Apart from the story mode itself, many other aspects of Ocean Stronghold surprised Chen Sha.
For example, the hand sensitivity during battles!
Chen Sha was an elite gamer in FPS games and possessed superb skills. He was extremely skillful in techniques such as burst fire and target tracking.
To put it simply, he had excellent shooting skills. That meant that he had high expectations for the hand sensitivity of FPS games.
The gaming experience for FPS games mostly focused on the game’s hand sensitivity.
When he was trying out Bullet Hole, Chen Sha was a little shocked by how far the game producers had gone to perfect the game. Bullet Hole had almost reached the level Counter Strike was at.
However, what Bullet Hole did was mainly replicating Counter Strike.
That was very normal. Counter Strike was proven to be the closest-to-perfect FPS game in recent years. It was almost unbeatable when compared to other games in the domestic market.
Things would not go wrong if producers tried their best to replicate the hand sensitivity in Counter Strike.
However, the problem laid here. No matter how closely they tried to replicate the game, there was no way it would surpass the original game itself.
Bullet Hole attempted to replicate Counter Strike’s hand sensitivity. However, it was hard for them to reach the height Counter Strike was at due to some imperfections and inadequacies.
Even though Chen Sha suggested several amendments to improve Bullet Hole’s gaming experience, even he could not specify what the minor differences between the two games were!
‘Intuition’ itself was something hard to quantify. Sometimes, one might know that a problem existed but would find it hard to pinpoint what amendments were needed.
Ocean Stronghold, on the other hand, went down a completely different path!
Chen Sha knew that from the moment he experienced the story mode.
The game’s hand sensitivity differed largely from Counter Strike!
For instance, shooting was much more stable in Ocean Stronghold. The recoil patterns of its guns were much simpler, landing a headshot was much easier, and lesser time was needed to switch weapons and open the scope…
Chen Sha’s first impression was that the game was very satisfying!
Counter Strike was an FPS game that required high concentration levels and possessed difficult techniques. Meanwhile, Ocean Stronghold greatly reduced the learning curve of the game to make shooting games much simpler and more satisfying!
If Chen Sha was to experience the game’s hand sensitivity during combat mode, he might develop a slight dislike towards the game.
Reducing the learning curve of the game was terrible news to players like him who had spent years mastering Counter Strike and had devoted much time to perfecting their techniques in the game.
However, Chen Sha had been experiencing the game’s story mode.
A lower requirement for shooting greatly improved gameplay in story mode. Chen Sha felt that the experience was smooth like silk and found it hard to break away from the game!
Although the story mode restricted the number of bullets the protagonist had, Chen Sha had a wonderful time fighting waves of zombies with his skills in switching weapons and shooting. The main reason for that was that Ocean Stronghold had greatly reduced the difficulty of the game. That made the gaming experience much more satisfying!
After spending a few hours completing the story mode, Chen Sha surprisingly realized that he had become accustomed to the lower-difficulty game controls. He had completely gotten rid of his dislike towards the difficulty level of the game controls!
It made him feel as though switching weapons should originally be so fast and countering recoils should be that easy!
Moreover, Chen Sha realized that a lot of content during battles in the story mode seemed to prepare players for the combat modes!
For instance, there was a boss in one of the obstacles in the story mode that could become semi-transparent. That corresponded to the apparition mode that was one of the combat mode options.
The zombies within the story mode became a part of the gameplay in the biochemical mode.
Moreover, the protagonist in the story mode could seize and use advanced firearms from different mercenaries after defeating them.
Those firearms could be obtained in the combat modes by purchasing them directly or by some other means. That meant that the story mode allowed players to use those advanced firearms beforehand!
The story mode became the most appropriate conduit that helped Chen Sha transition smoothly from Counter Strike to Ocean Stronghold!
Chen Sha looked at the time. He started playing the story mode in Ocean Stronghold in the afternoon and spent five hours completing it.
Although the duration of the story mode wasn’t long and was much shorter than other overseas Triple-A games, it had a complete emotional process that adequately guided the emotions of players.
Chen Sha quickly opened his group chat and sent out Ocean Stronghold’s download link on the official game distribution website.
“This game is way too incredible! Quick, come and try it out!”
The people in the group chat were a little surprised. It was unusual for Chen Sha to be so excited about a game that he recommended.
Did he do this for a commission?
However, that didn’t really explain his excitement.
It was not like Chen Sha never received a commission for promoting a game before. He was paid for that quite often. However, he wouldn’t normally be so excited when publicizing the game. He would only send out a perfunctory message in the group chat; that was all.
For example, when he encouraged members in the group chat to participate in the testing of Bullet Hole, he merely told them that it was an opportunity to make money and did not praise the game at all.
Chen Sha was a person with high expectations. He felt that Bullet Hole was a good game and was merely a good game. Therefore, he merely wanted to recommend the Bullet Hole game testing as a job opportunity and did not put in a lot of effort promoting the game.
His attitude this time was a little confusing!
Could it be…?
“Brother Chen, was your account hacked?” someone asked in the group.
Chen Sha was speechless.
What was that? Hacked? Why couldn’t a usually aloof person recommend a game with passion?
“I’m not hacked! This is a really special game. You guys can check it out. It’s free anyways.” Chen Sha explained patiently.
“How is it special? Is it better than Counter Strike?” some curious minds asked.
Chen Sha pondered for a while before responding, “Well… I don’t know how to explain it. It is a very special game. Amongst FPS games that contain story modes, its combat experience is the best. Amongst FPS games that encompass combat modes, its story plot is the best. Even though its purchasable content is pretty ridiculous, it makes people feel that it is inexpensive and reasonably-priced…”
Those in the group chat were stumped.
“Pfft!”
“What the heck?”
“Is Brother Chen drunk today?”
“This is so funny. Best combat experience amongst games with a plot and best story plot amongst combat games!”
“Okay. I’m about to go off work. I’ll try it out after work!”
“Is there anyone who wants to play the special modes in the game together? I want to try out their biochemical mode and apparition mode. Is there anyone who wants to join me?” Chen Sha typed in the group chat.
It was not like Chen Sha wanted to take advantage of his buddies.
The key thing was that there were too few players in Ocean Stronghold. There were at most dozens of players online at the same time. He could not find other players for the special modes using the in-game matchmaking system!
He could only form his own group by inviting people in the group chat.
Very quickly, players in the group chat started talking enthusiastically about Ocean Stronghold.
They were all shocked to find that other than its horrible name, all other aspects of the game were pretty well-designed.
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