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It’s always a pleasant surprise to see new studios taking on the monumental task of working on a new MMO. It’s not something easy, and since the market is already flooded, only a few fight for the crown constantly. Yet, in this massive sea of MMOs, PIONER might be one that brings fresh ideas if executed correctly. Recently, I had the opportunity to preview one of the raids in PIONER as well as other systems, and while there’s a bit of jank in the core systems, it certainly has the potential to bring first-person shooters and MMO players together.
The Attempt to Bridge Two Genres
Whenever we hear MMO, our mind goes to WoW or FFXIV. Maybe ESO, SWTOR, or any of the new ones we’ve seen. Yet, we are used to third-person, high-fantasy worlds with classes, colorful creatures, and larger-than-life plots. On the other hand, when we hear FPS, we immediately think of Call of Duty, Destiny, and any of the hundreds of games of this genre. Typically, we’d see these genres as water and oil. They don’t really mix. However, PIONER is taking a shot at bridging the two, and it might pull it off.
In the recent preview, I entered a raid with two others. However, before delving into that, we saw what was coming to the game. The world exploration, gunplay, PvP, and PvE content, mini-games, like one inspired by Triple Triad, and more. The weird thing about it was seeing it all from a first-person perspective—it was pretty innovative and worked better than I thought. So, after the packed trailer, we jumped into a match to see how some of the above systems would feel.
It’s hard to judge this as the final product since this was an early build. There were a few bugs here and there, but that’s to be expected. Instead, I focused on the core aspects of both genres, and I must say that PIONER is experiencing an identity crisis right now, but there’s still potential.
Jack of Two Trades, Master of None
Frankly, I was surprised by the raid’s layout and progress. It felt akin to any other dungeon you’d see in an MMO. There are packs of enemies, areas to refill your ammo, more packs of enemies, and a boss. I felt at home there. However, once the combat started, more issues came to light.
For starters, the preview only had EU servers. All of us were in NA, so our first enemy was the ping. The developers said that won’t be the case at launch, though. Yet, even without it, I noticed a few glaring issues with the FPS part. The ADS system was one of the slowest I’ve seen. Aiming slowly makes sense for more realistic FPS games, like an extraction shooter. However, an MMO should be about fast-paced action, not the opposite. Regardless of the gun, all of them felt slow to use. Imagine an SMG taking the same time to aim as an RPG. It doesn’t work.
Regarding enemies, I felt the variety was fine for a raid. Again, some foes might need tuning before the release, but the team at GFA Games mentioned this raid was intended as endgame content, so the difficulty made sense. There were two boss fights as well, which had surprisingly great mechanics. They weren’t groundbreaking or mind-blowing, but seeing an FPS game get this aspect right is rare but welcome.
An Identity Crisis
After the three attempts at the raid and beating the final boss, I stood there for a while thinking, “What did I play?” And I didn’t say that in a bad way. On the one hand, PIONER provided that familiarity I’ve found in massive online games. A hub with players jumping around, traders, quests, and side activities. The raid’s progression felt like any other I’ve seen in my two decades as an MMO player. However, since it leaned toward the “realistic” side of first-person shooters, it was hard to distinguish what it wanted to do better: an MMO with FPS on the side or an FPS game with MMO content on the side.
Despite all of my gripes with the short preview, I must say there’s potential there. While I only saw the exploration aspect through a trailer, I feel the art style and setting are quite original and move away from the high-fantasy aspects, which is always refreshing. I would’ve preferred to see that instead of the raid, as I often spend most of my time exploring instead of raiding. Also, the gunplay needs a lot of work. I get that realistic shooting appeals to some players, but since PIONER is trying to combine two genres, it needs to cater to both, not just one.
Overall, I’d say PIONER has interesting ideas but has a few core issues. Still, the foundations are solid. If it fixes some of the above things or tailors them more toward a casual MMO playerbase with more accessibility, I can see a lot of players jumping into it. But as first impressions go, I’d say it left a sour taste in my mouth. I wish I had the chance to explore something else that wasn’t the raid. Things might’ve been different.
