One day playing soldier front, I person asked me if anyone was going to sign up for Combat Arms beta. Getting tired of Soldier Front, I decided to check it out. Immediately, just looking at the pictures i began drooling. Weapon modifications? A huge selection of weapons? What is this, FPS heaven? I got my Beta key and waited impatiently for the beta session to start...
I got on and it was the best FPS i had ever played. Imagine this, Counter Strike, Soldier Front, and Warrock all combined together with a little debuff to create Combat Arms. A lot of people have tried this game, and very few people actually have turned away.
Graphics 4/5
The Graphics are quite amazing for a free online game. Not only is it free, the minimum requirements are low as well, thus allowing many people to play it. Although most of the graphics are pretty realistic, some things bring the game down. For example, the blood is probably the worst blood ever made. It's usually best to turn it off to spare your eyes and to prevent lag. Also, when you pull out your trusty knife, although you can not see it, to other people you look like a karate chopping robot. Litterally, it goes from a 90 degree angle to a 0 degree angle and then back.
Game Play 4/5
Only after playing this game for a LONG time will you get bored. Currently there are 8 maps out as of today (9-19-08). They consist of 2 snow maps, Cold Seed and Snow Valley, two desert maps, Junk Flea and Pump Jack, 3 urban maps, Warhead, Two Towers, and Grayhammer, while the newest map is in a jungle by the name of Brushwood. The urban maps are rarely played though. Even though they are quite enjoyable, people tend to play Junk Flea, Snow Valley, and Brush wood more since they give faster exp, or are more suited towards a better type of weapon. Cold Seed is also ignored because it has become a glitcher's dream.
There are currently 4 modes of game play, One man army (deathmatch), capture the flag, search & destroy, and elimination. One man army, as the title suggests, is a battle where everyone is out for themselves. It is the most profitable and gives the most exp. In capture the flag, two teams must battle against each other to get the other team's flag. Once they have the flag, they must run back to their own flag to score. Search & Destroy is when one team must plant a bomb, while the other team must successfully defend their two bases. If a bomb is planted, the defending team must defuse the bomb. Elimination is death match, except there are two teams rather than everyone out for themselves.
Hack Proof 4/5
(If this was a couple of months ago, it would be a 2/5) - During Beta and Open Beta, there were almost no hackers. Out of 1000 games, only 1 would have a hacker or glitcher. But games can not remain hack or glitch proof forever. When the official version of Combat Arms was released, there was a sudden surge in glitchers and hackers. All of a sudden the amount of hackers and glitchers had a ratio of 3:1 (legit players:hackers/glitchers). Nexon quickly began banning and de-ranking players, showing players that they meant business and listened to their legit players. The hack/glitch surge began to die down, and for a while there was peace. Eventually it came up again. After a quick patch, more than 100 players had been de ranked or banned. To make it up to the legit players as well, Nexon gave several updates the next couple of weeks, giving us more weapons and maps. Today, the hackers have begun to die out. Most of the hackers have left and glitchers have replaced them. But in certain maps, there are no glitches and so peopel tend to play those maps most.
Note: If you never want to see a glitcher, try to avoid Cold Seed.
Weapon & Armor Variety 5/5
Combat Arms has 42 Guns, 7 grenades, 3 different type of scopes, 3 different types of scopes, 2 different types of extended magazines, 2 ballastic vests, 11 helmets, 3 camoes, 5 face accessories, two pack backs, and 1 support item. Add that all together, and you have a huge variety of weapons and items to try from. Even if you do not want to buy a weapon, you can pick up a weapon from the ground, saving you lots of money.
Clan / Friends 3/5
The friend system is pretty decent, however, the clan system is what could use improvements. In the clan page, leaders and admins can change the annoucement but the character limit is 80. This makes it extremely hard to leave messages to clan mates. Also it would be nice if Nexon automactially transferred our clan list to our friends list so we could always see who is on. Lastly, a BBS similar to MapleStory's would be nice. That would allow us to leave messages more.
Overall 4/5
Over all, this game is pretty good. Fans of FPS games should check this game out, even if they are committed to a game already.
Well, if you ever decide to play, meet me on. My in game name is ShadowRAIKI.
