1998 · First-person shooter · Paintball

Extreme Paintbrawl

Advertised as "The 1st Non-Violent 3D Shooter", Extreme Paintbrawl is the first game in the first-person shooter genre to be based on the sport of paintball. It is cross-promotional with the Sheridan and Crosman brands of gear.

Released: 20 October 1998
Platforms: Windows
Genres: First-person shooter Paintball Shooter Sports
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Action
Engine: Build
Country: United States
Age ratings: ESRB T

About

Extreme PaintBrawl is a paintball video game released for MS-DOS and Windows on October 20, 1998. The game is considered to be one of the worst video games ever made. Extreme PaintBrawl was developed in two weeks using the Build engine; its soundtrack was composed by musician Todd Duane, who sent his demo tracks to Head Games. The game was followed by Extreme PaintBrawl 2 in 1999, Ultimate PaintBrawl 3 in 2000, and Extreme PaintBrawl 4 in 2002, all of which were met with negative reviews.

Despite being "distinguished as the first non-violent 3D shooter" by the Philadelphia Daily News, prior examples of non-violent first-person shooters have existed on the market a few years before Extreme PaintBrawl: Super 3D Noah's Ark by Christian video game developer Wisdom Tree and Chex Quest, an advergame total conversion of Doom for children.

Keywords

extreme sports
platform exclusive
bots

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In Extreme PaintBrawl, there are three game modes available to the player: Season Mode, Single Game, and Practice. Season Mode allows the player to manage a team of eight recruits through an entire season. The player is able to hire and fire recruits, buy markers, and compete against other teams for the championship in compliance with a fixed schedule. There were several flaws in this mode, such as the inability to swap markers between recruits.

Single Game allows the player to play a single paintball match. The objective is to score by either capturing the opponent's flag or marking an opponent. Practice mode leaves the player alone on their chosen field with no specific targets to shoot.

Reception

Extreme PaintBrawl received extremely negative reviews; criticism was directed toward its use of the obsolete Build engine, lack of game modes beyond a variation of capture the flag, maps that did not resemble actual paintball fields at all, an unfitting soundtrack, and a practice mode that only allowed players to roam through a map without any enemies or targets. The game was also plagued by bizarre AI behavior, including computer-controlled teammates getting caught near doors and walls or standing still in open areas of the map, but also being able to exhibit perfect aim.

7/10, stating that the game took the first-person shooter genre too far by trying to "wed a tired game engine with the paintball phenomenon." Its AI was criticized for being "perhaps one of the worst attempts at modeling a team sport" due to its inconsistent behavior, and the game was also criticized for making it too difficult to distinguish between enemies and allies. In conclusion, Extreme PaintBrawl was considered to be "perhaps one of the worst games I've seen in years, as much out of touch with reality as it is out of step with the gaming world at large." Raphael Liberatore additionally noted performance issues and a poor graphical user interface in his review of the game for Computer Gaming World, giving it a rating of one out of five stars.