Field Day hands-on - "Average Joes and Plain Janes against the world"
Not your regular nine-to-five
Fires are burning, explosions are exploding, and monsters are…monster-ing - it's shaping up to be a pretty bad day in your neighbourhood, and when the city's in ruins and there are no caped superheroes around, who you gonna call?
Your local police, apparently.
That's basically what Field Day is all about, because it's up to the ordinary folk to save the world when beasts are inexplicably roaming the streets and having a, well, field day.
Just another day at the office
Finnish studio Bit Odd's multiplayer entry into the wonderful world of mobile is putting real-life heroes front and centre here, with the roster of characters you can unlock ranging from construction workers to good ol' boys in blue.Sure, there are gargantuan fire-breathing monstrosities to fight and acid-spitting creepy crawlies to avoid out in the streets, but when you've got a handgun and your trusty motorbike, you too can save the day.
Honestly, though, while that seems to be the main premise for this PvP-slash-extraction MOBA-esque adventure, I'm not quite sure it's all too appealing for me personally.
No disrespect to the men and women putting their lives on the line out there, IRL, but I suppose it's because I like my action games filled with all kinds of cool costumes and fantastical characters - having some dude in a uniform duking it out against alien bugs just doesn't do it for me, in all honesty.
Still, that doesn't mean the action here isn't enjoyable, as it really does seem like the studio has devoted lots of TLC to every element - something you can expect from former Supercell devs.
No boring desk jobs here
This is especially true not just with the incredibly well-polished visuals and sound effects, but also with how every single thing out in the field seems to be completely interactive. I'm talking exploding crates, burning cars, and random teleportation devices - the whole map seems to be a living, breathing thing, not to mention all the monsters roaming around the city have minds of their own too.
Even seemingly insignificant things like having a gross bug explode all its inner bits on you can slow you down with its purple goo - that certainly adds an extra level of strategy to how you're supposed to reach your goal.
Right - the goal. The thing is, while you've been tasked by the powers-that-be to clean up the mean streets, you'll also need to collect coins, essences, and Cores - all of which are valuable resources other regular Joes are also on the hunt for.
This means you can target not just the big baddies but also your fellow countrymen - and adding a little bit of friendly fire means the stakes are higher than ever.
"No man left behind" - says no one here ever
Yes, the goal is to get in, get out, and leave everyone else behind. You can work together to take down the beasties, hoard all the rewards to yourself, and maybe even hurl a grenade or two onto the other players as you hightail it over to the extraction point helipad before anyone else does.
The competition is tough, and if you don't "get to the chopperrrr" in time, no one's coming back for you (there's a hilarious animation of your avatar bawling his eyes out when that happens).
Thankfully, each character you unlock has specific loadouts you can take advantage of to make missions easier, whether that's a motorbike for a quick getaway or a rocket launcher for that sweet killing blow.
What I appreciate about Field Day - at least in its current beta phase - is that it seems like you can unlock characters, perks, skills, and upgrades simply by progressing through the missions.
What I'm iffy about is the "Endurance" meter each character has - I feel like this will function as the energy system you often see in a lot of gacha RPGs, which is probably where the monetisation will come in (among other currency-related resources).
That said, I do find Field Day really enjoyable in its current form, mainly because everything just feels incredibly well-thought-out. The level of polish is pretty amazing for something that's not supposed to be officially launched yet, and with its portrait orientation and one-hand controls, I can easily see the potential for this to be the next big thing.
If you're curious about it and would love to give it a go too, Field Day is on regional soft launch at the moment, with more countries to follow soon!
