Fairgame$ Playtests Raise Red Flags as Early Feedback Calls It “Not Fun”

Early Fairgames playtests reveal extraction shooter mechanics, but players report a lack of excitement and engagement in the overall experience.

It gained more attention since new playtest notes about FairGame$, the upcoming multiplayer game from Haven Studios, were leaked. A report from inside the company says that the most recent pre-alpha sessions, called "Espresso," have shown a concerning pattern: players aren't having any fun with the game at all.

The playtest was said to have focused mostly on a game called "Cargo Heist," described as an extraction shooter. People load into a map, steal things, break into vaults, and try to get out without getting hurt. But unlike most extraction shooters, which focus on high-stakes survival, FairGame$ adds respawns, which reduces the stress that makes the genre what it is.

This design choice seems to be one of several things that people don't like about it. The rules of the game say that each match features four teams of 3 players who must navigate a large house. It has a class-based system and moves like grabbing and running along walls. 

It looks and plays a lot like The Division and Call of Duty, but it seems to focus more on a third-person view. It's interesting that the game's look has changed in clear ways. A more realistic color scheme was chosen over the bright and colorful look of the game's trailer. A lot of people liked this change, but it hasn't fixed the game's bigger problems.

The core game loop doesn't keep players interested despite being tried many times.

Players didn't like the demo version of this game. People who played the game said they had trouble with basic things, such as how to move, how NPCs behave, and how classes are set up. Some players said they quit after only a few games, while others said their friends often quit because they were bored or uninterested.

Fairgame$' main problem right now seems to be that it can't make a fun game loop. People have played it a lot and changed it a lot, but they still think it's not finished and, more importantly, boring. In live-service online games, this is a major problem that could hurt their long-term success.

More and more people are wondering if the developers might switch to more standard multiplayer modes. Some ideas are to use known game modes like team deathmatch, dominance, or search and destroy to see how players react and get things going again. This kind of change could make things simpler and maybe even save the project.

As bad reviews keep coming in, players are starting to doubt the game's long-term success.

The circumstances led the game's publisher to make poor choices. Getting consistently negative reviews in early testing is expected, but the fact that these issues keep coming up signals design problems. If the development team can't fix these challenges, the project could enter a decreasing returns loop. There's also concern that the game may be canceled without the changes.

In the increasingly competitive live-service market, a game with poor evaluations can damage your reputation and cost you money. The developers might have to make major changes to prevent this from happening again in multiplayer. It is still early in the growing process, so things may change, but the future of FairGame$ does not look promising right now.

The adjustments to the visual style indicate that the team is open to feedback, but the main issue remains unresolved. Ultimately, the coming months will be critical. Fairgame$ will need to show significant progress if it wants to win over gamers before launch, even if that means improving tactics or rethinking strategy.