S4 League:First impressions

RATING: 7.5/10
VERDICT: UNIQUELY FULFILLING EXPERIENCE
REVIEW BY: KRISHNA BAHIRWANI
PUBLISHER: Aeria Games
GENRE: Third person shooter
PLATFORMS: Windows PC (Free)

S4 League is a fast-paced third person shooter with an anime asthetic that packs a lot of depth. The game is filled with multiple intricate and complex systems for you to master, everything from enchanting or upgrading your equipment to make it stronger to the different types of game modes are a part of the game. The game also offers a lot of customization and tries to give players as many choices as possible right from cosmetics to weaponry everything is for you to personalize. The game also does not restrict you to a single weapon, at any time you are allowed to have three weapons simultaneously. Each weapon has its own unqiue mapping and control which makes the experience with each weapon unique.

Pros:
l Uniqueness of the Genre
l Caters to the needs of every player
l Balance Regardless of Character Progression
l Free to play and not pay2win
l Extremely light and small file size
l Deincentivizes Cash Purchases
Cons
l Low amount of English speaking players although when you play with your friends in a group this is not too much of a problem.
l Graphics could have been a little better if not more.
l Disconnection from the internet closes the client kicking you from the game

Game Modes
There are nine game modes you can choose from
Arcade Mode
The Arcade mode is primarily the single player/co-op part of the game where you kill waves of non-playable characters or NPCs. There are three sub-modes available : Mission Arcade, Scenario Arcade and Conquest.
Battle Royal
In this game mode,you play without a team and it is "free-for-all", with your objective being to gather as many kills as you can.
Captain Mode
The Captain Mode is basically just a team deathmatch where you must eliminate as many of the opposing captains as you can in a given timespan.
Chaser Mode
For a fixed amount of time each player gets to become a chaser accumilating points killing everybody else, when you are not the chaser, your objective is to kill the chaser or to survive the timespan that that particular chaser is in play, both of which earn you points.The chaser is gifted with better attack, defense and reload speed.After everybody gets a chance to be the chaser, the game ends with the person having procured the highest points being the victor.
Conquest Mode
This is a mode where you play defensive either alone or with upto three of your friends, defending a cube which is being destroyed by waves of non-playable characters. If you succeed in defending all the waves of your enemies without letting them destroy the Cube, you land up earning a Cube Capsule.
Deathmatch
The classic mode of any shooter, the Deathmatch needs no introduction. Team up with friends or strangers to go up against another team for a fun multiplayer experience, where each team tries to eliminate the other
Practice
As the name suggests, this mode is to get familiar with the game and puts you up against unmanned guns that are constantly firing guns. The rewards are very little in this mode and is meant for practice with new weapons
Siege Mode
In this mode, you along with your teammates, take on another team to take control of specific capture points. How long you can maintain control of as many of the three designated points, determines if you are the victor in the end.
Touchdown
This is the mode when a third person shooter meets american football as each team is trying to capture the Fumbi and take it to the enemies goal post to score a point, the only difference is that the defenders have guns!


Reliance on Skill vs Time Spent
A big problem with the way online games are designed today is that they reward players based on how much time they spend on a game therefore making players with more time always at the top, discouraging casual players from playing. S4 League doesn't make that mistake, if you manage to master the intricacies of the game early on there is no reason why a player who has been playing the game for two years before you will have any advantage.

Microtransactions
As free to play games become more and more popular, microtransactions or the ability to purchase in-game virtual goods via micropayments is becoming a popular method for developers to monetize their projects. There are very few games in the industry that do micro transactions right, S4 League is one of them. S4 League allows you to buy everything via in-game currency to create a perfect balance between paying and non-paying players. The game also does not sell power as there are minimal benefits from goods purchased using cash as compared to what you earn in-game. This makes players feel like the game is fair and does not leave them with a feeling that they are just paying to play constantly.
Extremely low file size
We live in the era of high definition digitization, where almost every game we play requires us to wait a day or two if not more to play because of the high file size and the shift from DVD to digital downloads, followed by heavy updates in the future, while this may greatly improve the graphics and make them more lifelike this is not the same as aesthetics.
Beginner friendly
The game is extremely beginner friendly allowing you to experiment with a lot of choices as soon as you join the game. You start out with 30,000 PEN which is the in-game currency needed to buy items for your character, the cost for an item is 645 PEN for four hours of in-game time, which is an amount you roughly earn back within an hour of gameplay.

Pro Developer comment
"S4 League caters to every type of audience. Whether you're a video game enthusiast or someone who simply prefers to dress your character in a pretty outfit, S4 League feels rewarding in every regard. The reward factor compounds itself in that its multi dimensional - killing another player or winning a match feels rewarding to a player because the skill ceiling is what makes this a reality, furthermore, in order to win, team effort is required. This creates an atmosphere where every player in a team respects one another. The use a cross-team chat platform further encourages playful banter between the two teams. The game avoids anti-fun elements such as instant death, and puts less emphasis on passive cover-based gameplay. Therefore, the reward element is not simply on the individual level, but also on the larger team level.Important game elements such as pacing have been paid attention to, keeping the game consistently fast paced and very transparent in terms of gameplay. Another tricky element that the developers have played with is the variety of combos available with each weapon - ranging over 72 different weapon types and yet maintaining an intricately woven balance amongst each of them, taking adequate care to not make one weapon significantly more powerful or even easier than the other. The basics of the game are relatively simple, however mastery is something that takes dedication and commitment - something that not many games today exhibit."
Akhilesh Maitra, Game Developer at a Ragnarok Emulation Software, rAthena