Dirty Bomb (video game)

This article is about the video game. For other uses, see Dirty bomb (disambiguation).

Dirty Bomb
Publisher(s)	Nexon America
Distributor(s)	Valve Corporation (Steam)
Engine	Unreal Engine 3
Release date(s)	October 2013 (Closed beta) 2 June 2015 (Open beta)
Genre(s)	First Person Shooter, action
Mode(s)	Multi-player

Dirty Bomb, formerly known as Extraction, is a free to play first person shooter[ESRB]( T ) multiplayer video game set in London after a radiological attack. It was developed by Splash Damage and published by Nexon America for Microsoft Windows, and was released in June 2015. The trailer was first released at the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Dirty Bomb was Splash Damage's first intellectual property.

Gameplay

At the beginning of a match, the player is placed on either the attacking or defending team and must complete various objectives in order to win the round, while fighting both the opposing team and the clock. The player can choose up to three mercenaries, or 'mercs', to play as during the round, and can switch between them freely between lives. Teamwork and communication are strongly encouraged during the game, hinted at by the ability to revive 'downed' players, as well as the fact that being the 'lone wolf' often leads to a short life. The gameplay is based on Splash Damage's previous titles Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Brink, such as similar classes, gameplay objectives, and certain classes having access to abilities like placing ammunition packs, healing stations, or sentry guns. The main goal of the attacking team either begins by repairing and escorting an Extraction Vehicle, abbreviated to 'EV' in-game, to a predetermined location, or to plant C-4 on a certain target. The objectives after that point are more varied from map to map; for example, on the maps Trainyard and Bridge, the attackers' goal is now to steal data cores/drug samples from the defending team and deliver them to a helicopter, while on the rest of the maps, the objectives are only to destroy various targets. Also available on each map are 'side objectives'; objectives that aren't mandatory to complete, but assist the attacking team in completing their ultimate goal. Attackers are encouraged to take advantage of these side objectives before the defending team is able to seize them. There are currently three playable game modes: Objective, Stopwatch and Execution mode. There is also a Competitive mode but it is just the same as Stopwatch. In objective and stopwatch you can have up to 16 players making it 8 vs 8. In Execution you can have up to 12 players making it 6 vs 6. However, in competitive even though it is the same as stopwatch there is a cap of 10 players making it 5 vs 5.

In Objective mode, the aim is for the attacking team to complete all of the maps objectives before the time runs out. If they are unable to do so, the defending team wins. In Stopwatch mode, the mode is similar to Objective but there are actually 2 games played, one time you are attacking, and the other you are defending. The team that completes the objectives faster wins the game. It is also possible for games to end in a draw, and overtime is also implemented where appropriate. In Execution mode, there are two ways for the attackers to win, either kill all the enemy players or plant C-4 and destroy one of two available pylons. The defenders can win by defusing the C-4 after the attackers have planted the C-4, or by killing all the enemy players, or if the 2 minute time limit expires. It operates in a best of 12 rounds system, where the first team to win 7 rounds wins the game. Draws are also possible if both teams win 6 times. In Execution mode, there are no respawns, so if you die you must wait until the round is finished before you can resume playing in the next round. Players that are incapacitated although not completely finished can still be revived by medics, or be helped up by any teammate to continue fighting. After 6 rounds, the attackers and defenders switch sides.

Objective and Stopwatch modes currently have 6 maps available, including Chapel, Underground, Bridge, Terminal, Dome and Trainyard. After a game is complete, there is a voting system where the players in the lobby can vote on one out of 3 maps (in rotation), and the map with the most votes gets selected. Execution mode currently has 2 maps, Market and Overground.

Development

During development, the name changed from Dirty Bomb to Extraction and back to the original name, Dirty Bomb. Dirty Bomb entered open beta in June 2015 on the digital distribution platform, Steam as a free-to-play game. In the first release of the game the player could choose from 12 playable mercenaries. The two initial modes were 5 vs 5 and 8 vs 8. As of April 2016, there are 19 mercs available. Each month the development team releases an update to either fix issues in the game and sometimes, to also add new content such as maps, mercs, events, etc.

