Big Time Early Access Deep Dive
Ruby Pass Stage
Disclaimer:
I’m not a financial advisor, this isn’t financial advice and these opinions are my own. I’m just a dude that is a crypto gaming enthusiast and reads too many whitepapers. For disclosure, I currently own 2 Big Time land NFTs (Space) that I bought at mint.
TLDR at the bottom, as always, if your day is busy.
What is Big Time?
Big Time is a multiplayer action RPG in early access that will eventually be free-to-play and is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Many of the in-game assets are NFTs, specifically: in-game items such as weapons and armor cosmetics, like you would expect from an RPG. It is currently in the later stages of its early access, meaning right now it is gated by possession of early access passes, which are also NFTs that have different rarities. It is currently in the Ruby Pass phase shown in the graphic below. The story of Big Time takes place in the distant future where time is near its end, as all of the stars of the universe are fading away. The instances in which the players play and interact are timeshares where the player is traveling back in time. It should be noted that these instances are also procedurally generated so each run through of a timeshare should be a unique experience. The rest of the plot, as any sort of time-travel plot does, gets a little confusing and convoluted with time paradoxes and historical figures. Currently the purchasable NFTs on Opensea and the Big Time Marketplace include the land plots, also known as Space, early access passes, and cosmetics that are earned in game.
Who’s Behind Big Time?
The studio building Big Time is none other than the aptly-named Big Time Studios. Their webpage offers 11 members of their core team that are fully doxxed including all of their LinkedIn profiles, which is refreshing within the Web3 space. They boast experience from many of the Web2 game industry veteran studios and publishers like Epic Games, Blizzard, EA and Riot Games. The CEO, Ari Meilich and CTO, Matt Tonks both also have experience working with Decentraland. For many other of the core team members this is their first venture into a blockchain game which is never necessarily a bad thing, but something to note. I personally found that the teams’ art experience to have the most depth to draw from. I’ll also note from the small bit of lurking I did in the official Discord, the moderators and team seem to be quite active there.
The Gameplay
As always this review is looking at a game in early access so take what I say with a grain of salt, however I definitely have a couple of bones to pick with the current gameplay. The beginning area and experience really needs to be tightened up. Outside of a couple of NPCs standing near your initial spawn there's almost no direction given to the player. I found myself running along the shoreline for five minutes before finally finding a portal that had a level recommendation much higher than my level-one character. I tried it anyway and was promptly killed by the first group of mobs. I then had to meander for about ten minutes before finding a portal instance suitable for a level 1 player. Starting a game with a jogging simulator isn’t ideal.
The solo play experience is also poorly balanced around the two character archetypes I played. I’m always looking for the glass-cannon DPS class, so I initially tried playing Shadowblade. However with no way to control mob aggro alone, I found it extremely difficult to land backstabs or deal with large groups. I'm sure the Shadowblade probably feels better in group play, where you have others pulling aggro, but it honestly feels almost unplayable as a solo. After switching classes over to Time Warrior, the solo play experience was much more enjoyable as I was able to take on larger groups with the more durable build.
My biggest issue with the game in its current state is the poor optimization. I build my own PC with high-end performance parts. Usually, I'm able to get consistent 144fps in major titles like Apex Legends, Valorant, etc. However, Big Time running at only 60fps, was utilizing 98% of my GPU and CPU. I found this especially frustrating when I attempted to stream the game on Twitch, during which I was unable even to maintain 60fps.
There are definitely some bright points for Big Time, like its art style. The characters and world definitely have a certain unique charm. I also really like the lore and theme of the game, and I think they can do some really neat stuff with using historical figures as NPCs. The combat is fairly simple and approachable at the start, with enough depth within the skill trees and items that you can customize your loadout to suit your playstyle. I was playing late at night on a low-population server and only saw one other player, but I can definitely envision some fun random interaction on higher-density servers in the portal instances. Lastly, although I was frustrated with the Shadowblade class, the Timeline system makes changing classes easy, with no need to to reinvest a bunch of time and resources.
The NFTs
Quite simply, the NFTs are purely cosmetic. This is a use of blockchain that I feel I see far too little of, as it's one of the most obvious use-cases for NFTs—especially in the MMO and/or RPG genres. Early access only has character and weapons NFTs right now. Space is not available for use yet. So how do you actually obtain the NFTs? Well, just by playing the game and a bit of good fortune on loot drops. It is my understanding that the best odds of obtaining the cosmetic NFTs are within the portal instances strewn across the overworld, defeating the boss within those instances (timeshares). The earliest access passes had the best odds of obtaining NFTs. The boosted odds are shown in the graphic above and were selling at a premium a couple months ago when it started.
The NFTs can of course be bought and sold on the Big Time Marketplace, giving players an outlet to sell some of the in-game items that they've earned with their time and effort. When I glanced at the Big Time Marketplace the lowest priced NFTs were $2.50 while the highest were over $2,000. There is certainly room for some price discovery as the game’s playerbase grows and it leaves early access.
Space is essentially a piece of land within the game or as they call it “your personal pocket universe”. The features of Space are scheduled to go live with the full launch of the game and depending on how you manage your space, you will produce different rarities of items. Space will be upgradeable through other items known as Time Wardens and Forges, which I believe can be mixed and matched, as they come in various sizes and rarities just like Space itself. Again, the NFTs and items produced by Space are purely cosmetic so this is not a pay-to-win game economy.
Where’s Big Time Now and Where’s It Going?
Big Time has been in early access for a while now. It started in mid-April with the Gold Pass access, so we are going over 3 months now. The Ruby Pass did get delayed, so the graphic at the top is a little off. Coming up next is game access for Space holders and a couple new things added to the game. From there it’ll be moving into beta access with 2 stages. I didn’t note earlier, but there have been account wipes between tiered access to keep it fair for all players hunting the exclusive NFT rewards. Those wipes will cease at full launch. Big Time has a busy roadmap. I definitely will revisit my review sometime in the beta to see if any of my issues have improved, and of course try the new stuff. Graphic below is from Big Time explaining the short term roadmap for you visual people.
TLDR
The Good
Clean, unique artstyle
NFTs are all cosmetic, no pay-to-win
Doxxed core team with sound game industry experience
The Neutral
ETH mainnet only
Procedural generated mini-dungeons helps keep content fresh but assets do still clearly repeat
No land (Space) gameplay yet
The Bad
Poor optimization, low framerates even on a high-end PC
New player experience needs work
Character class balance doesn’t work well for solo play
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You should always do your own research before making any investment. Here's a bunch of links from Big Time for you to do that.
Thanks for your effort King. Grand Rising
Nice work man.