The Eastern shooter heads West Crytek had a very busy Gamescom show. On one side of the floor they had Crysis 3, a big-budget yet traditional shooter sequel, whereas on the other they had a giant inflatable Chinook full of PCs loaded to play Warface, a free-to-play shooter game tailored specifically for gamers from the East which is now so successful that its coming to our shores, care of Trion Worlds.
This military shooter is class-based for four roles to assume, ranging from Rifleman, Engineer, Medic and Sniper – all of which handle as you'd expect, but that isn't what's exciting about it. The setting mixes modern military with near-future sci-fi, with rocket launchers and APC helicopters sharing the same space as mechs and revival syringes. There's a host of weapon modifications, all of which can be carried out in real-time in-game. Fancy swapping out a scope for a laser-sight? No problem. Underhung grenade launcher for stability grip? Easy.
Warface Gameplay 2015
The competitive focus is obviously a key driver to keep playing with the incentive for modding your particularly class and subsequently owning the battlefield, but that's just part of the equation. The other is co-op. Every day new ‘Shooter Raids' are added to the game for teams of five to tackle and complete for free.
Crytek seem especially proud of their Dynamic Mission Generator, which will automatically create scenarios for players. This PvE focus ties intro Warface's in-game store which sells instant revival tokens in addition to vanity items. Picture the scene, you're midway through a raid, all your team-mates are dead and you're about to wipe when you pluck out a token to instantly revive yourself, and from there you go about an pick-up the other fallen soldiers. It's worth nothing that each mission has multiple checkpoints and can be replayed multiple times without these tokens, but for ease of use they're a very interesting inclusion, albeit a superfluous one. Even with the game's solid visuals, I suspect it won't be able to compete with other more "complete" shooters, especially games like Warframe and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
