The New Fast-Paced Action-Packed Game by Indie dev studio, Proletariat.    

By Luke Gentle 

Staff Writer 

Available for PC on Steam, $19.99 

Note: “Streamline” is currently in early access and details discussed in this article may change. This article was written as a review of version 2.4.65.   

“Streamline” is a fast-paced multiplayer video game with an emphasis on quick running and jumping around in an arena while playing various game modes. 

One of the main selling points of “Streamline” is its Twitch integration that allows others to view those playing the game and to shake up the rules of the game.  The Twitch integration also allows viewers to bet points on players in the game.  While this is quite unique, it is only a small part of the game that can go completely unnoticed by new players.  I will be focusing on the main parts of the game instead of the streaming portions.   

“Streamline” has three game modes: Elimination, Tag, and the newly added Bitball. 

Elimination has one hunter that chases down and tries to eliminate all of the runners by hitting them with a stop sign.  Runners attempt to gain the most points by picking up gems and they earn bonuses for doing things such as getting close to the hunter or stunning another runner. 

Tag, as the name suggests, has one hunter that tags runners which results in a transfer of the hunter role to the tagged runner.  The goal of the game in Tag mode is to gain the most points.  Because the hunter cannot pick up gems, the runners try to pick up the gems while avoiding the hunter.  If theplayer becomes a hunter, it is to his/her advantage to pass on the hunter role as quickly as possible. 

Finally, Bitball is the most unique game mode.  Bitball has two teams of runners that each have the objective of scoring goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team’s floating goal.  The three game modes provide a great deal of variety in the game play. 

In each of the game mode, the players run around, slide on walls, and jump around the arena at high speeds.  Overall, I had a huge amount of fun playing “Streamline.” 

One of the most entertaining parts of the game is the rule switches that occur occasionally throughout the rounds.  These rule modifications range from changing the floor to lava, causing players to perpetually jump to avoid burning their feet, to making every surface in the arena ice. 

Anticipating and reacting to the sudden shifts of the rules are an amusing addition to the gameplay and really shake the gameplay up.   

“Streamline” also has a wide variety of character customization. A new player starts with a good amount of items unlocked, including some cool “Team Fortress 2” and “Portal” outfits, but most of the cosmetics have to be unlocked. 

Cosmetics can be unlocked by opening dropped item packs.  Unlike games like “Counterstrike: Global Offensive” and “Team Fortress 2”, these packs are actually free to open and are quite common. 

In the future, the cosmetics will most likely be where microtransactions are introduced.  However, if the current system is kept, they will not be a nuisance and might actually be welcomed.   

The game also looks stunning on maximum settings.  It has a great feel to it and a nice stylized look.  The game looks great with the amazing lighting and shaders, cartoon-like graphics and some nice-looking environments. 

One notable problem with the graphics of the game is that the game provides few visual settings only allowing the player to choose between two resolutions and four graphics setting.  Another problem is that at this time the game is pretty poorly optimized.  Mid-range PCs will have trouble running the game at 60fps, which is essentially required for a fast-paced game like “Streamline”, on medium or high quality graphics.   

While “Streamline” looks great and is really fun, the matchmaking system, or the process used for a gamer to join in a game with other players, is very lacking. 

A player has two options, joining a game lobby or creating a new game.  When I first tried to join a game, I waited about 10 minutes before I gave up and tried another game lobby.  I repeated this process several times and was only successful in joining a game after I waited in one lobby for over forty-five minutes for a game to start. There is no single player portion of the game, so if you want to play you have be able to wait around, or get really lucky and get into a server as a game is starting.  

As more players purchase and play the game, this problem will be less of an issue, but that is not guaranteed to happen.  If the player would have more options, such as seeing all of the available servers to choose from, servers would fill much faster and this wouldn’t be an issue.  At this point however, the player as almost no control. 

Despite the game looking visually spectacular and being a lot of fun to play, due to the unacceptable server issues, poor optimization, and lack of graphical controls, I do not recommend buying “Streamline” at this point in time. 

The game is great, but until the server issues are fixed, it is not reliably playable.  “Streamline” could become a very popular game in the future with further technical development.  In its current state of development, I have to give this game a 4.5/10. 

You can decide for yourself what you think of this game by checking out “Streamline” on Steam.