Auto Assault [PC]

After what seemed like an eons-long beta period, NCSoft's latest massively multiplayer online game is ready for drivers. Action-heavy and fast-paced, Auto Assault looks to be off to a flying start, and offers attractive, satisfying fights against both the game's environment and other players. Although the combat and character development systems don't differentiate it from existing MMOs as strongly as we would have liked, Auto Assault's rapid-fire gameplay will endear itself to those without too much time on their hands.

Auto Assault is set in a post-apocalyptic future Earth, and comes with a complex backstory. Suffice it to say that much of the Earth's surface has been destroyed in the usual ill-advised way, and now the remnants of humanity fight mutants and bio-engineered half-humans for control of what resources remain. Pick your side, and you'll be thrust into combat with both the planet's hostile environment and, if you like, players from other races.

All that combat takes place in your car, which you design at character creation time. Instead of swords, guns, and bows, you have vehicle-mounted miniguns, flamethrowers, mortars, or mine-layers. Instead of boots, you have varying types of tires that perform differently on different surfaces. Kitting out a vehicle in Auto Assault is still a numbers game, but it's one that, thanks to the different subtleties and nuances of the half-action, half-RPG system, will provide a novel experience to jaded MMO fans.

Each of Auto Assault's three races offers four unique character classes. Whether it's deliberate or not we don't know, but Biomek and Human characters seem to have an easier time getting off the ground than Mutants, and that appears to be reflected in early player counts too. In other words, if you like a challenge and being in the minority, Mutant is the way to go -- otherwise, look at the other two.

On the graphics side, Auto Assault does well. It's not a technically brilliant game, but thanks to its realistic physics and well-realized post-apocalyptic setting, it creates plenty of atmosphere. Most small or moderate structures can be destroyed with little effort, so fights around buildings or encampments involve an almost comical amount of destruction, as stray shots take out whatever they happen to hit.

Auto Assault also steers clear of one major problem with sci-fi games in general, and post-apocalyptic games in particular: its color palette runs to more than brown and gray. At times, it's almost riotously colorful! While you might not think a game with this setting would feature zones that are fun to explore, you'd be wrong; Auto Assault offers much more than just generic wasteland after wasteland.

Vehicle handling also makes good use of the physics system, providing all kinds of opportunities for Dukes Of Hazzard-style stunting and dramatic handbrake turns. Running from place to place is less of a chore than in most MMOs -- you're speeding from location to location, and there's no shortage of enemies along the way. Real physics adds much to Auto Assault's gameplay, and although some other aspects of the game may have dated slightly, it's way ahead of its time on this issue.

So it's a shame this doesn't take more of a role in the game's combat. Sure, you have to maneuver your vehicle to keep an enemy in the arc of your front-mounted weapon. You'll also have to work to keep them in range, and fire off the odd special attack. But whether you hit or miss doesn't depend on your skill, beyond that -- it's based on your character's stats compared to your enemy's, and the roll of a die. Your turret-mounted weapon also tracks a targeted enemy wherever they go. In other words, it's not so different from the normal MMO auto-attack system.