Crucible is a new hybrid PvEvP game developed by Relentless Studios and published by Amazon Games. The testing of this game was apparently kept under tight wraps which is no surprise cause I haven't heard of it until a few days ago when a friend of mine tweeted about it. Nevertheless, I thought to myself "Okay, looks like it could be interesting." So i waited for May 20th, 9pm my time when the game was supposed to come out. Well, the time comes and the game was still not available to download. After some vague updates on Twitter and Discord they released the game for NA and the small amount of people that could play still had issues. I decided to give up waiting and try the next day. So, the next day comes and I am finally able to download and play the game. Something worth mentioning is that even though you couldn't download the game they still had the audacity to release the founder packs for sale. Imagine paying for founder packs for a game you can't even play yet.
Okay, so the launch was a dumpster fire, let's see how the game actually is. Well... honestly it's pretty underwhelming. I like the character designs but that's about it. I've seen some people saying that it feels more like a PS3 game and honestly, I can see why. It also doesn't seem to be well optimized cause I know people who do have enough power to run the game but still have issues. Don't get me wrong, I am willing to give it a chance, and if a friend asked me too I'd be happy to play with them. But on my own? Crucible just made me want to play The Cycle again, which is the same concept but better. In fact, I probably should mention The Cycle in another game related article.
Crucible has a few game modes, one is Heart of the Hives which revolves around destroying Hives and collecting their hearts. And there is Alpha Hunters which is more of a BR mode. Each game mode includes PvE elements. There are a lot of things missing however which makes the game feel unfinished. For example, monster variety is very limited. You only have two types of monsters to fight, three if you include the hives. And more importantly, it has NO text and voice chat. I can't imagine a multiplayer game releasing in 2020 that doesn't have text and voice. It's kind of ridiculous and screams unfinished.
The only positives I can think of are interesting characters and the fact that with the 1000 credits they are giving you right now you can unlock the battle pass for free. Oh, and the fact that the game is free to play.
I also want to talk about the excuses and the leniency of some of the players who were waiting to play the game. Yes, it's a free to play game but that should never be an excuse for mediocrity especially considering that there are other free to play games that do a far better job at everything that Crucible is trying to do. This kind of mindset is why Madden fans keep getting a copy paste game every year, and it leaks into other games. That's why you have COD Modern Warfare that has the nerve to charge you full price and still put a battle pass in the game so even when you pay 60$ you're not getting all of the content. You'd think Amazon would at least make sure that a product they release is finished considering what a giant they are. But no, the community keeps giving passes to game publishers and you end up with a product that is "meh" at best.
If you want to try Crucible, feel free to check it out on Steam. Who knows, maybe I'm overly critical considering there are people that genuinely seem to like the game, but I feel like they are in the minority and I don't see myself playing Crucible long term.
