Gold Express

Review

Across the top of the Main Menu screen, you’ll find: Home, Play, Characters and Black Market. You can also find some scrolling information underneath these tabs. Home will bring you back to the main menu screen by selecting it. Play is where you choose Game Mode and Tutorials; under Game Mode you have the option to choose to Play as Extractor, Play as Watcher, or Custom Game. Selecting Tutorials will then take you through some videos explaining how the game works. For each video you watch, you will earn you fifty coins for a grand total of six hundred coins.

Characters is where you’ll find the different characters you can play as; there are two categories, Extractor and Watcher. There are six Extractors and four Watchers currently on offer, although some will need unlocking before you can choose them. Selecting one of the characters will then open Appearance, Skills, Upgrade and Background. Appearance is where you can change the character’s look; most of these will need to be unlocked. The new appearance will depend on how you unlock it; some appearances can be bought off the Black Market, some can be received when leveling up that character, and others can be obtained when opening a Classic Supply Chip (loot box).

Both the Extractors and Watchers have their own Initiative Skill and Passive Skill. The character named Shadow has Smoke Bomb Initiative Skill and Decoding Master Passive Skill; there are also Shareable Skills. Currently I haven’t been able to gain any new Skills but there are eleven Shareable Skill modules for upgrading your character. Upgrade is where you can upgrade your character’s level; the maximum level a character can reach is Level Six. Upgrading will cost Enhanced Cores which can be bought off the black market for twenty-five coins per Enhanced Core. It will take more and more enhanced cores each time you upgrade your character. Background is where you’ll find some information on each of the characters and their past and present. In the Black Market you’ll find Featured, Characters, Appearance and Enhanced Cores. Here you’ll be able to buy and unlock new characters, etcetera.

To play, you can select Play and choose to play as either an Extractor or a Watcher, or a Custom game. In the bottom right corner, you can select Match or Random Match (EXP+20%) for a game. It will also display how many Extractors and Watchers there are currently waiting for a game. If you’re lucky and have some friends, then you can send them an invite!

Playing as an Extractor you will be required to find the Data Miners scattered around the arena, then extract Data Cubes from them. Once you have a Data Cube you will need to upload it at a Data Warehouse. Seven data cubes are required to have the Flying Trucks come and help the Extractors escape. The Flying Trucks will also come if there is only one Extractor left standing. To escape you must stand in the light underneath one of two flying trucks.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? I mean, four Extractors against one Watcher, and you only require seven data cubes uploading before help comes and you escape. However, the data miners and data warehouses can be infected with a virus from the Watcher. Trying to extract or upload any data cubes at an infected data warehouse will result in you being injured and the data warehouse being locked down. If this happens, it will also alert the Watcher to your current position. You can attempt to clean a virus from either of the data miners or warehouses and if successful you can then upload your data cube. It takes time to clean, extract or upload all while you have a Watcher running around searching for you.

You can hear when a Watcher is close-by through their movement, so you might want to run off and hide for a short time until it’s safe to go back and continue extracting or uploading. If you think to yourself, “I’ll just find a nice spot to hide and let the other Extractors do all the work, and then make a dash for the flying trucks when they arrive,” then you’re going to be in for a surprise; this will start the Punishment Countdown which will reveal your location continuously to the Watcher until the Punishment Countdown is over.

Working together with the other Extractors is a must, not only for getting those data cubes uploaded, but should the Watcher get their grubby mitts on you, then you’ll need your fellow Extractor’s help. If you’re executed by the Watcher, you will transform into a digital form. Watchers can’t see you in this form so you can make your way to a fellow Extractor and have them treat you, returning you back to your normal self. There is a time limit on getting help and should this reach zero before you have received treatment, then it’s game over. As a Watcher you’re required to prevent the Extractors from collecting and uploading the data cubes. Kill them before they can upload seven data cubes, and stop them from escaping once the flying trucks appear.

In the options there’s Control (Key and Mouse Binds for Extractors and Watchers), Sound (Mute On/Off, Main, Music, Effect Volume and Chase Music), Graphics (Video Quality, In-Game New Player Guide Until Level 15, Screen Mode, FPS Limit, Antialiasing, Shadow and Texture Quality), Language (English, Chinese, French, Russian and German), Voice (Voice Chat Switch, Voice Chat Mode, Chat Key and Voice Volume of Teammates), and Keybinds (Remap shortcut keys to your own preference, although this is currently under testing and may cause some issues)

It’s quite an interesting game and enjoyable to play. I have only played as an Extractor so far, but I have found it hard to find games. There are servers in four different regions: US, EU, AP, CN. I’ve only played on the EU servers, so I can’t comment on the other regions; it could be that I’m trying to find a game at the wrong time. If you have a bunch of friends to play with you then I could see this being quite good fun.

The game is currently in Early Access, but it plays well, runs smoothly, and I’ve had no lag in-game. The graphics are very nice, sounds and music are also good. It’s just a shame there’s not more folks playing but hopefully as the game progresses through Early Access then more folks will get the game and bolster the player count.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!