Warface

If free-to-play games are ingrained in our future, then they better present an option to improve games, instead of just watering them down into a stretched experience. With Warface, developer Crytek puts its peerless expertise from the Crysis series to this model and succeeds in at least one of manner. A free first-person shooter with the same punch as a full release, tense multiplayer and good team play; it seems a bit too good to be true, certainly since it runs in a browser.

It may not be obvious, but this online title works with the same visual powerhouse as the developer’s other features. Textures in the CryEngine 3 look crisp, with fibers noticeable in tactical gloves or rusty shades on weapons. Locations and color schemes tend to stick to the washed out, brown areas of deserts and dilapidated hangars, but at least it looks clean on the screen. Not only that, but it runs surprisingly smooth on any online connection, with only sporadic lag issues and that on the highest of settings. If someone knows how to work with an engine efficiently, it’s the people who invented it.

Additional touches keep the realistic factor alive with dust winds, dwindling foliage, splatter screens and tons of other complementary vivification. An overall interface stays out of the way of combat, while clearly indicating the main points, such as ammo and health. At the same time, visual prompts indicate where team mates are positioned and whether they require assistance. This can also be seen on a mini-map, which additionally notes detected enemies for strategic entrances. Team mates provide each other with some automated chatter, thanking others for picking them up, providing them with ammo and so on. It’s like facing an actual war. Some sort of pun was bound to happen, sorry.

Levels can partake in the same expertise, with a handful of environments made up of multiple lanes, tiers and secrets to discover. Nearly all stages provide different routes for open fields and many corridors alike, though the favor falls on close combat, to keep excitement to a more instant notion, comparable to the Call of Duty series. Only a few chokepoints or sniper nests exist, which makes it easier to surmount pinned down situations through alternate routes. Rather, team work is more essential than good positioning in nooks and crannies. To aid with team play, Warface periodically has framework that can be accessed through cooperation. One team member asks for a boost, then lends a hand to the below member once on top of the structure.

To diversify squads, it’s possible to choose between four standard classes. A gunner provides ammo, an engineer sets up claymores, a medic heals and the sniper is the cowardly backseat driver. To customize even further, personalization of equipment outside of play and weaponry in-game keeps things adaptable. For instance, it’s possible to unlock or purchase better armor, weapons and so forth, then fit those rifles with suppressors, added ammo, scopes and more. When on the field, it’s even plausible to switch out weapons dropped by players, which means that classes are interchangeable to a degree. This is handy when stuck with short ranged weaponry in an open level or vice versa.

Customization for the patient.

As this shooter is based mostly on good team coordination, most modes rely on a squad system of taking control points, planting bombs or straight murder. Experience and leaderboards are balanced, not solely on kill ratio, but on a decent plug for good support as well. Engineers can stay away from combat with their light guns and instead opt to block off areas with explosives visible to the team, only to then turn face and provide people with armor. Even a bad gunner can simply do ammo runs for everyone and get points that way. Helping out a fellow soldier in this game is pushed in multiple ways and that facilitates teamwork and makes Warface an instantly better game. While there will always be the lone psychopath racking up faces, providing tons of incentives to help out others urges people to help out, which can be seen in many rounds. Some frivolous flavor is added with the ability to slide in and shoot enemies from a downed position. As a clincher, there is an entire cooperative route, aside from the competitive multiplayer, to truly strengthen bonds.

Be prepared for a different type of challenge in co-op.

While Warface is an utmost functional and entertaining experience in Beta already, it does still offer some minor kinks. Its most prominent flaw right now is the gap between free-to-play content and purchased items. It is possible to unlock further content, but only by sinking in tons of hours for lower item slots, while any purchase instantly offers a much higher grade of exclusive items. Some of it, namely weapons, can sporadically get picked up, which does provide an edge to paying customers. Luckily, the solid design and team play soften the blow considerably, but mowing down a power player as a regular runt is a hard day’s work, while the reverse can end in a one-shot kill. On that note, it’s striking just how balanced this shooting gallery is built, if it’s still just as thrilling to play, even with this impediment in place. If it chooses to bridge the gap between free items and purchased gear, it could do so much as negate any issue at all. That would be a glorious feat to behold.

More than the engaging and versatile gunplay, great visuals and expert level design; it’s a solid focus on teamwork that makes Warface shine as a browser game, which outweighs a fair number of its full release peers. It may still bear the baby-weight of free-to-play systems for now, but not even that can topple this balanced shooter, overflowing with possibilities to shine. It seems too good to be true, but it is here and it should get played.

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)