen Conflict’s alpha 4.0 release. Here’s what we took back from battle arenas.
What is Citizen Conflict?
Unlike its rivals, Citizen Conflict hails from European game studio, QORPO, a powerhouse that has been lately keeping things busy. While Citizen Conflict is gearing up for its beta release, QORPO Game Studio keeps on disclosing more and more teasers for their upcoming game title AneeMate. Have their ambitions paid off with their talked-about hero shooter?
As the studio claims:
“Citizen Conflict is a free-to-play hero shooter designed to merge the best of both worlds - to deliver the competitive heat symptomatic of the esports game modes as well as the Battle Royale frenzy to the masses. The game doesn’t fall short on an immersive storyline, which finds three antagonistic syndicates and captivating heroes waging an endless war for dominance. To scale its futuristic dystopian design to the top, Citizen Conflict will brim over with tons of futuristic maps, guns, and uncanny equipment.”
Let’s find out will Citizen Conflict stand up to such a bold description.
Story of Ether Islands and gameplay
Right off the bat, Citizen Conflict’s storyline introduces us to the post-apocalypse settings polished with a cyberpunk-styled neon glow and futuristic tech. We are beckoned to step into a world of 2101, when humanity stood at the brink of extinction, its virtues of compassion and morality replaced by greed and recklessness.
Amidst the crises of technological advancement, AI development, and climate change, the world plunged into misery and death. The establishment of the global Terra government brought a sudden peace, and as Earth became uninhabitable, Terra introduced Sphere, a parallel virtual universe promising prosperity. However, beneath Sphere's gleaming facade, something dark lurks, with the Terra government tightly controlling every aspect of the new digital world.
As a response, resistance groups formed Ether Islands, representing KORPO, wealthy elites; Hackhunters, tech-savvy geeks; and Midnight, street-fighting rebels, each determined to shape the destiny of their precarious new existence.
In practice, however, the story itself is just a backbone that supports the game’s narrative. The gameplay revolves around multiplayer battle arenas, nicely aligned with the QORPO Game Studio’s esports narrative. While the game’s still in its late alpha stage, there’s only one game mode available, resembling a traditional Conquest mode.
As you enter the lobby, you are greeted by a lean interface where you can choose from numerous heroes across 4 specialized classes. Paired with multiple weapon types, Citizen Conflict offers a solid space for team tactics. When gearing up for success, players can master:
Assault class: an offensive role best suited for in-your-face attacks.
Support class: a defensive powerhouse excellent in endurance,
Medic class: a vitalizing class with exceptional healing powers.
Specialist class: a tech-positive class with a knack for tricky devices.
In match making, teams are divided into what Citizen Conflict calls Syndicates. Although your syndicate affiliation has no impact on the gameplay, it’s vital to know which flag you shoot for. Aligned with a strong storytelling narrative, these syndicates also enjoy a specific setting in the Citizen Conflict’s world on top of their signature color.
KORPO: an elitists of old money and white collars.
Hackhunters: tech-savvy geeks who seek reckless innovation.
Midnight: low-class rebels and gangsters.
Once the match starts, everything looks great. A Takeover, QORPO’s unique twist on Conquest mode propels players through a crazy run of bullets and battlecries. An ultimate goal is to accumulate as many points as possible by dealing kills, assists, and taking over the control points. Although this type of gameplay can dull over time, Citizen Conflict spices things up with so-called ‘special events,’ which introduce an extra dose of fun. Beware of Airstike, when lethal meteors rain, Portals, which teleport you over the map or Low Gravity, that speaks for itself.
Overall, Citizen Conflict offers a dose of adrenaline-infused fun across 5 playable maps, each shaped in a specific art style and coupled with unique features, such as jump pads, zip-lines or scalable roofs.
Esports designation
Entertaining gameplay and well-written storyline aside, Citizen Conflict’s ambitions transcend a regular Web3 game. QORPO Game Studio intends to tap into esports and utilize a more equitable Web3 environment to democratize otherwise highly fenced premises of big league. Citizen Conflict is poised to become QORPO’s entrance ticket into competitive gaming waters.
And indeed, first ventures into esports already brought success. Upon the launch of Citizen Conflict’s initial tournament that consisted of a $10,000 prize pool sponsored by the esteemed Qtum Foundation, the game’s popularity spiked. Afterwards, QORPO hosted a couple of other smaller tournament gigs, yet none toppled the most recent event that puts whitelists for Citizen Conflict’s Founder’s collection free mint.
After all, the esports narrative backed by substantial prize pools drove impressive results reflected in Alpha 4.0’s player engagement.
Ecosystem token and NFTs inclusion
Although not yet listed, QORPO Game Studio surprises again with their token choices. While many discussions have been made on behalf of single-token vs. dual-token economies, QORPO Game Studio has none.
Citizen Conflict will be a part of QORPO’s up-and-coming ecosystem of games, NFTs, and esports, which will be united by a single ecosystem token that powers all studio IPs. How will this token stand the test of time we will see, yet the idea of an ecosystem token appears not only novel but intriguing at the same time.
On the NFT side, Citizen Conflict embraces a free-to-play approach that puts non-fungible-token economy as an optional extra layer that doesn’t collide with non-Web3 players’ interests and gaming habits. In Citizen Conflict, users can buy unique skins for their heroes and weapons, craft them in loot boxes or purchase a battle pass.
Hero and weapon skins: All Citizen Conflict heroes are free-to-play, but if you are looking for extra style and gameplay personalization, QORPO Game Studio offers a vast variety of NFT skins to perk up your gaming experience.
Loot Boxes: Based on the value of the content inside, QORPO offers three types of loot boxes - Common, Rare, Epic. Players can open the loot boxes and craft their hero or weapon skins from so-called Shards.
Conclusion
Among the rubble of indistinctive shooters and dull crypto games, Citizen Conflict stands out as a game that not only offers reasonable monetization possibilities through tournaments and NFT trading, but also keeps players entertained for hours. The competitive matches coupled with broad character customization opportunities will keep you hooked in.
On the flip side, Citizen Conflict’s alpha development stage leaves us with several drawbacks. There’s only one game mode that can pale over time. The custom voice lines are a nice treat from the studio’s creative team, however, the constant shouting can get a bit annoying after several matches. Lastly, do something with that AK, it’s just too OP.
Whining aside, Citizen Conflict is a solid game with all the right sauces in the mix; let’s see what will QORPO Game Studio deliver once they unleash Beta.
its very good
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