Do I want a vehicle-building game or a standard shooter?

Two different ideas of skill

Most online action games test what you do during a match: aim, positioning, timing, teamwork. You pick from a set of characters or loadouts that the designers have balanced, and your skill shows in how you use them.

Building games add a second test that happens before the match. You decide what you'll bring, part by part, and the match then shows whether your design works. A clever build can make up for slower reactions; a poor one can undo good play. Some people find this the most satisfying thing a game can offer. Others find it homework.

There's no wrong answer. A useful question to ask yourself is what you enjoyed about the last game you stuck with. If you spent hours in menus tweaking things, you'll probably like building. If you skipped the menus to get back into matches, you probably won't.

Comparing the two

The last row is a generalisation, and individual games break it in both directions. The only way to know about a specific game is to look at its shop.

The appeal of building

The pleasure of a building game is ownership. The thing you drive into a match is yours in a way a pre-made character isn't. You chose its shape, how much armour to carry and where, which weapons to mount, and what to sacrifice for speed. When it works, you know why. When it doesn't, you have something to fix.

Building games also tend to keep giving after the early weeks. There's always another combination to try. For people who enjoy problem-solving, or who've spent weekends in the shed tinkering with something, that can hold interest longer than a game where everyone has the same options.

The costs of building

Depth takes time. Learning which parts work together, and which combinations other players use, can take many hours. Early matches may feel uneven while you learn. If your gaming time is twenty minutes on a weeknight, check whether the game lets you make progress in short sessions.

Building games also give a shop more to sell. When parts affect performance, the question of what can be earned by playing and what can be bought becomes important. Read our page on what free to play usually means before you register.

How the first fortnight usually goes

In a standard shooter, the first fortnight is mostly about getting your bearings: learning the maps, the weapons and what your team expects. Progress feels steady because you improve at something you are already doing every match.

In a building game, the first fortnight is lumpier. Early on you have few parts and little idea which ones matter, so your machine is a rough approximation of an idea. Then something clicks: you understand why your build keeps losing, you change one thing, and the difference is obvious. That moment is the reason people stay. If it has not arrived after a couple of weeks, the game is probably not for you, and that is a fine conclusion to reach.

Either way, give it more than one evening. Online games place new players against other new players at first, then widen the pool, so the game you meet in week one is not the game you meet in month two.

Playing with other people

Both kinds of game are better with people you know, and both work differently in a group. In a shooter, a squad coordinates during a match. In a building game, friends also become a source of designs and advice, and comparing machines is half the conversation. If you plan to play with friends interstate, check two things on the vendor's site: whether the game has party or squad features, and whether grouping with someone else changes which server region you are placed in. Being pulled onto a distant server to play with a friend can undo the connection advantages covered on our connection page.

A checklist for choosing

• You've thought about whether you enjoy designing, or mainly playing
• You know roughly how much time a week you'll have
• You've checked how parts or items are unlocked: by play, by purchase, or both
• You've confirmed the game supports your computer and operating system
• You've looked at where its servers are, relative to Australia
• You've looked up its classification if anyone under 18 will play

Where Crossout sits in this

Crossout is on the building side. According to the vendor's summary, it is a massively multiplayer online game set in a post-apocalyptic world, and the main role is played by vehicles the players construct themselves. The vendor describes thousands of possible combinations for changing a machine's appearance and parameters: its shape and armour, its armament and support systems, and aesthetic accessories that change only how it looks.

From the offer terms, we can add that it's promoted as free to play, that it's a desktop game for Windows and Linux, and that Mac isn't supported. Signing up involves registering, confirming your email address and logging in to the game.

What we don't know from the summary: its system requirements, server regions, what the shop sells, and its Australian classification. Those are worth checking on the vendor's site against the checklist above.

Might suit you if

• You like designing and testing your own machine before a fight
• A post-apocalyptic setting appeals more than a realistic military one
• You play on a Windows or Linux desktop or laptop

Might not suit you if

• You only have a Mac, a tablet or a phone
• You want to drop into a match without spending time on setup
• You're after a story-driven, single-player experience

A note on learning from other players

Building games have large communities that share designs, and it is tempting to copy a popular one and skip the learning. Copying a build teaches you what works today; understanding why it works teaches you what to do when the game changes it next month, which it will. Use other people's designs as a starting point, then change one thing at a time and watch what happens. That is slower for a week and quicker for a year.

If a shooter suits you better

That's a perfectly good outcome of reading this page. The same checks apply to any online game: whether it runs on your computer, whether your connection copes with its servers, what its shop sells, and how to protect your account. Our other pages cover each of those, and none of them depend on which game you choose.