According to the "2023 China Mobile Game Category Development Research Report" released by Gamma Data, there is an obvious market demand for the domestic shooting category, and there are two reasons listed in the report: one is the lack of time and energy of users, and the other is that they have not found satisfactory products. On the other hand, among the top 150 mobile game markets in China, the share of shooting categories has maintained growth for many years.
In other words, the domestic shooter game plate is huge and has not yet reached the top.
In GameRes' view, the emergence of this phenomenon is closely related to two factors: on the one hand, the shooting category has undergone many evolutions in recent years, with the chicken game known as Shooting 2.0 and the Tarkov class 3.0, and the more generalized SOC category, plus the packaging of various themes, all of which have expanded the plate of the category;
In this context, NetEase has chosen a "I want it all" attitude to rush into the shooting mobile game track, and recently exposed a number of new shooting games, covering multiple sub-categories, focusing on survival and gold winning experience "Firefly Assault", focusing on the experience of survival and gold, "Seven Days World", "Code 56" focusing on the experience of the world......
In the traditional shooting category, NetEase also has a layout, and "Operation Apocalypse", which just got the version number a few days ago, belongs to this list.
01
"Operation Apocalypse" is NetEase's first 5V5 hero shooting mobile game, the game integrates hero skills into the traditional gun competition gameplay, so as to create a more diverse, purer and more enjoyable shooting competition thrill.
For players, the combination of hero + shooting is no stranger, and Overwatch, which was launched in 2016, has introduced the concept to the world, and the hero-oriented rather than gun-oriented shooting gameplay has made it a complete outlier, tearing a hole in the FPS position under the rule of traditional big factories.
The "heroes" are used as the connection points, which allows atypical shooter players to participate in the game. The heroic elements of Operation Apocalypse naturally have this kind of use, but its overall performance is closer to the traditional shooter that pursues accurate shooting, and the classic blasting gameplay of this type of game is still its main focus.
The game's blasting gameplay is called Star Core Blasting, where the attacker needs to deploy the Star Core at the designated location, and the defender needs to prevent the Star Core from being deployed or dismantle it before it detonates, and the attack and defense are switched after a certain turn.
The star core blasting mode basically revolves around information acquisition, gun shooting, tactical execution, and teamwork, and the basic process is manifested as the attacker's entry point and inventory, and the defender's obstruction of the entry point and prevention of inventory, and the specific implementation method relies on gun shooting and skill casting. In order to differentiate itself from traditional shooter gameplay, the game has made three important improvements:
(1) Hero skills
The presence of hero skills is the biggest variable that the game does with the classic gameplay.
At present, there are five heroes in the game, "Vanguard" is good at attacking and grabbing points, "Reconnaissance" is responsible for surveying enemy movements, "Support" provides Buff and healing, "Guard" focuses on protection, and "Tactics" tends to create interference and limit the enemy.
In the actual combat experience, players can fully appreciate the hero's strange demeanor, such as Thunder Wing, two seconds of invincible shield allows him to survive the enemy's bullet rain, players can use it to avoid the enemy's ultimate damage, can also be used as a bait when their own side lacks a reconnaissance position, the use of the way is not unique, the player needs to judge on the spot;
Other heroes also have their own uses, such as the water spirit reconnaissance of the tide spirit, the resurrection of the glow, the shield of the Valkyrie, the guns, the ice wall, the dust, the laser...... All kinds of skills and bullets are staggered back and forth on the field, and the skills of some heroes can even break through the limitations of the character's ability and jump onto the high platform, focusing on a surprise.
According to GameRes, it adds a variety of battlefield information game means for players, increasing the coolness of the game through gorgeous special effects and skill effects, and differentiated characters to meet the individual needs of players, and it also reduces the frustration of new players in such games, and they can use some functional heroes to slowly familiarize themselves with the rhythm of the game.
(2) The integration of oriental aesthetics and trendy sense of technology
Although hero skills are a bold reinvention of the game's traditional shooter gameplay, they are mostly tactical tools rather than direct sources of damage.
As a shooting mobile game based on PVP competition, short TTK is its feature, and the accuracy of spot shooting is still the key to determining the balance of victory and defeat, which also means that the game needs to put more thought into the shooting experience and shooting feedback. Judging from the several videos released by the official and players, the game has made a lot of designs in terms of sound effects and special effects for shooting, and there are different degrees of sound and picture feedback for empty guns, hitting the body, and headshots, perhaps it is the official "every firearm is carefully polished" and "millisecond-level gun sense adjustment" that makes CS legendary sniper KennyS sigh "Wonderfull".
