Optional Web3 stuff and AI generated flavor text don’t help its appeal, but the PlanetSide 2 connection brings a lot of cred.
Reaper Actual is a hard sell. It’s a plain-looking modern military extraction shooter with Web3 stuff, and I’ve seen enough of those to know that I’d probably rather be playing Battlefield.
But the man behind Reaper Actual, former Sony Online Entertainment and Daybreak head John Smedley, has snared me before. I spent a whole summer as an EverQuest halfling and did a few tours in the sci-fi MMO wars of the PlanetSide series, and Smedley has again teamed up with PlanetSide 2 creative director Matt Higby and PlanetSide 2 senior art director Trammel Isaac (who also made art for the original Fallout games) for this game.
I’m still not sold, but after an hour-long call with Smedley about his «dream game», I’ve at least been convinced to give Reaper Actual a shot.The red flags
My ears particularly perked up at the mention of Rainbow Six Siege, as I didn’t expect close-quarters base defense to be a focus in a persistent, open-world MMO shooter. You might even be able to make a home out of, and defend, a beached cruise ship or a submarine, and you won’t need a crypto wallet to do it.
The NFT stuff is all optional, and absent from the Steam and Epic Games Store versions of Reaper Actual, Smedley told me. He’s pitching blockchain trading as no different from the Steam Community Market, which Reaper Actual will also support, and says he understands the skepticism around crypto and hates labels like «play to earn.»
So why do Web3 at all?
«I actually went out with no intention of Web3», Smedley said, «and I couldn’t get funding to make this dream game that’s been in my head for 10 years.»
That’s just how it is these days, perhaps: Get a little blockchain in there if you want to fund your project. But I’m not turned off by Web3 games just because I don’t feel like setting up a crypto wallet. What makes me wary is that they imply a game that’s oriented toward grinding for rare items, with strict controls on how much fun you get to have so that you don’t break the economy. Smedley says that Reaper Actual’s design hasn’t been negatively influenced by Web3.
