District 187 comes to America in closed beta, and we have the scoop!

From September 20-23, select players with beta keys were able to test out the newest F2P “cops-and-robbers” FPS online game, District 187: Sin Streets, published by CJ Games Global. Technically, the game is already out (in Korea), but now American servers are opening up with some limited testing. The American team has said there are three goals for this test: that it is A. Fun, B. Stable and C. Balanced. Has the game kept these goals in its sights, or has it missed the target? Read on for our review!

Have I mentioned First Person Shooter (FPS) games before? How I am terrible at them? Well, after several hours playing the closed beta test of District 187, I managed to discover four things about the genre and myself:
1. I am still terrible at shooting games
2. Some people are worse than me. Thank goodness.
3. I am actually really damn good at melee-only modes
4. I’m actually so good; I managed to get banned from these rooms by sore losers. Twice.

You slaughter dozens of people with an axe, and this is the thanks you get?

While these personal revelations are no doubt thrilling, they don’t really say much about District 187 itself. Here’s the short version of what the CBT contained: five maps, four modes, two sides and several weapons. There were two servers (NA East and West), though I never saw ANYONE play on the East server, and personally I thought the servers were mostly lag-free and stable… a sentiment NOT shared by many of the players getting slaughtered left and right who ended up blaming it on either lag or hacks (honestly, who would hack a game that’s been out for a few days in closed testing only?).

Friendly Fire is thankfully turned off. Thankfully, as I tend to shoot first... often at teammates.

The five maps are all fairly balanced, with a few points that will become centers of conflict, and two respawn points often at opposite sides. The modes are:
1. Deathmatch – the first team to X number of kills wins.
2. Round – the team with the last man standing wins
3. Scramble – The team that recovers/steals the most money from a neutral bank point wins. Respawns happen in the same manner as Deathmatches.
4. Bomb – One team tries to place a bomb during several rounds, the other tries to hold them off or eliminate them. Everyone has one life per round.

Old Town and Kill Port get rather stale after the 50th match...

I have to say, Deathmatch was by far the most enjoyable for me. Scramble and Bomb can continue for several minutes AFTER the player dies, which makes the game rather dull for those unskilled or unlucky (namely: me). The one consolation is that the camera can then follow your teammates’ views, potentially allowing players to learn tricks, tips and tactics or grab a drink from the fridge, whichever you prefer.

Seriously, melee-only matches were LEGENDARY. Bodies everywhere.

One slight issue is that some maps are locked into specific modes; for example, Deathmatches will only be held in Old Town and Kill Port, while Round, Scramble and Bomb all have specific and unique maps. This meant that after several hours of play, I had never even seen Hunting Hills until I specifically tried to find a Round map (and I promptly logged out, because UGH Round mode is terrible).