The game is based on the future world view setting, and has made many bold and avant-garde transformations to the guns, some with the roaring sound and sparks of the motorcycle engine, and some of the guns are shining, and "cool" has become the unified cognition of players when they get guns.
The future elements of the game audio-visual experience also run through the character design and scene design, tight-fitting gel clothing, functional style clothing, which not only improve the convenience of action but also outline the body curve of the character, and the scene is decorated with multi-alloy aluminum panels and glass curtain walls. The whole scene and characters of the game are made of PBR materials, which simulates the lighting and material effects of the real world, and through the customized rendering of the production team, it presents the future battlefield excellently.
(3) Adapt to the convenient experience of mobile terminals
For those newcomers who are interested in competitive shooting but are worried about their lack of skills, Operation Apocalypse may be their first competitive shooter mobile game.
There are a lot of convenient design and guidance in the game, which is convenient for players to start, there is a navigation cursor on the ground at the beginning, which is convenient for players to understand the map structure, and the scope can be automatically opened when shooting, and the skill can be released with one click, and the system will automatically broadcast battlefield information, even if the player has not opened the microphone, he can also judge the situation on the field according to the information for the first time.
If the above design is to improve the ease of use of the tool, then some of the key points mentioned below are to reduce the player's learning cost from the bottom, the game map is relatively flat, less three-dimensional design, the entertainment mode is automatically full of armor, and the skill is free to purchase, so that the player's focus on the in-game economy is focused on the choice of guns.
The game also greatly shortens the time for the two sides to meet and exchange fire after the opening, and controls each game within 10 minutes.
02
Looking at the domestic shooting mobile game market in recent years, the traditional shooting gameplay is not dominant, and new games often add in other aspects, providing players with a smoother threshold to get started, or seizing the market segment through the division of the theme, and the two-dimensional + FPS is a typical example.
However, the core experience of PVP competitive shooters is still incomparable to other genres, throwing guns, opening scopes, pulling the trigger, and the sound effects of hitting behind enemies along with the sound of gunshots, which is the shooting experience pursued by many FPS players. The ever-changing battlefield is infinitely magnified, players must always pay attention to their position, avoid being exposed to the enemy's pre-set guns, be cautious in their steps, and always keep an eye out for sneak attacks from behind, after all, it doesn't have many ways to improve fault tolerance such as in-game growth, and every trivial mistake is enough to make players pay.
This kind of combat experience, which requires the player's full attention, and the joy of every enemy attack and victory, will never go out of style. It's just that in the face of new players with wider knowledge and more discerning tastes, it needs to be updated.
Upgrades to the audiovisual experience are common practice. More detailed modeling, better rendering schemes, these resources are more likely to produce a good result, but the aesthetic style that forms the game's memory points and the mysterious shooting feel are not, these two indicators will screen out a large number of similar products. The choice of "Operation Apocalypse" is quite ingenious, with a sense of futuristic technology and oriental aesthetics as the keynote, and at the same time fits the preferences of today's young people, the flamboyant appearance of firearms, the rockery, wood and stone pavilions decorated in all corners of the map, and even the Chinese style in the character appearance design, which can undoubtedly become a highlight of the game.
In GameRes' view, the core of the game's changes is to reduce some unnecessary learning costs on the basis of retaining the game's shooting coolness, and at the same time strengthen the game strategy through different hero designs, making the game durable and durable.
The excitement of precise shooting, the smooth rhythm and operation feedback of the game, and the variety of skill coordination are the core of the game's shooting gameplay, and it is also what distinguishes it from other shooting categories.
However, for PVP competitive shooters, the construction of player ecology is still the top priority. There are a variety of play modes in the game, such as individual battles that emphasize shooting accuracy and crazy nights with melee attack modes, both of which allow players to experience different game charms, while ranked mode puts forward more detailed requirements for players, such as the choice of economy in the field, the use of skills, and so on. The game ensures that the threshold for getting started is low enough and there are enough cool points, so as to attract more players into the game, and at the same time, through the division of modes and heroes, it ensures the depth of the game, provides advanced space, and divides the gradient between players of different levels.
The maintenance of a good competitive environment for the game, the freshness of new heroes, new maps, and new modes, and even the creation of peripheral ecology such as e-sports, these are the key factors that affect the long-term foothold of the game.
epilogue
With the successive layout of many manufacturers in the field of shooting, the shooting category will inevitably set off a bloody battle. Although "Operation Apocalypse" avoids relatively popular sub-tracks such as survival and gold medals, SOC, it also means that it needs harder basic qualities to offset the additional points of other sub-categories. From the current point of view, the official display of the game's ultra-high lower limit, which is expected to shake the existing shooting mobile game pattern, as for the upper limit, it depends on its performance in the upcoming multi-party melee.