Meet Your Maker Overview (PS5)

The idea of user-generated content material has been round for fairly some time at this level. If a sport can maintain itself based mostly on the enter of its personal neighborhood, properly, that is a win-win, proper? Create one thing so partaking that the viewers will make extra to maintain the great vibe going. Clearly, this does not at all times work out, however when it does, it is superior, and gamers at all times surpass inventive expectations. Meet Your Maker is the newest try at this — a sci-fi motion sport that has gamers constructing trap-laden Outposts for others to then try to raid for assets.

It is this core loop that holds every thing collectively. After going by means of tutorials for each raiding ranges and constructing them, you are free to select by means of user- and developer-made levels. Your activity in each is to move by means of dingy Outposts in the course of a post-apocalyptic desert with a purpose to discover and steal GenMat — a treasured materials wanted to assist restore human civilisation. Primarily, it’s essential get in, discover the GenMat, then get out once more, and the custodian of every stage may have put in a number of booby traps and guards to forestall your success.

When you do clear an Outpost, you are rewarded with the GenMat you took in addition to a bunch of different assets. It is these supplies you may then use to start constructing your individual ranges, to not point out improve your weaponry, traps, and different tools. The 2 halves of Meet Your Maker feed into one another completely, that means there’s at all times one thing you are able to do that’ll assist one facet or the opposite.

Raiding Outposts, then. By default, you’ve a bolt gun for ranged assaults, a sword for melee strikes, and a grappling hook that will help you get round. All of those will come in useful as you enter a degree, however initially there isn’t any method of realizing what to anticipate; traps may very well be anyplace. Regardless of comparisons to DOOM, we have discovered the sport to be fairly sluggish paced. Speeding into an Outpost will possible get you killed, as traps will set off from all angles, otherwise you’ll run right into a well-hidden guard, and one hit from any supply means loss of life. It is more practical to method a stage rigorously, holding your eyes peeled for traps on the partitions, ground, and ceiling as you make your method inside.

After you have performed a handful of Outposts, you may start to recognise what traps appear like, and the best way to cope with every enemy sort. Even taking part in cautiously, there are occasions you may be caught out by well-placed defences, however as soon as you have been by means of variety of ranges, you begin to study what to look out for. The result’s that Outposts begin to really feel very related regardless of their differing layouts.

Many of the traps are embedded into surfaces, and most of these will set off once you’re shut sufficient. Protruding spikes, bolts, flames, bombs, and extra can journey you up. As soon as what they appear like, although, you’ll be able to destroy them and so they’ll pose no additional risk. Enemy guards are tougher as they’re transferring targets, however go down simply too. For those who play rigorously, you may make it to a degree’s GenMat unhurt, after which it is only a case of getting again out and leaving. Traps may be set to solely seem after the GenMat’s been picked up, however you’ll be able to both take these out methodically or simply ebook it again the way in which you got here and you will be superb. Outposts find yourself feeling fairly one-note.

There are harder ranges that significantly ramp issues up, and these are extra partaking. Nonetheless, whereas these harder Outposts may be extra enjoyable and extra cleverly designed, they’ll step over the road into unfair loss of life bins. Ranges in Meet Your Maker are tedious in the event that they’re too straightforward, irritating in the event that they’re too onerous, and from our expertise thus far, there will not be many who thread the needle. It would not assist that they beautiful a lot all look the identical, all bland rock, corroding steel, and dreary lighting.

On the brilliant facet, constructing your individual ranges is fairly straightforward. After securing an Outpost, you’ll be able to absolutely customise it utilizing giant blocks, then fill it with traps and guards to fulfill the minimal defences required. So long as there’s an unobstructed path to the GenMat, you’ll be able to set the extent energetic and have gamers try to invade it. The entire course of is fairly intuitive, and a good tutorial will get you thru the fundamentals successfully. Over time, even with the sport closed, your Outposts will earn you XP as gamers make makes an attempt on them, and you’ll go into edit mode to see all their factors of loss of life, the place they’ve dropped but extra assets for you. It is fairly satisfying to see which of your devilish techniques have caught individuals out.

There are a variety of XP bars, issues to degree up, and stuff to improve, and it may well all get a bit complicated. The gist is that beating ranges will go in direction of levelling up the Advisors, characters in your base who can improve your gear or unlock new gadgets, in addition to grant you time-limited perks. As soon as an Advisor reaches a brand new degree, you’ll be able to then degree up the Chimera, the monstrosity on the coronary heart of the operation. You may wish to go to the Advisors recurrently to see what you’ll be able to improve or unlock, because it all goes in direction of serving to you raid ranges or construct extra devious ones of your individual. Presently, there is a lack of selection in weapons and fits, however we think about there’s extra to come back down the road.

The true check of any sport designed round user-generated content material is, properly, what the customers generate. What we have performed thus far, from the builders and from fellow media sorts, hasn’t actually fired the creativeness, however that is to not say a wider viewers will not make fascinating, imaginative levels. We’ll reserve full judgement till we have seen and performed extra with the sport out within the open; in any case, it is the followers that’ll hold this factor going. We’re positively to see if Meet Your Maker may be taken in some extra attractive instructions as soon as everybody will get their palms on it.

Conclusion

Meet Your Maker’s core premise may be very robust, however the sport’s aesthetic and samey ranges at present do not dwell as much as that imaginative and prescient. Whereas it may be enjoyable in brief bursts, raiding Outposts can rapidly grow to be tedious, though constructing your individual levels for others to strive is extra fulfilling. There’s potential right here, no query, however we’ll must see the way it fares on dwell servers earlier than we ship a full verdict.