Battlecrew Space Pirates was my personal highlight of the Gamescom. Why? Because: Space pirates, 2D shooter action, Overwatch gameplay, and a tiger! Read here what it’s all about and why it’s just awesome!
If you ask me which game fascinated me the most at Gamescom 2016, it was clearly Battlecrew Space Pirates! Because the new game from Dontnod Eleven – the studio behind Life is Strange – combines the action-packed PvP shooter gameplay of Overwatch with a cult 2D sidescroller like Broforce or the good old Turrican.
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Space Shipwreck with Tiger
In Battlecrew Space Pirates, we play as one of currently four outrageous space pirates who roam the galaxy plundering, filling their pockets with gold, and shooting or slicing their enemies with sharp blades. Did I already mention that the heroes are totally wild? There are:
- The anthropomorphic tiger “Janger”, who fights with two blades, is fast, and takes out opponents in Berserk mode with one-shots.
- A shooting enthusiast named “John Trigger”, who excels at long range with his plasma rifle, fires rockets, and slows all opponents as his ultimate.
- A quirky fish creature named “Tiburon”, who can create force field walls everywhere and gives itself a speed buff when stuffing its pockets with gold. Additionally, it unleashes a hail of grenades as its ultimate.
- “Comet”, a former accountant who zooms around with a kind of ray gun, plants bombs, and nukes everything on the screen with a “Smart Bomb”.
Each of the four heroes plays completely differently and demands a different tactic. With the tiger, we’re usually in close combat, while John Trigger is primarily dangerous from a distance, and the fish Tiburon acts more as a supporter. The controls are intuitive via controller (although mouse and keyboard are also supposed to be possible) and all two skills and the ultimate ability of our hero are always quickly accessible.
The Revenge of the Troll Fish
At Gamescom, we got to play two maps from the game mode “Gold Rush” (the other mode is “Team Deathmatch”), where we teamed up with three friends against an opposing team and had to shovel gold from randomly appearing treasure chests into our safe within a time limit. That alone is already a blast, as the gameplay of the game is fluid and fast-paced, and thanks to the 2D view, you always have a good overview of the map.
It got really funny in the second map, as it contains all sorts of traps that we or other players can trigger, which can set the area around a treasure chest ablaze with electric bolts. Particularly sneaky was the fish-pirate Tiburon, as he can create large force field walls to stop both friends and foes at critical points or lead them into traps. It couldn’t be more trollish!
Mein-MMO says: As already mentioned, Battlecrew Space Pirates was my personal highlight of Gamescom 2016 and no game brought me as much joy at the fair as this quirky 2D shooter. I can’t quite say what I liked best, the uncomplicated yet fun gameplay, the cool heroes with their completely different skills and tactics, or the outrageous space pirate setting. In any case, I can hardly wait until Battlecrew-Space-Pirates goes into Early Access on Steam. That is supposed to happen at least this year.
