Micro Volts

Have you seen the movie 9? Its about little puppets that have come to life. Imagine if you could play as one of those little puppets. MicroVolts is about little puppets going to war with each other. In fact, when you start the game, you are treated to a cutscene that explains just this.

MicroVolts is a third person shooter that's a whole lot of fun. Maps include a chess table and some rooms in a house. Your character is just a few inches tall, and the rooms, being human sized, are huge. Its a lot of fun being so tiny. There are jump points where you will be springed up, so even being so small you can still get high up.

Players can choose from one of 4 characters, one male, two female, and a robot. As you play, you will earn MP points, which can be spent on accessories for your character. These accessories don't just give your character some uniqueness, but also give slight stat increases. You can also switch between the character types if you get bored with your current one. Various accessories and weapons are available to higher levels. Although the accessories are only temporary (7 days), they are free and purchased with MP points, earned during play. You generally get more points for more kills in a round.

All players can use all the weapon types at any time. Players can purchase upgraded weapons with MP points which will give them an advantage. Since players carry all weapon types at all times, using them skillfully is important, since different guns are appropriate for different situations. The weapon types are melee, pistol, shotgun, sniper, heavy machine gun, bazooka, and grenade launcher. As this is a cartooney game, the weapons do not act realistically, but it doesn't really matter since the game is so much fun. Players can get headshots and will get various congratulatory statements with multiple kills.

The game can sometimes seem like a twitch-fest, but really its just a matter of knowing where your vulnerable spots are, and paying attention to your surroundings. One cool aspect of the game if that when you make a kill the downed player drops either ammo or health, helping you to keep going. 

For some reason, not all the maps are built to the scale of a little puppet in a human's world. Some of the maps seem normal scaled, and they don't seem to in any way suggest your character is a doll. However the map types are quite varied, from a factory to a castle to a war torn village.

Game types are the standard fare for a shooter game. There is Team Death Match mode, a Team Elimination Mode, a Capture the Battery (capture the flag) mode, and a free for all mode. There is also a match up mode, where players killed dropped a question mark, and if you collect enough question marks you will get a temporary special ability.

As MicroVolts is in open beta, the community is small, but not that small, and will probably grow as the game becomes more well known. The game is free to play, has a 500MB download, and because of the cartooney graphics will run on less powerful machines. The beginner servers are often full, and there are 10,000 Facebook fans of the game. MicroVolts does not currently support microphone chat, but there are a few command menus that you can use to communicate with your team. There is also a chat box that can be used. There does seem to be a clan system but I haven't figured out how to get involved in it yet. If you like Battlefield Heroes or any other third person shooter, you have to check this game out. Score 9/10