Tactical shooter games have become the most popular game style in recent years. However, this hasn’t stopped NEXON Games from wanting to show the world that the genre hasn’t grown stale. NEXON Games is known for popular games like Maplestory, Dave the Diver, and Kartrider: Drift. These games may differ from a tactical shooter, but NEXON is an established developer and publisher that will use its experience to make one properly. After experiencing hands-on gameplay, NEXON clearly understands the genre’s good and bad aspects and has used that knowledge to influence their development of Veiled Experts.
I recently played Veiled Experts during a live hands-on preview with developers from NEXON Korea. Their goal was to show me why Veiled Experts would turn the tactical shooter genre on its head by letting me play the alpha build. During the live hands-on preview, I was paired with folks from other publications into four teams of five. Each team was then assigned a developer who explained how the various aspects of the game worked.
For example, we learned how the in-game menus worked, what customizations were available, and how the match lobby was set up. After that, we played two games of the classic Deathmatch and two games of Search and Destroy. Once the matches started, the developer gave us insight into how the game played alongside general tips to be successful.
A Modern Take on Search and Destroy Games
You might wonder what a modern take means and how NEXON plans to accomplish its goal. Well, it includes the ability to swap between first-person and third-person perspectives any time you want. Other tactical shooter games require that you play a particular game mode to do this, but this is not the case with Veiled Experts. Instead, all you have to do to swap between first-person and third-person is press a button.
Veiled Experts also provides fun traversal mechanics to the game, allowing for different playstyles. This includes using ziplines to travel across the map quickly, so you can reach critical objective points without having to navigate obstacles like buildings and cars. If you travel on foot instead, you can perform parkour to climb objects like buildings to find that perfect sniping spot.
Choosing My Veiled Expert
There are a total of nine different veiled experts you can choose from. Each expert is available to players to choose from immediately, and I experienced four of them during my hands-on preview. Each expert specializes in different abilities that offer a unique playstyle from each other. For instance, Young Sik’s kit makes him extremely good at planting and protecting the Seed, the Veiled Experts’ version of the bomb. Each expert comes from a different country and background, diverse character designs, and you can choose one based on your style.
Customizing My Loadout
The developers unlocked all customizations for the guns during our hands-on preview. You can customize everything on your weapon, including sights, attachments, and clips. You can also change the gun’s appearance through skins and add fun charms hanging from the weapon, which grants players goals to work toward making their weapons unique.
Once in-game, I could also purchase additional modifications for any weapons with the game’s currency, which is earned by completing in-game objectives like killing other operators, defending locations, and planting the seed. A fun aspect of Veiled Experts is the ability to request and give money to your fellow players if you don’t have enough to unlock a specific modification. This is helpful for players who are learning the game and haven’t earned enough cash to purchase better weapons and upgrades to keep them competitive.
Experiencing Dynamic Weather
Veiled Experts will include dynamic weather effects that will change how your match is played. For instance, a sandstorm rolled in about halfway through the match of Search and Destroy. This severely limited the visibility of the map and the players running around, so I had to be extra vigilant when protecting the bomb site. Our assigned developer explained that there would be perks that help combat the effects of the weather changing and provide us with an advantage over the other players. While I didn’t experience this firsthand, I can see how this adds additional strategy to building your expert’s loadout.
Reviewing Post-Game Stats
I always enjoy seeing my stats regardless of what genre the game I am playing is from. This is especially true with tactical shooter games because seeing my stats helps me understand what I did well and what I need to improve upon to further my game mastery. One of the most remarkable and exciting features of Veiled Experts is the stats screen. On this screen, you will see every one of your stats imaginable. However, where Veiled Expert’s stats system shines is the ability to watch video replays of a match to see precisely how a situation unfolded. You will see where all players move and the result of their actions. This is an invaluable feature, one that helps me understand what I did well and what to improve upon, and I never knew I wanted, but now wish all games had.
Those looking for a fresh take on the tactical shooter genre should keep Veiled Experts on their radar, as the final beta Test for the game will be open to the public sometime in March.
