The shooter “Alliance of Valiant Arms”, or short “A.V.A.”, has quite a turbulent release history. Now the developers are making another attempt to manage a worldwide release via Steam.
What kind of game is this? A.V.A. is a first-person shooter that has existed in its original form as a team multiplayer since 2007. A.V.A. was initially released in South Korea and was later published in North America and Europe.
However, the global version of the game was supposed to fail multiple times:
- The European and American versions of the game changed publishers several times over the years.
- A.V.A ended up with the publisher “En Masse” in 2016, who shut down the game in 2018. That was the first end (via Steam) and the team said goodbye to its fans.
- Then the developer “Red Duck” wanted to step in as publisher and revive the game as “A.V.A. Dog Tag”. However, after the beta release on May 2, 2019, the game’s servers were closed again on May 29, 2019, and the game was removed from Steam. Again, a farewell letter followed (via Steam). That was the second end.
- But there was a third attempt: A.V.A. was announced for March 31, 2021 on Steam – this time by developer and publisher “Neowiz”. But once again it went wrong: On March 16, 2021, the A.V.A. team addressed the community with another letter stating that they would have to postpone the launch because the game was “a bit old” and testing had revealed problems that needed to be resolved (via Steam).
Thus, the project had died on Steam for the third time – but only temporarily. Because now there is another announcement: According to the “AVA Operations Team”, the game is supposed to launch on Steam on August 25, 2022.
The next attempt is called “A.V.A Global” – what will that be?
On the Steam page of the game, Neowiz emphasizes: “To all A.V.A. fans! We aim to release A.V.A. on the planned release date.” Given the previous history, this will probably be one of the most exciting factors.
Moreover, the team stated that they had made numerous updates before the release and would also announce more to meet the community’s wishes (via Steam).
In the developer logs of the game, one can track this somewhat. Among other things, new maps for the game have been announced, an anti-cheat system introduced, and the removal of pay-to-win factors discussed.
In initial game tests, there were still skins that had extra ammunition. There were also characters with specific boosts, such as a 10% movement boost. This will be removed – and they also want to completely eliminate pay-to-win. This was also a point that was criticized in the “Dog Tag” version in the Steam reviews.
A small glimpse of the game is shown in the trailer:
Content-wise, A.V.A. wants to offer a class system with three different options. There are the classes Pointman, Rifleman, and Sniper, each of which excels at different distances and brings their own strengths.
The Pointman, for example, relies on close-range weapons such as SMGs and shotguns to surprise enemies from behind. The weapons can be customized according to the player.
In addition, there are five modes, from “Annihilation” (team deathmatch) to “Escape” (escape mode, where one must either manage to escape or prevent it). There is also a mode against AI.
Will the release succeed this time? This will show in the near future, as August 25 is only a few weeks away. If you are looking for an alternative until then (or in general): Here you can find the best free-to-play shooters of 2022.
