Review | Eximius: Seize the Frontline
Eximius: Seize the Frontline is one of the latest forays into the Real-Time Strategy mixed with the First Person Shooter genre that has seen several recent attempts. Few video games have managed to do this well, with the recently taken offline Disintegration being a prime example. However, this hybrid genre has worked in the past, with two of the best examples being Savage 2 and Natural Selection 2. Can Eximius: Seize the Frontline do enough to revive this style of gameplay?
* extremely halo wars commander voice *: ALL UNITS
RTS games have had a resurgence in recent years, with games such as Age of Empires and Command and Conquer getting fantastic remasters and the Stronghold series bringing out its first game in seven years. It is nice to see this revival as RTSs were arguably the original esport thanks to StarCraft, but in the intervening years, MOBAs and FPSs have taken over with the likes of Call of Duty, Counter Strike, LoL and DOTA, pulling the majority of viewers.
Eximius: Seize the Frontline attempts to merge these genres into one seamless style of play. The developers are taking clear inspiration from Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 4’s “Commander View”. All this comes together to make Eximius: Seize the Frontline feel like a cross between a Command and Conquer game and Tom Clancy’s EndWar with a dash of Planetside 2.
While on paper, this sounds glorious, the actual execution is underwhelming. For Eximius Seize the Frontline, it seems as though the developers put too much effort into the Real-Time Strategy aspect and not enough into the First Person Shooter, with bad aiming mechanics and no real thought into what your character on the ground could do to support base building.
As a ground soldier, you will be in the direct line of fire, securing necessary locations, defending them from attackers, capturing flags and obtaining supplies to bolster your team. You have your standard set of FPS weapons, but the real catch here is that there are several battlesuits for you to get in, each with its own set of skills and weaponry. This begins to make the game feel a little Titanfall-esque. You have the Exploit Vanguard that can hack into enemy turrets and disable their vehicles or deploy a cloud of nanobots, hurting any who get caught within. The Orion for those that like a stealthy approach using holograms and slowing their enemies. Aegis for the support players, equipped with a heal, a shield and the ability to reduce allies cooldown. Alternatively, you may choose a Berserker or Assault Vanguard for a heavier hitting (these are just a few of the Battle Suits).
The battles you face as infantry can feel tactical; there is a pretty high skill requirement to Eximius; there is a lot more than just running and gunning. You must ensure you have the correct type of firepower and movement abilities to go up against the opposing team. When online, you’ll need to have effective communication with your teammates, always watching out for surprise attacks from other players and managing who does what when it comes to the considerable amount of infantry and vehicles. You can never underestimate the other side, as the game does an excellent job at obscuring the opposition’s forces.
I don’t know what the “Digital Mavericks” skill does but it sounds RAAAAD.
As the commander, you oversee the battle from a birds-eye view; alongside this, it is possible to transfer from commander to infantry officer seamlessly. Nevertheless, you will mostly want to remain as commander. This is as building up a base, monitoring your resources and tech-tree, all while training infantry and vehicle units to help your squad in battle really take precedence to the impact you can have on the ground. While in a single-player game, you have a small amount of control over the A.I. teammates, but this is very little; you cannot even tell them to capture points, you have to do this yourself or deploy engineer infantry. In fact, this makes single-player more complicated than online play.
Less Halo Wars here and more Battlefield.
Each of these aspects alone would probably work quite well. But for Eximius, it feels like the developers are trying to take from too many games at once, and it simply has not worked well when they are all trying to mesh together. At first, it is fun to see the base building, army recruitment and First Person Shooting all come as one. However, the learning curve is far too steep for a new game in a super niche genre. The fact of the matter is that if you are not playing online with friends, it is unplayable due to the lack of control over your A.I. teammates; you can only control the wider army you build or a single unit. Even when you are online, you have to make sure you have a team that works well together. If your teammates aren’t communicating this is not the type of game where you can carry your team to a win.
All this said, Eximius: Seize the Frontline seems to have placed itself in an excellent position for a niche audience with this mashup of genres. The graphics are triple-A quality, the music is top-notch, and the range of maps, weapons and abilities keeps the player coming back. This is an ambitious game, and we shall have to see if Eximius: Seize the Frontline ends up as another quality but short-lived addition to the RTS/FPS genre.
