This evening at PAX I met with Don Lim, general manager at Com2Us America. First off, if you were wondering why Baseball Slugger is now known as Homerun Battle 3D [App Store], Lim cited issues trademarking the original name because of how broad the title was, and explained that a few people felt they were being mislead due to the game’s name and thinking they were getting a full baseball game instead of a home run derby. If you aren’t familiar with the game, it’s has easily become one of our favorites.
Another interesting thing is the success that Homerun Battle 3D has seen since its release. Originally, their servers were only capable of handling around 200 concurrent players. Currently, they’re seeing 500-1500 players online worldwide 24 hours a day. The online play for Homerun Battle 3D was really perfectly executed and the stand-out feature for the game.
Riding on the multiplayer-enabled coat-tails of Homerun Battle 3D, Com2Us’s latest game is going to have the same instant multiplayer matching and worldwide ranking. Sniper Vs Sniper in its single player form has you scouting for enemies with binoculars, then switching to your sniper rifle and aiming with the accelerometer to take them out. (The binoculars give you a much wider view than the sniper scope.)
I wasn’t able to try multiplayer, because I was playing one of the only copies of the game in the wild, so there obviously wasn’t anyone to be matched up with. But, I got some in-depth descriptions of what to expect of the online component of the game.
There are two multiplayer modes, the first is “Alliance Attack" where players play together shooting enemies from a nearby building. At the end of the match, scores are added and whoever has the most kills wins. The second game style, which seemed much more interesting was the “1v1 Match". In this game mode, each player starts at a random location on opposite facing buildings. They must scan the opposing building with their binoculars to find their opponent and shoot them before they get shot.
It’s not that simple though, as firing your rifle gives away your location. Just because your opponent finds you first doesn’t mean they will win. They could only wound you, but their muzzle flash will reveal their location. If you quickly aim and return fire with a head shot, you will win.
Here is a video of the game, I’ve attempted to correct the color in iMovie, but it still has a blue tint to it not seen in the actual game largely due to terrible lighting conditions and a uncooperative screen protector on the demo phone:
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]
Sniper Vs. Sniper is still in development and is coming soon. When we get our own preview copies and are able to give multiplayer a spin we will post another (and much more high quality) video demonstrating how it works.
