System Requirements 1.6GHz CPU 512MB RAM 10GB Hard Drive GeForce Ti4200 or ATI Radeon 8500 or better Direct Sound compatible card 56K or faster internet ESRB Rated Teen for alcohol references, blood and violence Auto Assault is MMORPG made by NCSoft (Guild Wars, City of Heros/Villains). Though technically it’s more of a driving/carmageddon style game than your typical Role Playing Game. This game features the Havok 2 engine, which allows you to destroy the terrain and have enemies bounce off your car with realistic physics effects. If you can’t get enough of the game they even made a downloadable card game version. You get a free online deck with the standard version and three decks with the Special Edition.

Game Play

There are three factions, which offer unique abilities. Humans, Biomek and Mutants. Although you get to design a character, you’ll spend most of your time driving around in your car. You can customize the look of your vehicle and as you destroy things you’ll find parts and scrap to hop up your ride and boost your weaponry. You can get quests from NPC’s to get some money and rewards. You can also battle players and join other players on raids. Like many RPG’s you can level up and spend skill points to raise your attributes. There are four areas to raise Combat (weapons), tech (armor), theory (power), and perception (critical hits & detection). Some skills are reserved for specific factions/races. You can create and join clans and go on raids with online buddies. If you don’t want to race or go on raids, you can do quests from NPC’s. The quests vary but most of the ones I have done have asked me to kill a certain number of various kind of enemy.

How is this game like Carmageddon?

Carmageddon was a racing game that rewarded you for hitting people, dogs and cows. Auto Assault has various medals you can earn. I have gotten some medals for killing wild life, enemies and having my car in the air for 5 seconds or longer.

Graphics

The graphics in this game are pretty good. The cars and characters are pretty detailed and the cars are totally customizable. The world areas I have been to are a little dark and dreary. Nothing too incredibly detailed but maybe that’s to ease the pain for dial-up players. The destructible environment is cool and the explosions look nice.

Sound

The background music in this game is good and sets the mood. (It’s upbeat techno music.) The Special Edition version comes with the sound track. The guns and creatures have unique sounds. All the NPC’s have scripted text so there is no voice acting.

On-Line Play

The servers are not very populated so the lag is very minimal. There are lots of character slots so you can create many characters. In town you can setup a clan for five coins. Like many MMORPG’s you have the ability to add buddies and chat with people in the game. There is a monthly fee of $15 to play; this can be paid by credit or game cards.

Appropriateness

This game has violence but it’s not gory. (-3.5) There is no death for players, when your car crashes a friendly plane comes by and drops it off at the nearest base. (I’d like this feature for my car insurance!) Since this is an online game there may be some swearing from other players online. Fortunately you can block annoying users. Lastly this game like many RPG’s gets docked for insufficient clothing for female characters. Not only is the clothing tight but the skimpy shirts the main human female is wearing has slits in it exposing her cleavage. (-3.5)

Final Thoughts

Auto Assault is a fun game for people who like car games, it has many popular MMORPG features. The quests are fun but are often repetitive and the servers are pretty empty. Hopefully more people will join but from what I saw there were lots of NPC’s and few real people.

Final Ratings

Game Play 15/20 Graphics 8/10 Sound 7/10 Stability 5/5 Controls 5/5 Appropriateness 43/50

Final Score 83%