Dystopia (video game)

Infobox VG
title = Dystopia


developer = [http://www.dystopia-game.com/wiki/index.php?title=Team_Dystopia Team Dystopia]
distributor = Steam
license = Freeware
engine = Source engine
version = 1.1 / March 17 2007
released = U1 / September 11 2005
genre = First-person shooter
modes = Multiplayer
platforms = Microsoft Windows
media =
requirements = [http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_SDK_Base Source SDK Base]
input = Keyboard and mouse
latest release version = 1.1
latest release date = March 17 2007
latest preview version = 1.2

"Dystopia" is a cyberpunk themed team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game, developed as a total conversion modification on the Valve Corporation's proprietary Source engine. Its first playable build was released on September 11th, 2005 cite web|url=http://www.dystopia-game.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2521&highlight=demo+release|title=Dystopia Demo Released!|publisher=Team Dystopia|date=2005-09-11|accessdate=2008-08-14] , after a year of planning and nine months of development. The first full version of "Dystopia", Version 1 was released after 3 years of development on Saturday February 24, 2007.cite web|url=http://www.dystopia-game.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11161&highlight=release|title=Release Date!|publisher=Team Dystopia|date=2007-02-18|accessdate=2008-08-14] A version 1.1 was released on March 17th, 2007 cite web|url=http://www.dystopia-game.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11774&highlight=1+1+release|title=Dystopia v1.1 Update|publisher=Team Dystopia|date=2007-03-18|accessdate=2008-08-14] and development continues on the core of the game.

Gameplay

"Dystopia" takes place in a high-tech futuristic world spanned by computer networks. It revolves around the conflict between two factions, the Punk Mercenaries (Punks) and the Corporate Security Forces (Corps). Players choose to join either of these two factions and battle against each other in tense combat situations in both the physical world (meatspace) and virtual world (cyberspace).cite web|url=http://www.dystopia-game.com/overview.php|title=Overview|publisher=Team Dystopia|accessdate=2008-08-15] The gameplay is objective focused in which both the Punks and the Corps fight against each other to complete a series of objectives in order to win the round, with one team's objectives normally preventing the opposing team from completing their objectives. Both teams are given a set amount of time to complete the map's objectives, with one team attacking whilst the other team defends. The attacking team must capture all of the defending team's objectives before the time runs out, whilst the defending team must prevent the attacking team from capturing their objectives. The gameplay in "Dystopia" takes place in two parallel environments, meatspace and cyberspace with actions in one having an effect on the other, and vice versa.cite web|url=http://www.dystopia-game.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1740|title=Dystopia FAQ|publisher=Team Dystopia|date=2005-06-05|accessdate=2008-08-23]

Players can choose from three different character classes, Light, Medium, and Heavy Augmented Armor with each class having their own unique strengths and weakness with varying amounts of health and armor, the player is able to choose from up to four primary weapons and further customize their selected character by equipping different class based special abilities called implants.

Classes

"Dystopia" is class-based, and as such, each of the three classes is unique in terms of weapons, implants, and overall performance during gameplay. Classes are identical for both teams, but each class has its own individual appearance. The three classes have four weapons that are only available to that class, only one of which can be carried at a time. Players are also outfitted with a semi-silenced Machine Pistol, a mêlée weapon, and a type of hand grenade.

The light class is the quickest and most agile of the three classes that a player can choose from but is also the weakest. The light class is the only class that is able to utilize the stealth implant and has the most implant space out of all three of "Dystopia's" player classes. The four unique weapons that this class has access to are the Shotgun: shoots pellets that disperse over range and is deadly at close range, Boltgun: fires three electric bolts individually which can be 'bounced' off surfaces if fired at a shallow enough angle, Laser Rifle: a charge-up laser rifle that shoots a high energy beam being most effective over long ranges and Dual Smartlocks Pistols: twenty-six shot pistols that give a bonus to accuracy when the target is "tagged" with the secondary tracer bullets. The Light class carries four EMP grenades.

The medium class is the most versatile and well-balanced of the three classes that a player can choose from. The medium class is the middle class with average speed, armour, and implant space. The four unique weapons that this class has access to are the Assault Rifle: a standard Issue forty round gun where the rate of fire increases the longer the trigger is held down, Mk-808 Rifle: a semi-automatic medium power rifle that is effective in larger open areas, Grenade Launcher: fires four grenades individually and at long ranges it turns into a useful artillery weapon and the Tesla Rifle: emits a short arc of electricity that damages anyone within it's range and it's secondary fire can be devastating when used in tight corridors. The medium class carries three Frag grenades.

The heavy class is the slowest of the three classes that a player can choose from, but has the greatest amount of armor and health with minimal space for implants. Despite this the weapons they can equip enable them to vastly outgun other classes in many situations. The four unique weapons that this class has access to are the Rocket Launcher: fires a rocket that does massive splash damage and will follow the laser pointer on the screen, Minigun: spews out a continuous stream of bullets which causes massive amounts of damage but at a cost to mobility, Ion Cannon: fires a blue beam with perfect accuracy that does high damage at close range, and medium damage at long range and the Basilisk: a automatic shotgun that fires three high impact pellets with average accuracy and is effective at medium to short range. The heavy class carries two spider grenades.

