Hello Canterlot, this is a review of the Indie FPS Ace Of Spades (abbreviated AoS), a personal favourite of mine.

Basic Game Info:

Ace of Spades is a free multiplayer game made by Indie Game Developer Ben Aksoy that combines both the elements of an FPS and sandbox construction like minecraft.

Players can choose between 2 teams and fight in rivers, mountains, or custom terrains. The player must take on a block based world where he or she can build or destroy basically anything that renders, with the ultimate goal of eliminating the opposing team and capturing their Intel.

"Development on Ace of Spades began around 6 months prior to the initial public release, which was on April 4th, 2011." - AoS Wiki

Gameplay:

gameplay is alot like a mix between minecraft, Counter Strike, and Team Fortress 2. it has all the features of your standard FPS with a highly processed and intricate yet simple creative aspect. 99.99% of the ENTIRE MAP is able to be destroyed.

players choose between 2 colour coded teams and battle head to head to complete their objective. usually, to eliminate the opposing team or capture the enemy intel.

players will be able to use an assortment of weapons of tools that will only grow as development continues. as of Beta 0.75 (now) you can choose between 3 primary weapons: Shotgun, Rifle, SMG. along with the primary you get 3 grenades, 50 blocks for building with adjustable color coding, and a spade (shovel). every one of these items serves as a means of killing your opponents and completing various tasks. each weapon has the ability to use iron sights and has recoil. both of these things are very realistic for such a game, and in my opinion is comparable to games like BattleField 3 and Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (both of which i own and have played my fair share of)

below is a quick rundown on each item.

shotgun: a semi automatic shotgun with spread (shooting 6 pellets at a time), a circular iron sight, and holds 6 shells at a time before reload. it is most effective at close range but is notably affective at all ranges even far away targets can be hit, but receive little damage. up close the shotgun is devastating usually resulting in an instant kill if point blank. it is the least commonly used primary weapon.

SMG: a fully automatic sub-machine gun with the highest ammo capacity of 30 bullets a mag, a circular iron sight, and has the fastest reload of all guns, with the downfall of the most recoil. it is most effective at medium range but is also effective at close range, but rarely will you kill a far away target without using an entire mag. at point blank the SMG is Devastating but unreliable due to recoil.

it is the second most used primary weapon.

rifle: a semi automatic Rifle with the highest accuracy, range, and damage and has a mag that holds 10 bullets. however, the rifle has the slowest firing speed, and does little to no damage to any part of the body but the head. it has a square and point based iron sight, which proves to be very helpful.

it has the slowest reload as well. it is effective at mid and far range but most effective at far range. at point blank, it does not help at all unless you manage a headshot. it is the most commonly used primary weapon.

grenades: 3 explosive grenades that the player throws at the desired target. they have a 3 second fuse. up close, they are instant kills and they shoot shrapnel in all directions affecting all enemies in a 9x9 radius of the blast. grenades can hurt enemies and the player who threw it. they also destroy terrain, as well as structures.

spade: a close range weapon used like any melee weapon that delivers enough damage to kill an enemy at 100% health in 2 hits. it also is useful for digging tunnels, and destroying structures/terrain.

blocks: 50 blocks with a variable color coding used to build structures such as blockades, bunkers, bases, sniper towers, and much much much more.

Modding: The game also boasts the ability to improve the game performance and experience by modding the textures of various things as well as modifying the sounds and adding maps. a list of different mods and examples below.

skins: various objects in the game are able to be re-textured as desired by the player. the many skin types that are modifiable include:

• the capture point
  
• the grenade
  
• the intel
  
• the rifle
  
• the shotgun
  
• the SMG
  
• the player skin
  
• the spade
  

sound mods: the sounds of various things in the game can be modified. these include:

• shooting sound for all guns
  
• explosion sound
  
• player damage sound
  
• reload sounds for all guns
  
• fall damage noises
  
• and many more
  

maps: Players have the option of adding additional maps to their servers (provided they purchase a server).

HACKS: use of hacks will often result in a WORLD WIDE permanent ban. various hacks include:

• aimbot
  
• infinite or enhanced health
  
• infinite or enhanced ammunition
  
• infinite or enhanced accuracy
  
• enhanced damage
  
• and more are created every day
  

Media:

http://gamebanana.com/aos <-- popular reliable mod source (i use it. its safe and worth it)

http://www.ace-spades.com/ <-- Ace Of Spades website

http://aceofspadeswiki.com/ <-- AoS Wiki

http://ace-spades.com/forums/ <-- AoS Forum

screenshots

notice the rifle iron sights

an example of structures. as well as a skin mod. that is the rifle with a modified skin.

shotgun iron sights

an example of a bunker made of blocks.

an example of the physics affecting structures.

official trailer

My Rating (1-5 stars): 4 stars