Rick Lane
It’s tempting to frame Straftat as a throwback to an older, better time for the multiplayer FPS, when the lingo was coded in frags and gibs and sucking it down, when satisfaction was drawn entirely from performance rather than some convoluted, artificial system of progression. Not only would this be inaccurate, but it would also do a disservice to what Straftat truly is, namely a wild overcorrection in response to the direction of modern multiplayer gunfests, one that careens straight through retro stations to arrive somewhere new and exciting.
Developed by the creators of urban exploration game Babbdi and boasting a similar visual style, Straftat pits two players against each other in quickfire deathmatch tournaments. Taking place on bite-sized maps, each match is a best-of-three affair, where the first player to win a predetermined number of matches (six by default) can claim ultimate victory against their mutual murderer.
The setup couldn’t be simpler. And what makes Straftat so riveting is that these tournaments are assembled from a massive array of maps. At the minimum, you’ll have 70 arenas at your disposal, and if you’re willing to part with a fiver for the DLC (the base game is completely free) this will double the total to 140.
These maps vary wildly in theme and structure. Arenas range from abstract cat-and-mouse killboxes where victory can be as much in outthinking your opponent as outgunning them, through “realistic” slices of streets and apartment blocks with echoes of Half-Life 2 and Call of Duty 4, to absurd gimmick levels that will have you squealing like a delighted toddler as you try to figure out what exactly is going on.
It’s hard to know where to start with this deluge of level design, but the maps that stand out most are those with an ice theme. There are several of these, but to take ICE_03 as just one example, it sees you dumped onto an undulating island of frozen water bobbing perilously in a lake of lava that gradually melts this ice into chunks. When the match starts, it dumps a big pile of random weapons onto the map, which all slide over ice’s bumps and into its crevices. Hence, you need to race to a weapon and try to kill your foe with it before you’re plunged into the inferno below – all while slipping around. This results in hilarious, madcap scrambles where luck and reactivity play as much of a role in victory as raw shooter skill.
Although the ice levels stand out as the most absurd, very few of the game’s other maps are uninteresting. Neo_Arena_6, for example, sees both players hopping across floating blocks to two high-rise buildings dotted with sniper rifle pickups. It’s like a compact, deathmatch variant of Unreal Tournament’s Facing Worlds, but there’s a twist. Both towers feature portal-doors that teleport you to the opposite structure, letting you sneak up on your opponent while they’ve got their sights trained down scopes.
Even the more trad arenas brim with tactical potential. WestVillage_04 is a seaside shanty town comprising a small cluster of buildings, where you chase each other through twisting streets and across corrugated-iron rooftops with pistols and submachine guns. HK_02 takes a chunk of commercial Hong Kong, where you weave a deadly dance around a row of shops with assault rifles and grenades. As you try to blast each other though multiple shop windows, the glass explodes as if you’re in John Woo’s lowest-budget film. And since you can toss grenades over the buildings, you can try your luck and attempt to blow up your opponent before you’ve even seen them.
On the subject of weapons, I should point out that the selection is almost as varied and silly as the maps. Among more familiar pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers are blunderbusses, elephant guns, flamethrowers, miniguns, tasers, laser rifles, plasma pistols, swords and more. Indeed, many maps are defined by the weapons they make available. One map revolves almost entirely around proximity mines, with you both building your own personal minefield while trying to find a way through your opponent’s. Another prioritises “repulsor” pistols which do no damage but push your opponent around, forcing you to try to shunt them over the edge of the map.
Cycling through all this variety is tremendous fun, especially given the speed at which Straftat moves. Individual rounds rarely last longer than thirty seconds, while an entire six-match tourney will usually wrap within ten minutes. It’s a fantastic lunch break game, though equally capable of keeping you hooked for hours as you dive back in for another last go.
It is worth pausing, however, to put Straftat’s diversity aside for one moment, and ask the hard question “Is the combat any good?”. The answer is that it’s mostly excellent, although its inherent scrappiness sometimes works against it. Movement recalls Half-Life and its sequel in how sleek and clinical it feels. But Straftat weaves some acrobatics into this, adding the ability to skate lightly on walls, and perform a wicked knee-slide that is sometimes tactically advantageous and always feels incredible. Headshotting an opponent with a revolver as I skidded past them like a kid presented with a polished floor is perhaps the most satisfying act I’ve performed in a game this year.
Weapons too, are largely gratifying to wield, though their handling is less refined than the movement. In fairness, many of them are designed specifically to feel tinny and rattly, like that gun that fires ball-bearings in the Metro series. For the most part, this pairs well with Straftat’s grimy, ramshackle aesthetic. But some weapons, like the elephant gun for example, would benefit from meatier feedback. Melee weapons need the most work, lacking proper bodily animations for attacks. All that said, Straftat does have excellent explosions, again recalling Half-Life 2’s concussive bursts that are perfectly primed for propelling ragdolls through the air.
There are a few other nits I could pick. I wish the maps had more distinctive names, for one. I appreciate it must be hard coming up with names for 140 maps, but when nearly fifty of the maps are prefixed with “Arena” or “NEO_Arena” it makes assembling a playlist of favourites more difficult than it should be. Also, returning to what I said in the opening about Straftat’s status as a throwback, it does feature a distinctly modern progression system where you accrue XP by playing to unlock maps and cosmetics. This is very light and largely benign, but I still don’t think Straftat needs it, and would argue its presence runs counter to the game’s philosophy and tone.
Finally, I tested Straftat on the ol’ Steam Deck, and while it runs perfectly fine, I nonetheless wouldn’t recommend playing it on one right now. Navigating menus on the Steam Deck is cumbersome, while the game itself is unapologetically designed for keyboard and mouse controls.
Otherwise, Straftat is a marvellous thing, a grungy, underground virtual LAN party that, in pushing so hard in the opposite direction from big, glossy, team-based shooters, breaks new ground for an older style of gunfest. There have been various attempts to rekindle the arena shooter in the last decade, from Epic’s aborted Unreal Tournament revival, through Doom 2016’s disappointing multiplayer offering, to Bethesda’s more successful spinoff Quake Champions. Straftat, though, outguns them all, huffing casually on its cigarette as it knee-slides into the future.
ranzware
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