I recently lost a couple of my favorite, long-running free-to-play games on the PC:, Battlefield Heroes, which was cartoonish but loaded with customization, and Battlefield Play-For-Free, which had the quality of a Battlefield game with F2P micro-transaction economy. Both were great in that they allowed players to be competitive without spending money – those titles became just a bit more fun if you did. This left a hole in my gaming life that I have been plugging F2P games into with varying success. The question I came across recently was would Warface be the perfect fit?
In co-op mode, play the part of a Rifleman, Sniper, Engineer or Medic, and master the unique skills of each class to help your team to victory. Daily new missions mean you’ll always have a fresh challenge to face and new rewards to unlock – regardless of whether you tackle Regular, Skilled or Hardcore campaigns. Versus matches see teams of up to eight players battling it out in stacks of competitive modes. Jump into “Team Deathmatch”, “Free for All”, “Plant the Bomb”, “Storm”, “Destruction” or “Capture”, and switch your soldier class at any moment to maximize your contribution to the cause.
Features:
- Enjoy a constant flow of new weapons, maps and more!
- Tackle new missions in diverse war zones every single day
- Brace yourself for explosive Co-op and Versus action
- Work as a team and master four unique soldier classes
- Crytek’s CRYENGINE tech draws you deep into the heat of battle
- Pick your side and fight as the forces of Blackwood or Warface
- Play completely free of charge – never pay a penny
- Expect the best – Crytek’s trademark quality meets free-to-play gaming
Hands On:
If you are like me, the above description and features sound spot-on for a solid F2P. If you haven’t really understood why people play free-to-play games in the first place – well, there are a bunch of different reasons, top of them for me is the fact that you get a constantly rotating player base that evolves with the game. No one is in there saying this game sucks and what a waste of money it is. Players are playing it because it is a fit for them or they just don’t play it at all. Since it didn’t cost them anything, they don’t feel an obligation to get their money’s worth out of it. For the most part, F2P games are also far less elitist because gamers understand these are all access games and the game didn’t cost them anything unless they chose to enhance their play. It’s about the fun of the game. One of the nice things about Warface is that at a certain level players are classified as “professionals” at the game so they have their own lobbies and games preventing the dreaded level 45 thumping level 1 noobs and chasing them off. Not that there would probably be a problem with that too much in the first place, there really generally is a sense of community play in F2P games and Warface fosters this in a few ways.
One way is that to get to certain locations on game maps requires teamwork, boosting up one player then getting pulled up yourself. Not only does this give the players high ground advantage but they also get a point bonus for working together. Another way Warface enhances comradery is in the simplest but sometimes most overlooked solution: medics and ammo packs. It’s amazing how few people will complain if the bottom player on their team hasn’t gotten a single kill but has revived or healed them several times in the fight. Side Note: I think Warface’s medic class could use some tweaking as it is a bit too time consuming to save a fallen teammate, but I can see erring on the side of caution with this as speeding it up too much could make a team invincible!
The final and most important deciding factor on whether or not a F2P game should be played is whether it can remain free to play. Some call themselves F2P because there is no initial buy-in but when it comes down to it you have to pay to win. Being a guru of the F2P genre, nothing makes me angrier than a free-to-play, pay-to-win game. I don’t mind investing money into a free-to-play, quite the contrary as I understand that this is the only way to keep up support for a game and make updates and play expansions viable. Plus, if they make the game more fun that’s terrific. Also, there are players with more money than time and if they want to pay to unlock things that other players will unlock over time or even just speed up the unlocks with boosts more power to them. As long another player can pay their dues with time and get as much out of the game as the deep-pocketed, great!
Warface is great with all this. I played a while as a rookie with no unlockables and only codes given away on Twitter and had a great time. Then, I played at the professional level with a bunch of unlockables, playing against other pros and watching some well oiled and beautifully brutal action. I probably went to the professional level a little too soon in play, which is a risk for pay to rank players but I still didn’t feel out of my element and I got kills through skills even if I hadn’t perfected the special moves like the slide and slaughter (that might not be its actual name but it sure should be!).
The game’s map sizes, so far, are pretty small. While some have decent sniper roosts, they are mostly based on concealment rather than distance. There are maps with shipping containers where they enemy is always visible then there are some of the more advanced maps with actual concealment. Personally I would like to see more large maps in play but that is a personal taste, maps are voted on at the end of a round and it is very possible that I just never really got any large ones. The Co-Op maps are good size and a lot of fun, loaded with enough enemies for all to get some kills.
Lastly, I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the graphics. Thanks to using the CryEngine as its game engine, it can give you the graphic quality you expect from a AAA game while still being F2P which is a pretty decent accomplishment in itself.
Last Shot:
Warface is one of the best F2P games I have seen in a while and is definitely worth a play in your valuable free time. It is truly free-to-play as they claim and, if you have the time, you can be just as competitive if not more so than someone with more money than time. It has a good community and game mechanics that promote continued goodwill among players. Warface is about playing first person shooter when you have the time and having a blast – isn’t that what all games should really be about?
[easyreview title=”Warface F2P Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]
