4 /10 1 Votes
1/5 Ccm Release date(s) 12 December 2012 | 6/10 Steam Distributor(s) Valve Corporation Initial release date 12 December 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Engine Voxlap (0.1–0.76)OpenGL (1.0–present) Genre(s) First-person shooter, sandbox Similar Jagex games, First-person shooter games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ace of Spades is a sandbox building and FPS game, originally developed and created by Ben Aksoy for the PC and released in 2011 as a beta version. In late 2012, RuneScape developer Jagex took over development of the game, making it payware on Steam and updating its gameplay.
Contents
Gameplay
Ace of Spades is a team-based voxel-based first-person shooter.
Players can choose from various different game modes such as Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Base Infiltration, Zombie Defense, and Diamonds!. The inclusion of sandbox construction elements enables players to construct defensive structures or dig trenches, among other options, to achieve the goals of the current game mode.
There are two teams: Green and Blue. Players can choose between six classes: the Commando, with either a rocket launcher, a triple barreled rocket launcher or a minigun or an asssult rifle; the Marksman, with a one-shot sniper rifle or a semi-auto rifle and a pistol or an uzi; the Engineer, with a submachine gun, a deployable turret, a block cannon, or a mine shooter; and also has vertical jet pack or a disguise kit; or the Miner, with an auto-drill cannon or a block sucker; and a single-barreled shotgun or a double-barreled variant. a Shovel can be used to destroy blocks or as melee weapons. The specialist can use a SMG or an atuo-shotgun and an uzi or grenade launcher. The medic can use a LMG or a double barrel shotgun with a riot shield. The Commando and Marksman may also choose to have a combat knife instead of a digging tool. The specialist can use machete instead of a digging tool and the medic can use a riot stick instead of a digging tool. The Commando may choose to use anti-personnel grenades, grenades or a parachute. The Christmas Update also added a block cannon which fires blocks that can cause harm or be used to build. Only the Engineer has access to the block cannon. The marksman can place land mines or a radar tower. The miner can place a pipe bomb or detonatable CF. The specialist can throw either a sticky grenade or a chemical bomb. The medic can place a med kit.
Development
The free-to-play, development version of Ace of Spades used Ken Silverman's Voxlap engine. In November 2012, UK developers Jagex announced that they had picked up the game for a December release, and had been working with the original creators for a year. This involved a change in engine over to an OpenGL-based engine.
In early versions of game, rounds were played on a randomly generated map, although the game also supported custom maps and included a map editor. In the first versions, the player used a semi-automatic rifle, and a pickaxe, which was used to remove individual blocks quickly, while the spade was used to remove a stack of 3 blocks slowly. The SMG and shotgun were also not released until later builds. The 0.75 build contained a single "class" for the Green and Blue teams, and players could choose between the semi-automatic rifle, the SMG, and the shotgun. Players could hold 3 grenades and a spade.
On January 29, 2013, Classic mode was launched to revive the mode from the Ace of Spades beta, leaving only one class, and one weapon: the rifle.
Release and reception
The game has an aggregated review score of 49 on Metacritic, citing generally unfavorable reviews. In November 2012, while still an open beta, Ace of Spades won game of the month on MPOGD. The final version of the game was released to Steam on 12 December, but was met with mixed critical reception with many critics claiming that the (free) beta version was superior. Adversely since the steam launch the game has received over 13 Thousand reviews 73% of which were positive. Over time this dropped to 68% overall and as of April, 2016 "Recent" reviews are "Overwhelmingly Negative" with the positive reviews dropped to 18%.
There were many fans of the game's beta version that were unhappy with the release of 1.0. This is mainly due to the shift in gameplay and the fact the game is now pay-to-play.
Ace of Spades was reviewed in the February 2013 issue of Edge Magazine, which found the official version to be "maniacally fast", and added that construction "feels pointless; barricades and buildings are meaningless when an enemy can jetpack over them or snipe straight through them, and the game moves too fast to allow complex strategising." Additionally, it said that the game's beta incarnation was slower, "offering a long war where players constructed secret tunnels and vast, defensible forts." Ultimately, the review decided that the official version of Ace of Spades "tries to reach a no man's land between considered construction and chaotic destruction, but its foundations aren't sturdy enough to hold any longterm weight."
Classic version
The original beta, or "classic", version of the game is still playable and popular, despite the new version's release. Because of the its popularity, there are various fan efforts keeping the classic version and its community alive, including a community site, game server hosting, custom server software, and a new game client.
One of these efforts is the Build and Shoot community, which provides similar things to the original Ace of Spades website, including download mirrors, a server list, a server hosting tool, a forum, news, an IRC chat room, and a Mumble voice chat server. Another fan-effort is OpenSpades, an open source, OpenGL-based client for Ace of Spades 0.75 and 0.76, made by "yvt". It features improved graphics, though has higher system requirements than the original client. It is also maintained by the Build and Shoot community. This is important as many new players view OpenSpades as a clone of the original beta, when in fact it is simply an alternate client.