The new shooter Strinova has launched on Steam, but players are complaining about a feature intended to protect them from unfair battles.
Which shooter is it about? On November 22, the new tactical shooter “Strinova” launched on Steam. The game was produced by the Chinese developer studio “iDreamSky” and has been playable in China since August 2023. The game features an anime style.
Strinova is a tactical shooter like Valorant or Counter-Strike, in which two teams of 5 players each compete against each other. Unlike the aforementioned genre giants, however, Strinova is played in third-person perspective. Additionally, the game features a special mechanic that allows you to switch between three-dimensional and two-dimensional forms of your character.
In Europe, you could test Strinova in a demo during the Steam Next Fest. Around 15,000 players checked out the demo of the shooter, making it one of the most popular games at the Steam Next Fest.
Here you can watch a trailer for Strinova:
Players complain about a feature that protects against unfair battles
What are the players complaining about? Strinova had a rather mixed launch on Steam. While the shooter peaked at up to 28,000 concurrently active players over the weekend (via SteamDB), only 60% of the nearly 2,500 reviews received are positive.
Many players are complaining in their Steam reviews that the game has now received a region lock. In the case of Strinova, this means that you can no longer switch to another region in-game and play on their servers. It is now only possible to play on the servers assigned to you.
Players who prefer playing on Chinese or Brazilian servers or want to play with friends from another region can no longer do so.
The feature is meant to protect you: Many players are angry that they can no longer change their server region, but the region lock is actually there to protect them and provide a better gaming experience.
On one hand, it is meant to prevent poor connections. If you play on a server that is far away, you will quickly notice that inputs and actions in the game are executed with a delay. Playing against a player with high ping is often not a pleasant experience either.
However, the most important reason is: Without the restriction, Chinese players could play on European servers. Since the game has been available in China for over a year longer, that would lead to very unfair matchups – after all, they had plenty of time to learn the game and improve.
How is the game received outside of the feature? Also rather mediocre. The overall gameplay loop is praised and can indeed be fun – especially the unique mechanic of switching to a 2D form is well received. However, matchmaking is a point of criticism.
Additionally, players are complaining about the maps and the overall balancing of the heroes, which are also hidden behind a gacha system. Moreover, Chinese players are dissatisfied with some of the developers’ decisions. For example, in the western version of the game, some skins can be obtained for free, for which Chinese players had to pay real money.
If you’re not interested in Strinova after all the criticism and are still looking for a shooter to play over the next weeks and months, you might find an appealing game in our list on MeinMMO: The 25 best shooters of 2024 – These PvP and PvE games impress with their gameplay
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