Warface Review

Final Score - 7/10

Warface has had a long journey, launching way back in 2013 on PC with many updates and evolutions since then. It failed to make mainstream in the console world in 2015 when the Xbox 360 version was discontinued; however, 2018 is when it really got it’s second wind. Launching for paid early founders packs on Xbox One and PS4, and weeks later going completely free to play, it is here for our attention in the spotlight once again. Warface is a first person shooter with multiple online modes both in PVP or PVE. It offers many cooperative modes, and Battle Royale is also coming soon. I have been playing Warface on PS4 since it launched for free, and I have to say this game is FUN. It is one of those games that makes me rethink how I review games. There are so many things to base a score off of: graphics, gameplay, story, features, etc… Sometimes a game comes along that doesn’t execute those things well but is still a great game. This game reminds me of the first time I tried Player Unknown Battlegrounds. PUBG was buggy, ugly, and by all factors not a “good game”, but was super fun. Sometimes, that X fun factor can really affect a score over all the mechanics. The bad graphics were like-able and the bugs added a challenge. Warface is similar. It has many negatives, such as 360 era graphics that could use some polish, or unbalanced gameplay with weird model collisions that can cause some frustrating gameplay. However, what this game does have is charm.

(Watch the PS4 Launch trailer here)

Cons:

It is not a polished AAA shooter, it plays like a free shooter. The game has some pretty awful spawn camping, camping choke points, and gun imbalances. You will die a lot and you will be shot through walls or by unbalanced choke points. Don’t expect this game to play like Call of Duty or Battlefield, and just embrace the chaos and you may just have fun in this sniper fest. The freemium feel of the game can be a negative, the constantly ever present “store” with item trials that let you test out guns or armor for meer days before taking it away from you. Anything cool enough to warrant a purchase is so expensive it will require weeks of grinding. Speaking of the store, I don’t know how they got away with this in 2018, but if you want to play as a female character, it is going to cost you. I’m talking 800 “Koins” PER class. It takes a week of playing every day to earn 100 Koins and it would cost 10-40 real dollars to get enough Koins to get a female character alone or for all classes. I found that a little odd to make “gender” a paid feature in a game when really every other game offers it as a free choice. I think if the game gets big enough to get more attention, that decision might stab them in the back.

Pros:

This game is fun as hell. Yes, it is broken and you will die a lot, but respawn times are near zero so you can quickly avenge yourself. While the game has an ever present store in your face, since the game is free, I can’t complain too much as it does'nt interfere with the game experience. I can access every mode and still play just fine for free. The game does offer ways to earn content and the amount of content is pretty decent. I am most impressed by the amount of modes for a simple free shooter. The traditional modes are there like death match and such, but there are also fun cooperative modes. My favorite was a mode called “blackout”…no not THAT Blackout. It is a PVE four person moving horde mode where you face off against an army of cyborgs. They were faster and more scary than slow moving zombies that saturate many shooters. Plus the setting was dark with cyborg creatures jumping out of the shadows. One of the things I dislike in many shooters is you start of alone and with little weapons and rough it against slow moving zombies. We have yet to see a fast paced War Z style game where experienced squads of elite soldiers face hordes of fast moving zombies. This game does it well, even if they’re called “cyborgs”. *Update* Very recently while in the midst of wrapping up this review the studio has added Battle Royale mode to the game. It doesn't have the grand scale of what you expect from the mode if you are used to Fortnite, PUBG or the recent COD Blackout, but considering the developers keep adding new free modes to keep the game fresh shows they listen and care about their fan base. The mode only had about 30+ players, and the map, while large for WARFACE, is smaller compared to other battle royales. This may expand with playbase as they probably want to keep server wait times lower than what would come with 100 player matches. However, this does make for the fastest paced battle royale to give it a fresh aspect. Buildings in the map are often locked and act only as obstacles, making the map seem emptier than most royale's, but this can adapt over time. Fans of shooters looking for a new game but also are hooked on Royale, this is a great new mode.

All in all, I think this game is worth a try if you are into shooters. At the low low price of free there’s no harm in playing. I think it is a must try for shooter, zombie, and battle royale fans.