In 2007, The Patrix(纸客帝国), a TPS game developed by the Chinese game company 趣味第一, gave it endless fun and possibilities with its bold and imaginative idea of allowing characters to be turned into paper. This work was even highly praised by John Romero, the well-known pioneer of the whole FPS game industry. Unfortunately, due to a broken capital chain, betrayal by business partners, and the poor game development environment in early China, the game that seemed extremely advanced at that time, went through several twists and turns before it was officially shut down in 2010, its impact was almost limited to China, too. Although Paperman(ペーパーマン), a game with a similar design and idea appeared later, it was essentially just a CS-like with paper character models.

In 2023, with the debut of the anime-style third-person hero shooter Strinova in public testing in Mainland China, the unique stringification mechanism in this work will, to some extent, bring the buried charm of The Patrix Seventeen years ago back to modern players. With the announcement of the Strinova global server in 2024, players around the world will have the opportunity to see the unique gameplay and creativity of this work.


Whether in terms of the UI, character oath and dormitory setting, or the business operational mode, Strinova clearly draws on and inherits from gacha games a lot. Apart from the fact that characters need to be purchased with currency, weapons and character skins, which are the main profit points of the game, will not have any impact on the player's gaming and combat experience, thus ensuring the competitiveness advocated by the game. In addition, the more casual mode in Strinova called the challenge, also has a more light ranking system that emphasizes time and accumulation of matches. It not only increases user stickiness but also provides another way out for casual players in this game that emphasizes competition.

The unique stringification mechanism that allows the player to change from 3D to 2D, reduces the character's hitbox but slows the movement speed, and allows the player to move and hide into some walls and glide from heights, are the best features of Strinova. The combination that overall TPS with partial FPS when ADS not only allows the player to use the third-person over-the-shoulder field of view for flexible observation and information acquisition but also provides the possibility for the player to use stringification for flexible body movements. As a hero shooter, each character in Strinova has fixed but differently positioned weapons and skills. Players can also choose customized skill upgrades based on different options in the store, allowing players to flexibly adjust their tactics. The overall moderate TTK, the down but not out design in Demolition, the flexible upper limit of the character's movement, and the diverse skill coordination, combined with the more hardcore competitive game core of Strinova, make this work also have a high room for the player to practice and improve.


Since the public test, Strinova has been controversial for excessive reference. Because it truly presents this once-lost but highly creative game design to players again, the reference to The Patrix is understandable; in terms of game content such as character skills and map design, Strinova constantly makes players feel familiar and lacks novelty. The characters in the game have fixed weapons that cannot be switched, and in many modes, you cannot switch characters midway, which makes the player's tactical choices extremely limited and is not conducive to the player's gaming experience. As a TPS that emphasizes competitiveness, compared to traditional FPS, Strinova requires players to adapt to a certain extent in terms of tactics and operation.

The biggest fatal flaw of Strinova is the mismatch between its operating direction and its main audience groups. The anime style it attracted a lot of casual players, which is the main player group of Strinova, but it has taken the path of e-sports, and its worldview and plot construction are also quite poor. The competitive nature of Strinova, the poor matchmaking balance, and the large number of robots in the matches doom it to a poor competitive environment, ultimately leading to a result that neither casual nor competitive players were happy.


Overall, Strinova is still an excellent TPS with great creativity and highlights, but it does not conform to the first impression of most players which is leisure and entertainment. Instead, it is a highly competitive and confrontational game. However, as the number of players in the challenge matches on the current global server far exceeds that in the ranking matches, it can be seen what players essentially need. It may be too late for Strinova to adjust its operation direction now, and it can only make one mistake after another.

The glory of Strinova is no longer there. After its initial short-lived popularity, the game has been suffering from a decline in reputation and a continuous loss of players, both in its Chinese mainland and global servers. For players, Strinova's unique stringification mechanism itself is worth a try already, but it is questionable how long this work can survive. For game developers, Strinova is also a typical negative example: blindly emphasizing confrontation while ignoring playability and player experience, and promoting e-sports at all costs without understanding one's positioning and main audience is by no means a feasible approach.

I didn’t know what to expect from Strinova, but after a few matches, I can say one thing – this isn’t just a Valorant clone with an anime aesthetic; it’s something truly unique.

✅ 2D/3D Switching Mechanic – The highlight of the game. You can phase between dimensions, dodge bullets, hide behind objects, and then suddenly pop back into 3D to ambush enemies. It adds a whole new layer of strategy.
✅ Anime Art Style – The character designs, animations, and effects are really well done. If you like sci-fi anime aesthetics, this will be a treat.
✅ Fast-Paced Gameplay – Shooting feels responsive, and the characters have unique abilities that make fights interesting (feels like a mix of Overwatch and Valorant).

❌ Servers & Ping Issues – Sometimes the lag makes the game unplayable. Devs, please fix this.
❌ Bugs & Crashes – I got hit with the "Anomalous data" error a few times, forcing a restart.
❌ Balance Issues – Some characters feel overpowered, while others seem useless. Hopefully, future patches fix this.

If you’re into tactical shooters but want something fresh, Strinova is a cool experiment. It’s not perfect, but the 2D/3D mechanic is genuinely fun and unique. If the devs fix the servers and balance, this could be a top-tier game.

✅ Recommended, but with some caveats – waiting for updates!

I did not play much but after a friend of mine got banned for cheating (10 year ban) while she did not cheat at all and the game itself is full of cheaters who don't get banned also while the developers don't seem to know how their own built in anticheat engine works or to still impute to the player has cheated even after replays showed he/she did not and all just because the manufacturer of the gaming mouse had a tool in their drivers that is stupidly called "aimtrainer.gg" i quit even before i really started since she lost money and we all know that is where the fun ends. I wont invest time or money in a game where developers are not interested in helping paying costumers while ignoring game breaking cheaters who pay nothing at all. Very sad because the game itself is very good and very fun but i just don't want to invest time only to find one day my precious account got banned for no reason at all and devs are blocking the unban even after it was proven that no cheating has happend. Cheaters do not care about creating new accounts and they do not care for their accounts at all but paying costumers usually care for what they spend money on, devs should understand this first, else they either did not understand buisiness or it is calculated colateral to grab even more money from paying players but that is just a wild assumption ;)