Implants

"Dystopia" features a customizable “implant” system which allows players to tweak their abilities to match their playing style or role within their team, players can if they choose change the implants on their character each time they spawn. Implants give players special abilities, such as thermal vision or cloaking. There are two categories of implants: HeadSpace implants and BodySpace implants. Each class has a different amount of HeadSpace and BodySpace available for implants; the heavier the class, the less space for implants. The implants available for players to choose from are listed below:

*HeadSpace:
**CyberDeck - Allows user to jack-in to cyberspace via JIPs (Jack-In Points) throughout the map.
**Enhanced CyberDeck - A less space-friendly cyberdeck implant that adds additional security programs and a mini-game to speed up security programs.
**TAC (Target Acquisition & Correlation) Scanner - Scans the local area for IFF frequencies and displays them to the teammates.
**Thermal Vision - Turns on heat-signature tracking vision.
**Sound Wave Triangulator (SWT) - Tracks sounds of enemy movement and action through walls.
**IFF Info - Shows stats such as health and energy for both friendly and enemy players.
**Cortex Bomb - A self-destructive explosive device that triggers at low health.

*BodySpace:
**Stealth - An active camouflage suit that rapidly drains energy when activated.
**Sound Suppressor - Silences nearly all actions.
**MediPlant - Heals the user and nearby allies when activated.
**Cold Suit - Hides the user from all thermal tracking.
**Leg Boosters - Allows for higher jumps and sprinting, as well as the 'Goomba' attack.
**Wired Reflexes - Shortens weapon swapping and reload times.
**Superconductor Capacitor Storage (SCS) - Increases energy capacity.

Cyberspace

Being a cyberpunk-themed mod, "Dystopia" naturally has some sort of cyberspace setting. To access cyberspace, a player must equip one of two "cyberdeck" implants and find a Jack-In Point, or JIP (a sort of Brain-computer interface). Players who equip either of these implants are commonly referred to as "deckers". Cyberspace is a representation of the computer network, and certain actions in cyberspace will trigger events in reality ('Meatspace'). The gameplay in cyberspace is significantly different from that of meatspace when a player enters cyberspace they merely project an avatar of themselves into cyberspace. Cyberspace inherently has no gravity and little sense of up or down. Each map's cyberspace consists of links and nodes. Links are long, curved square tunnels that resemble the fibers in a fiber optic cable. Nodes are large rooms that often appear convoluted inside, and they often resemble an MC Escher image in complexity. Inside the nodes are terminals with buttons that, when pressed, trigger events in the real world. While in cyberspace, instead of taking damage to regular Health Points, Energy is lost when various actions are performed. When a player's energy runs out, they are ejected from cyberspace, taking physical damage if ejected by an enemy player. This element of the game is almost identical in both the way it looks and the basic gameplay mechanic to the 1994 cyberpunk-themed game, System Shock. The game also featured "cyber-modules" which the implants in "Dystopia" serve a similar purpose.

Maps

"Dystopia" was originally released with just a single map, dys_vaccine and after each update numerous official maps have been added to the game. The current total of official maps is seven with three new maps planned to be added to the game after the next update.cite web|url=http://www.dystopia-game.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15776|title=New Maps|publisher=Team Dystopia |date=2008-09-01 |accessdate=2008-09-06] Each map consists of a series of three to five objectives. Except in dys_detonate and dys_broadcast, Punks are always on the attack, while the Corps are defending. Phistball maps have no such objectives; instead to win a team has to score a certain number of times. Maps are set in cyberpunk based locations around the world, from high rise corporate skyscrapers to nightclubs deep down in the cracks of the sprawl. "Dystopia" has a strong base of third party community maps created by members of "Dystopia's" community.cite web|url=http://www.dystopia-game.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=49|title=Community Maps|publisher=Team Dystopia|accessdate=2008-08-30]

Awards

"Dystopia" has been [http://www.dystopia-game.com/awards/ awarded] the following accolades by various gaming sites:
*Planet Half-Life's Mod of the Week twice [http://www.planethalflife.com/features/motw/dystopia.shtm] [http://www.planethalflife.com/features/motw/dystopia_v4.shtm]
* [http://www.igf.com/2006finalistswinners.html Independent Games Festival HL2 Mod of the Year]
* [http://features.moddb.com/218/?fpage=7 ModDB.com Action Mod of the year]
* [http://mods.moddb.com/awards/?search=true&=Search&kw=dystopia&game=0&cat=3 ModDB.com Originality Award]
* [http://features.moddb.com/178/ ModDB.com Mod of the Month]

^‡ Verifiable download counts

* [http://halflife2.filefront.com/files/search/?search_category=all&fields_name=1&fields_filename=1&keyword=dystopia&game=32#results 265,000+ downloads from halflife2 files]
* [http://www.fileplanet.com/filelist.aspx?s=102393&v=0 115,000+ downloads from fileplanet]
* [http://www.xfire.com/files/search/?offset=0&q=dystopia 93,000+ downloads from xfire]
* [http://www.extreme-players.de/filebrowser.php?go=/Games/hl2/mods/dystopia 19,000+ downloads from extreme players]
* [http://www.moddb.com/downloads?filter=t&=Search&kw=dystopia&type=def&game=61 17,500+ downloads from moddb.com]
* [http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/20343 10,000+ downloads from ausgamers]
* [http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/7630/Dystopia+Demo+Client+#4 9,500+ downloads from fileshack]

References

External links

* [http://dystopia-game.com/ Dystopia's official website]
* [http://dystopia-game.com/newplayerguide/ New player's guide]
* [http://kayavi.be/dys/dys_alphabet.pdf Fanmade guide (pdf)]
* [http://dystopia-game.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page Dystopia Wiki]
* [http://www.dystopia-league.net Dystopia Global League - (Competitive Play League)]
* [http://www.dystopia-stats.com/ Dystopia Stats - Stats from Dystopia Servers]