Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max'd : Well, almost.

Author's Rating:

Pros: This is the best paintball game out there.

Cons: It is the best because there isn’t a lot of competition.

The Bottom Line: 
Greg Hastings expands on the first paintball game brought to the console market to make it even better. Look out, Tony Hawk!

Author's Review
I am sad.

My paintball markers are put away for the season. My summer time addiction is forced into remission due to the usually harsh Nebraska winter. Paintball is a favorite of mine and I miss it dearly this time of year. When the temptation hits me I throw in Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball. As a substitution it left a lot to be desired for me. I wish Santa would bring me a new paintball game for Christmas.

I have to be the luckiest husband in the world.

Christmas is a wonderful time for me. Still being more childlike at heart than my wife would approve of I was lucky enough to get another paintball game this holiday. My wife is so cool!

Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max’d is the second installment in the Hastings series. He is quickly turning into the Tony Hawk of paintball, at least for video games. I own and still play Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball but the game lacked scale. There was little to do but play in tournaments and hope to collect enough cash to buy better gear. Online play was the only thing that kept that game from collecting dust.

In my review of the original version I said back on January 18, 2005, “I am really holding out hope that there is a second version with some improvements to make the game more of an addiction than a fall back.” Let’s see how Max’d does!

Game Play

Max’d was published by Activision and developed by WXP Inc. who also did The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings for Xbox. This is the same team that released the first Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball last year so they know what they have to build off.

Like the first version you build a character and start a career. You are forced to play tournament after tournament. There really is no story or environment developed. You just continue to play tournaments to collect cash to use at the store. You also receive experience points that allow you to improve your characters attributes. Game play can get a little boring as your only real motivating factor on going through the tournaments is to get enough cash to buy the top of the line gear in the game’s online store. You do feel driven to continue, to do better, to finish first and win the cash. After all, that is how you are going to get the cool stuff at the store! Take away the greed factor and you find yourself playing a first person shooter that tires out pretty quickly.

There are 29 different tournaments to play with 213 fields. That does keep it somewhat fresh. There are going to be a few fields that are too big, too small or too whatever for your particular taste but with so many fields to play you will find several you like as well. Along with the new fields Max’d offers you several new paintball markers to play with as well.

You can also choose to play online with Xbox’s Live network. This was the salvation of the original GHTP (Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball) with over 100,000 Xbox players spraying paint on Live. Online play adds vibrancy to a game that can seem to dredge along at times. The human element to the game is what makes paintball so fun in the first place. On Live you will feel the adrenaline flow and the actual excitement of Max’d will come out. The same fields that are available off line are there to play on Live. There are even a few more but I will get to that in a second.

Game play is further enhanced on Max’d by adding a breakout manager. This allows you to plan your team’s first moves out of the box. You can pick where your players are going to set up after the start whistle. The control does not stop there either. During the game you can still give orders to your players as well call out where the opponents are bunkering. Team orders are given by pointing and hitting a button or by voice command if you use the Communicator Headset (not included). WXE improved the AI of the game and players act smarter by hiding and moving to improved positions though the AI is not even close to the fun of playing human opponents.

A cool thing that the folks at WXE did was to add a custom field editor. Thank you! This does help to make the game a bit more addictive. You are able to build a field for tournament play available in the exhibition or Live modes of game play. The fields are based of size (3 to choose from) and you are able to select where to put bunkers. Before you finalize your design you are able to walk through the field or get a bird’s eye view of it.

Graphics

GHTP had very good graphics to begin with and Max’d kept the same visuals as the original. There are few jaw dropping moments to be seen in paintball to begin with so there really is no envelope to be pushed here. The scenes are done well as is the lighting. The game does have the look of the real thing with paint splatter and unbroken balls bouncing off air bunkers. The one thing I would like to see is actual paint spots on players and their uniforms getting progressively dirtier through the rounds. I would also like to see the environment brought more into play. Have some rain and mud to slip and slide in. Visually the game is strong though. The gear and the players look real. The bunkers and fields are rendered well.

Audio

Max’d like its first incarnation have outstanding sounds. WXE provides Dolby Digital game play for total immersion and for those lucky enough to play with a surround sound system will appreciate it. The sounds are nearly true to life as paintballs wiz through the air and paintball markers shoot. If you have never played paintball before you might not realize that different paintball markers make different reports and these are captured well in Max’d. Your hopper will even make the disappointing whirl noise when it has run dry. These little touches make Max’d about as true to life simulation of the sport of paintball that exists in video games today.

An in game soundtrack is provided by default. You can choose to disable the soundtrack or use your own via the music saved on your Xbox’s hard drive. This will help to keep you into the game.

AI

A marked improvement has been made in both your teammates and opponents in regards to their in game movements. No longer will a player just stand there letting you take pot shots at them. Opponents will take cover and try to get an angle on you. Players on the field will feel when they have the advantage and press. This single factor has made Max’d a much better game than GHTP. Your computer foes are not quite as challenging as the real thing but at least your teammates don’t shoot you by on accident either.

The Gear

If you are a paintball player you will probably want to know what gear there is in the game to play with. Max’d uses real world gear and like the pros there are some very high end markers to play with.

The game itself is sponsored by companies and you will see their ads on banners at the field and in the game’s online store. This is a cleaver way to get you thinking about what gear to get and where to get it from. All the big names are represented in both retailers and manufacturers. You will find markers from Dye, WGP, and Tippman as well as R7 gear (Greg Hastings’ company). Those same companies provide tournament uniforms, masks and cleats.

I would really like to see them expand this even more in the future. Add Smart Parts (Smart Parts is in there but not by name) and Planet Eclipse in there if you really want a tournament feel to the game. It would be nice to have actual upgrades to your markers as well. Right now the only thing you can do is change out barrels to improve the marker and it may sound trivial but it would be nice if you could pick an upgraded barrel that actually matches the color of the marker you already have. It would be cool if players could hook up drops and new regs to their set ups. Get those aftermarket guys into the game. That would add something to regular and online play.

Personal Impressions

I tend to judge games by the time I play them. I play Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max’d less than I expected to when it came out and more than I want to now. It is an odd dilemma. There is just something missing. It could be the rigid format of the game that just seems to lop along. I am not sure but if WXE could find that special something then they would have something on their hands.

Max’d all and all is a good game. The fun factor only lasted a few days for me and I was bored with it. I still play Max’d but the challenge of it is gone for me. Online play on Xbox’s Live network is the only thing saving Max’d from going to my local used game store on trade in. They made improvements in the game but the few added features only stretch the fun factor hours for me not weeks like I was hoping. I would recommend picking up Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max’d if you are a fan of the sport or wanting to try it out. Max’d is the best paintball game out there but unfortunately that does not say much. I would say pick it up but try to get the game used or on sale.

ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+

My review of Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball.

Thanks for reading,
Christian