Running with Rifles

Gameplay

Running with Rifles is a top down shooter where the player takes on the role of an infantryman during a large conflict in multiple different regions for either the Greenbelts, the Greycollars, or the Brownpants.

Running with Rifles main feature is its extensive single-player campaign, with adjustable settings for the enemy and friendly AI. While in game, friendly AI and units will counterattack and defend territory regardless of the players actions. Although a commander designates attack orders for the player's faction, the open world mechanic gives the player the ability to run around and capture any point on the map at any time, and disregarding the commander's orders will not incur a penalty. On harder difficulties, the player will need to flank, communicate, attack and defend simultaneously to counteract the enemy forces. The game is open ended and the player has access to powerful vehicles, the ability to command small squads of soldiers, and to call in powerful artillery barrages that allow for many different play styles. In game looting of enemies for supplies, and sabotaging the enemies's important structures and buildings will also play a role in winning the battle.

The player gains exp that is persistent throughout deaths, which unlocks the use of the Radio to call in reinforcements or fire support. The player receives new equipment with progression in the game: body armour, and different primary weapons in the armoury, as well as claymores, c4 explosives, several types of deployables, ranging from a 0.50cal emplacement to a mortar deploy, as well as a spawn point deploy. Vehicles available to use will vary depending on the map, however at a high enough rank players will be able to call in important vehicle assets throughout use of the radio. Multiplayer is available through either self hosted servers, or official "Invasion" (co-op) servers, where EXP and RP (the in game currency) will persist throughout all Invasion servers

The game is described as a simple to jump into and play type of game, and while it only takes a few hours to get used to the basic mechanics of the game, many hours can be spent exploring the finer details of the game. The game has been described as a modern-day Cannon Fodder. The single-player has the same structural play as the multi-player version so players who prefer solo play won't have to worry about missing out on key features of the game.

Game modes

There are nine different game modes consisting of "Team Elimination", "Teddy Hunt", "Classic", "Deathmatch", "Minimodes", "Invasion", "Quick Match", "Dominance", and "Man vs. World".

"Invasion" is a co-op game mode similar to the campaign (Greenbelts, Brownpants, or Graycollars) where players start with just a single base and must capture the entire map to achieve victory. The map selection rotates throughout all 12 campaign maps. There are several Official servers around the world which host this game mode. Official servers also feature persistent experience points, and items for each player character across all servers and rotate factions every few months during a major update.

"Quick Match" sets up a short match where players can quickly make adjustments to their rank and RP before playing a map of their choice. The player's rank can be set so that all stock weapons are unlocked automatically and players can join any faction they want before the game begins. Like most game modes, there are no rules to what players cannot capture, so all capture points are capturable immediately.

"Classic" is similar to Quick Match but with a few minor differences; a player can only capture one marked base at time, map rotation and a timer is in play.

"Dominance" is a PVPVE mode similar to both Classic and Quick Match combined. Currently featured online in the Official Dominance servers list.

"Team Elimination", a PvP exclusive mode where the players cannot respawn upon death until one team completely eliminates all players in the other team, unlike other game modes. There is also a destroyable side objective available to each team which will award victory (regardless of prior kills) upon destruction. Currently only hosted on online dedicated servers.

"Teddy Hunt" is similar to Capture the Flag in which teams needs to retrieve and secure a teddy bear in order to win. In Teddy Hunt special crates are scattered around the map which will drop a teddy bear upon destruction. In order for teams to score points, the teddy bears must retrieved from the crates and sold to the Armory. The crates are protected by a neutral A.I. which will attack both teams in close proximity. The teams must prevent the opposing team from securing the teddy bears while attempting to secure the same teddy bears for themselves. When the timer runs out, the team with the most points wins.

"Deathmatch" is a PvP game mode where the player gains points for enemy kills. The player with the most points by the end of the round wins.

"Minimodes" features changing objectives which take from the other game modes. In "Minimodes" there are many sub-objectives that involve all the other game modes. For the match to work, there must be a minimum of 2 players at all times.

"Man vs. World" is a purely single player campaign in which the player is the sole soldier and has to capture all of the bases in order to progress to the next stage. Permadeath for the player and enemy AI is enabled and there are 2 difficulty levels.

Development

Modulaatio started as a one-man independent development studio ran by Pasi Kainiemi. He started developing Running with Rifles early 2011. The game left pre-alpha on July 18, 2011. The game received minor updates during alpha before continuing into beta on September 14, 2011 where it spent most of its life.

In 2011 he made the game available for pre-order. Early 2012 Jack Mayol joined the team and they decided together to push the game far beyond what was originally planned.
The first Linux port was made publicly available and the game was put on Steam Greenlight, where it was later accepted and put onto the Steam Store. Two new King of The Hill maps were added and a single-player Invasion mode was added/enhanced during 2013. In 2014 the game was released onto Steam's Early Access platform and the first Mac (OS X) port is made available.

In 2015, on April 2, the game left Steam's Early Access/left beta and was officially released. Updates for the game are still being released and worked on as of 29 September 2016

Reception

Running with Rifles has a 78/100 rating on the review aggregator site Metacritic, based off 4 reviews from critics. Kotaku writer Kirk Hamilton said the game is similar to both Battlefield and Hotline Miami.