Escalation Hands-On With IGN

"There's more than a new coat of paint on this one.

October 19, 2004 - In the world of multiplayer shooters, Joint Ops has the largest cap of players per server at 150, second only to PlanetSide, which is in a slightly different category, since it's a persistent world. PS is still the king when it comes to sheer numbers, but it also comes with a monthly fee. And although JO wasn't universally lauded on its release, Escalation has made some key improvements that could push it ahead of the competition.

You may recall that one of the gripes about the original was how easy things were for snipers. JO ended up being more of a long-distance game than was probably intended, thanks to largely parabolic bullet trajectory--meaning that scope drift, wind direction, and other subtle factors were pretty much non-existent. As long as you got the arc of the shot right, you could hit someone a kilometer away. Well, Escalation, coming out in less than a month, has thankfully done two things to ease the pain of those who would like to just jump in and have some fun without getting popped the moment they spawn and having to wait up to 45 seconds for a respawn.

First, almost all of the spawn points we saw in the Escalation maps have been fortified--covered with obstacles like surrounding buildings and large cargo containers. Second, there's a lot more haze, since the new maps veer more towards tropical environments. And there didn't seem to be that problem where a sniper at the edge of your field of view would have his character model hidden by the ground texture. Not only that, but there's also the new base defense gun equipped with a combination of thermal vision and night vision. You'll only have the one at your team's headquarters, natch, but its heavy cannons do a good job of sweeping ridges.

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Beyond more murkiness, the maps also have Capture Point clustering, which promotes more close-quarters battle and less sniper pecking. You can go from CP to CP, running from cover to cover, instead of trudging a ways through the jungle while hoping no one picks you off. If you like, though, you can hop in an APC and use the new firing hatches to attack from the top or the back, and there's always the turret. Speaking of turrets, they overheat now. Keep the hammer down for long enough, and it'll lock up. It's accompanied by a pretty cool glowing and smoking animation. Also new to the game is tanks--the M1A1 Abrams for the JO side and the T80 for the Rebels. Unfortunately, they behave exactly the same, but I suppose it's either that or spend a ton of time balancing a key part of the arsenal. The tank has a driver, a cannon operator, and a gunner. The commander can sight and mark targets with the .50 caliber gun, which is nice, and the turret has been modeled so that it takes the standard seven seconds to do a 360-degree rotation.

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