Back in my younger days, I used to play a game (that I think was) called "Road Wars." The basic premise was to get together with some friends and create combat-ready automobiles and then use our imaginations to carry out battles. I played so many games at that point, that I can’t remember exactly what took its place, but I do recall it being a really fun experience while it lasted. Auto a*ault, brought to us by our friends at NCSOFT, at least looked by its packaging to be a new incarnation of my old favorite.

Truth be told, I have been looking forward to getting my hands on Auto a*ault for some time. I have read countless articles and gushing previews telling me how it would usher in a new era in the MMO universe. Mind you, I have been disappointed before by many titles promising me the moon and delivering cheese, so I kept my expectations at bay. For that reason, I was able to enjoy my time with this MMO.

Auto Assault is supposed to be Mad Max meets Everquest, a game in which players can meet online to fight alongside each other for the greater good of the post-apocalyptic world in which it is set. The game has a decidedly different feel when you load it, once you get past the character creation screen.

Character creation is a process by which you build your "driver" from the ground up. You have the option of 3 races (unintended pun, I swear): Human, Mutant and Biomek. Each race has relative advantages and disadvantages as to the types of vehicles they can drive and how they handle resources. In truth, I am not sure if any race has a clear edge. For me, the most enjoyable race to play was the Biomek, because I felt a connection to this game and The Terminator movie series. I can honestly say, I am not sure where that came from, but the feel was just there.

Once you settle on your avatar, you get to customize your initial vehicle. In the end, you spend so much time in your vehicle, the character creation part feels superfluous. As a matter of fact, running around towns is so terrifically boring that I wish it had no part in the game. The town "questing" is so impersonal and unmotivational that, aside from the rewards you can win, it seems pointless to interact with NPC’s in town.

Without going into the specifics of the sub-classes of each character, suffice it to say that there are specific professions you can pursue such as crafting and plain old destruction. Since this game is ultimately about vehicle combat, I am not sure how many players will get into the class-specific chores in the long run. The main objective, at least in my eyes, is driving around and blowing stuff up. Yes people, this is total carnage at its video game best.

Auto a*ault feels like an arcade racer at its core. The flow of the game is centered on vehicle use, and the game plays incredibly well with a gamepad. As a matter of fact, I could see this port over to the Xbox 360 or PS3 with incredible ease and probably a reasonable chance of success.

Once you get through the tutorials and into the main game, you find yourself in a desert wasteland that was once a thriving world. If you have ever seen a post-apocalyptic movie, you will have not trouble "getting" the whole story here. Actually, I am not sure exactly what went wrong to get the world so messed up, but it seemed my destiny to take advantage of the ruin for my own personal gain. Thus I spent a large amount of time running errands for NPC’s and leveling up.

The vehicles you can drive have a number of item slots, so you can customize and buff yourself to your heart’s content. Essentially you level both your character and, in doing so, the type of equipment you can use on your car. The vehicle customization interface is an easy-to-use paper doll-type setup in which you can add all manner of modification such as improved engines and weapons and some class-specific items.

At this point I hope you are asking yourself, "When will he get to the multiplayer part of the review." That, my friends is the sad part of Auto a*ault. Most of my time in the Auto a*ault universe was spent solo. As a matter of fact, I cannot understand why this game is an MMO. True, some of the higher level missions require parties to complete, but, along the way, you can accomplish most objectives by yourself. There is just no motivation to get to know other players, nor is the LFG interface all that useful. I found it rather difficult to get anyone engaged in a conversation any of the time I played the game.

The game world is broken into large chunks on the map, and it is pretty clear where you should and should not be at any given time. Essentially, if the opponents are too strong, you are in over your head. Since this is a vehicle game, it is possible to do suicide runs just to uncover parts of the map, a feat for which you earn experience. If you find yourself in the wrong location, it is possible, if hostiles are around, to call for an airlift to a more appropriate prior location.

Combat is very simple, thanks to an intuitive control system and a very user-friendly interface. Once you lock onto an opponent, your main turret weapon will auto aim. The game takes into account all manner of physics, and it is more difficult to hit a target when either of you is moving. The weapons have a heat-load, and this in turn hammers your engine. Of course, as you level, you can improve both weapons and engines, thus taking on tougher foes and getting better rewards.

There are a few elements to the game that have glimmers of promise, but never felt compelling enough to do. Perhaps the best, in my book, is the fact that, if you have the appropriate skills, you can reverse engineer weapons and vehicle systems. This is a statistic-dependant activity, so you only have a probability of being successful. Again, the only problem with this is that I never really felt motivated to do it often.

The graphics and sound in Auto a*ault are well done. I did not spot any glaring technical problems that are often rampant in MMO’s when they first launch. The textures are a bit dark and dusty, but this is a post-apocalyptic world, so the "dullness" is appropriate. The in-town graphics and animations are not good; that entire portion of the game needs to be revamped. When the vehicles look and move as well as they do in this game, the characters should move around town more realistically.

I have no idea if I would keep playing this game for a long period of time. That is coming from a guy who still logs a few hours a week with Diablo II. I spent a lot of hours with it because I needed to really get a handle on the community side of things. Sadly, regardless of the time of day I played, I generally felt very alone in the world. I still cannot figure out why this was not just released as a single player game. Paying a monthly fee is not warranted for this game. Auto Assault is a game that I enjoyed playing, but only while it lasted.

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