Review: ShootMania Storm will rock you like a hurricane... because that's a type of storm
In a first-person shooter genre that's bogged down with modern warfare military clones, it's refreshing to have a game like ShootMania Storm. The Nadeo-developed title harkens back to the days of Unreal Tournament and Quake. ShootMania Storm is a twitch shooter filled with fast-paced, frantic combat and simple controls, but with unexpected strategy. It's not about a ton of weapons with 18-bajillion attachments. It's not about earning killstreaks to take out the whole map with a nuke. It's about the skill of the player. Your success will depend solely on your abilities in the field, where you are equally equipped with all the other players.
It's important to note that Nadeo is the team behind TrackMania – a racing game that ShootMania shares many similarities with. The players move fast, so the movement feels very race-like in nature. The controls are simple. Your movement is controlled by W, A, S, D or your four arrow keys; the left mouse button fires your weapon; and your right mouse button and/or space bar is used to jump and sprint. Those are the controls. There's no swapping between weapons, crouching, throwing grenades – none of that. All you have is your weapon, a few points of shielding (you are eliminated when your shields are gone) and your boost for sprinting.
As a matter of fact, there are currently only three weapons in the game. The Rocket Gun is the standard weapon, firing slower-moving projectiles that takes away one armor per hit. Firing the Rocket Gun at the ground causes a splash effect that will displace but not damage the enemy. Likewise, if you shoot at your own feet, you'll be knocked up into the air. The next weapon is the Nucleus; it's a short-range weapon that you will switch to automatically when you are in a building or tunnel. The Nucleus fires a ball that sticks to surfaces, exploding after a short amount of time or when an enemy walks over it. The last weapon is the Laser. It's a long-range attack (the way you snipe in the game) that eliminates enemies with one hit. Lasers are only equipped on certain pads on the map. When on a pad, you can't jump, and the right mouse button will zoom in instead.
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