Mercs

There are currently 19 mercs that the player can choose from after they are unlocked. Each merc also falls into a certain role; Engineer(e), Fire Support(fs), Medic(m), Assault(a), or Recon(r). The mercs being; Bushwhacker(e), Proxy(e), Fletcher(e), Arty(fs), Kira(fs), Skyhammer(fs), Stoker(fs), Aura(m), Sparks(m), Sawbones(m), Phoenix(m), Rhino(a), Nader(a), Thunder(a), Fragger(a), Vassili(r), Red Eye(r), Amiee(r), and Phantom(r). These mercs come with their own unique abilities and weapons. These weapons can vary from assault rifles, SMGs, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, Pistols, and Melee.

Loadout Cards

Load out cards in Dirty Bomb play a key role in the games progression and what keeps the players addicted to the game besides the actual gameplay. There are many different variations of the cards which can be unlocked within the game. These cards can be unlocked either by playing the game and opening cases or the game offers another option in which a player can purchase cases with real money to offer the player a better chance of obtaining a higher ranked card. There are nine different variations that the cards can fall in; Default, Lead, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Cobalt, Obsidian, and Special Edition. With each card the player acquires it can come with a different camo the merc wears and depending on the variation of the card it can come with a number of augments with three augments being the most any card can have.

Default: Default Cards are unlocked for everyone as soon as they purchase a merc. These cards come with no special camo and has no augments to improve the merc.

Lead: Lead Cards are the most common cards a player will unlock. These cards come with one camo type and will also grant the players merc with one random augment.

Iron: Iron Cards are another card a player will acquire an amount of. These cards come with one camo type and will grant a merc with two random augments.

Bronze: Bronze Cards are when it starts to get a little harder to obtain. These cards also come with only one camo type and will grant a merc three random augments.

Silver: Silver Cards are the third best card a player can obtain. These cards come with two different camos and will grant a merc three random augments.

Gold: Gold Cards are the second best card a player can obtain. These cards however not being the highest card can come in three different camos which is the most between the cards and will grant a merc three random augments

Cobalt: Cobalt Cards are the highest card a player can unlock at any time and was not from an event. This also makes this card very hard for a player to acquire within the game. These cards come with two camos and will grant a merc with three random augments.

Obsidian: Obsidian Cards are cards that were given out to only those who had participated in the closed beta which makes this card special and rare. This card has its own camo and will grant a merc with three random augments.

Special Edition: Special Edition Cards are cards that can only be obtained for a limited time while whichever event is currently taking place. These cards come with their own unique camo and a merc with three random augments.

Special Edition Card Events

There has been a number of events that have taken place which Splash Damage and Nexon have taken place in. Some of these being:

File:Dirty Bomb Founders Card.png

Special Edition loadout card for those who were Founders.

Founder:

These cards were given to those who had support the games early stages of development back in 2014.

Logitech:

These cards were unlocked for those who were able to obtain a code and in return was awarded a Logitech skin.

Containment War:

This was the first event in which was hosted in the game of Dirty Bomb and allowed people to open cases to gamble their chances at obtaining one of the cards.

Alienware:

These cards were unlocked for those who were able to obtain a code from Alienware and allowed people to open a case that granted a special card.

File:Loadout Card WTD.jpg

Special Edition loadout card from the What the Dickens? event.

What the Dickens?:

This was the second event that was hosted in the game and happened around Christmas time in 2015. During the event you were awarded cases in which players if lucky enough could acquire these special edition cards.

Humble Bundle:

This was a promotion that the development team joined with Humblebundle.com to help raise money for charities during February 2016. This allowed players to purchase the "Humble Gamepedia Online Multiplayer Bundle" which would granted them a couple special edition cards and also unlocked a couple mercs.

Rogue en Vogue:

This was the third event that had taken place during April and May 2016. This was a five-week event which allowed players to earn special items including special edition cards.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 66.33% Metacritic 63/100 Review scores Publication Score GameWatcher 8/10 Digitally Downloaded 3.5/5 AusGamers 7/10

Dirty Bomb received positive and average reviews with a 63 Metacritic score based off 8 critic reviews and 66.33% on GameRankings based off 10 critic reviews.

See also

• Brink, another FPS developed by Splash Damage
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, another FPS developed by Splash Damage
• Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, another FPS developed by Splash Damage

External links

• Official website
• Dirty Bomb at IMDb