A fast paced 3v3 Arena shooter with a large emphasis on movement, abilities and classes.
You have the choice between Shift, Vector and Gunn. Think of these as the Light, Medium and Heavy classes respectively. With each class having its own abilities and movement properties, they all have their own purpose in the game(I'll be specifically talking about the CTF game mode, as TDM is a lot more loose with your choices).
Shift is a faster, smaller and harder to hit target. This combined with its healing abilities makes it a hard enemy to catch and eliminate, making Shift the go-to for assisting the capture of the flag.
Vector is the medium class, with abilities that assist in one-on-one combat as well as making its way around the maps. This guy will be the one doing the heavy lifting in CTF, as it can eliminate flag defenders in a quick manner using it's very combat focused abilities. One of the most potent and most versatile abilities, not only for the class, but for the entire game would be the grappling hook. Using the grappling hook, Vector can grapple onto enemies, pulling itself to melee range and deal a huge chunk of damage instantly. This combo of grapple + melee is definitely the bread and butter of the vector class, as it is the fastest TTK combo in the game and it also lets you pick up any health drops you might get from killing the enemy. The grappling hook can also be used to latch onto most surfaces in the game, which lets you start an extremely fast wall ride that is faster than the Shift class.
What you combine with your grappling hook depends on what you're going for, but for a very combat heavy combo that absolutely wrecks house, the damage booster ability takes 15/120 of your health and boosts your damage by 50% for 5 seconds. With your grappling hook and melee combo being your close ranged guaranteed kill, using damage booster with a longer ranged weapon can make you a threat at medium to long ranges as well.
Gunn is a big large tank, reminiscent of reinhardt from Overwatch or Heavy from TF2. As the designated defender class, Gunn is decked out with shields, traps as well as a pseudo-grappling hook that grabs enemies to you, which is another nasty way to melee someone right after. His traps also slow you down in an area, which leaves any squishy little flag grabbers vulnerable to your team.
As you may have noticed, my words for Gunn and Shift were very brief, that's mostly cause I've almost exclusively played Vector as it seems to be the most versatile and potent class as of the February 2024 Steam Next Fest open beta.
For movement, you have dashing, sliding, wallriding as well as rail grinding. Combining all these movement types can get you up to some ludicrous speeds when used right, namely the wallride doesn't seem to have an upper limit on speed. But when landing on a rail or starting a slide, they will take you back to a more sensible speed that isn't as crazy. Using all these to traverse the map gives the player near infinite choices when running for the enemy flag, or chasing down to get your own flag back.
To sum it up, Contenders: Arena, when mastered is an amazing experience that gets the blood pumping as you either defend your flag, chase down the enemy flag or just gun down opponents in the chaotic battlefield. The game has huge potential as a fun competitive shooter much like Unreal Tournament or Quake but for the modern audience.
You have the choice between Shift, Vector and Gunn. Think of these as the Light, Medium and Heavy classes respectively. With each class having its own abilities and movement properties, they all have their own purpose in the game(I'll be specifically talking about the CTF game mode, as TDM is a lot more loose with your choices).
Shift is a faster, smaller and harder to hit target. This combined with its healing abilities makes it a hard enemy to catch and eliminate, making Shift the go-to for assisting the capture of the flag.
Vector is the medium class, with abilities that assist in one-on-one combat as well as making its way around the maps. This guy will be the one doing the heavy lifting in CTF, as it can eliminate flag defenders in a quick manner using it's very combat focused abilities. One of the most potent and most versatile abilities, not only for the class, but for the entire game would be the grappling hook. Using the grappling hook, Vector can grapple onto enemies, pulling itself to melee range and deal a huge chunk of damage instantly. This combo of grapple + melee is definitely the bread and butter of the vector class, as it is the fastest TTK combo in the game and it also lets you pick up any health drops you might get from killing the enemy. The grappling hook can also be used to latch onto most surfaces in the game, which lets you start an extremely fast wall ride that is faster than the Shift class.
What you combine with your grappling hook depends on what you're going for, but for a very combat heavy combo that absolutely wrecks house, the damage booster ability takes 15/120 of your health and boosts your damage by 50% for 5 seconds. With your grappling hook and melee combo being your close ranged guaranteed kill, using damage booster with a longer ranged weapon can make you a threat at medium to long ranges as well.
Gunn is a big large tank, reminiscent of reinhardt from Overwatch or Heavy from TF2. As the designated defender class, Gunn is decked out with shields, traps as well as a pseudo-grappling hook that grabs enemies to you, which is another nasty way to melee someone right after. His traps also slow you down in an area, which leaves any squishy little flag grabbers vulnerable to your team.
As you may have noticed, my words for Gunn and Shift were very brief, that's mostly cause I've almost exclusively played Vector as it seems to be the most versatile and potent class as of the February 2024 Steam Next Fest open beta.
For movement, you have dashing, sliding, wallriding as well as rail grinding. Combining all these movement types can get you up to some ludicrous speeds when used right, namely the wallride doesn't seem to have an upper limit on speed. But when landing on a rail or starting a slide, they will take you back to a more sensible speed that isn't as crazy. Using all these to traverse the map gives the player near infinite choices when running for the enemy flag, or chasing down to get your own flag back.
To sum it up, Contenders: Arena, when mastered is an amazing experience that gets the blood pumping as you either defend your flag, chase down the enemy flag or just gun down opponents in the chaotic battlefield. The game has huge potential as a fun competitive shooter much like Unreal Tournament or Quake but for the modern audience.