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E3 2012: Warface (hands on)

by: John -
More On: E3 2012 Warface
I have to admit. I didn’t know what to expect from Warface. I figured the Crytek engine would produce a very nice looking FPS, but to hear it’s going to be a free-to-play venture peaked my interest.

The setup for the hands on demonstration took place in a nice small meeting room above the South Hall. I was treated to a PvE so it was five of us against computer AI. You’ll start out choosing a class, such as rifleman, medic, engineer, and sniper. I decided to go with the basic rifleman.

As the rifleman, I was able to drop ammo for my friends. And you can tell from the names of the other classes that some can help you out in their own way. And here’s where Warface tries to make you work as a team. Besides being able to heal or resupply your friends,  you’ll be asked to help your teammates if they are knocked down. Being knocked down by an enemy with a shield will force you to call upon someone else to help you back up. Like Left 4 Dead, you’ll be able to see your friend’s outlines behind obstacles and visual indicators on both the map and on the screen will help you know where they are.

The Crysis way of changing your weapon add-ons is here and it was pretty nice to be able to take off or add on to your current weapon and change its abilities. It’s quick and simple to use and those that have played Crysis will be right at home.

As far as the gameplay goes, it’s pretty solid. I was able to dive right in and be effective. Controls feel tight and there didn’t seem to be anything off when controlling the game.

Graphically, the game looked really well done, but that was obvious given the engine used. What’s really nice is that Crytek has gone and made the game scale well down to more lower end setups. This will get a lot of people into the game without having to build a really powerful computer to run Warface.

Something mentioned that should be pretty cool is that the game’s constantly evolving. The developers plan on constantly putting in new maps into the rotation so hopefully, you won’t be stuck with the same maps over and over again for long periods of time. Let’s hope the development team can offer up some good solid content at a consistent pace.

Microtransactions will be what helps keep the game funded, of course, but they weren’t prepared to say what they had in mind. For the show, the emphasis was kept to the game itself and what I played seemed really good.

For those that would love to jump in for a quick game with some buddies in either PvE or PvP, Warface seems to give you some solid FPS action in this area. And, since it’s free-to-play, consumers won’t have to worry about losing money if they don’t like the experience. And the promise of constant updates to the game’s content should help keep the game going provided they are released on a timely manner.

Warface looks and feels like a solid title and one that FPS fans should really check out when released. Like I said, there’s no risk in doing so and you can have some great fun without spending a single cent. With a team that’s got a solid background in FPS games, Warface has the tools to succeed as a free-to-play shooter.