Combat Arms - free online FPS

The Game Room
1

I have found this online FPS which is rather good. It has similarities to Counter Strike in that it is mainly a team-based game.

They promise that it will always be free to play though you can actually buy things for it but only “cosmetic” items. The purcahses shouldn’t effect the game balance.

You gain experience points for each game which allows you to upgrade your weapons, but they only last a certain amount of time.

So if you want me to wipe the floor with you, I am usually on the European server as bodger.

The American download is -
Combat Arms
(this will not connect from Europe).

The European download is -
Combat Arms Europe
(I did have some trouble with this one and I had to find a torrent with it on to get it to work).

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the makers of the game.

2

Even trying to download the installer causes Firefox to freeze up. Sorry, looks like it would be fun but I’m going to pass.

3

Looks interesting. I’ll DL tomorrow and give it a whirl.

4

Huh. Team based? I assume it does random team assignment for newbs to get them used to the game.

Is there an offline single player option?

5

I guess I’ll find out. I’m dl’ing now.

Hope my work lappy can handle it. :smiley:

6

There isn’t an offline single player option, but (at least the European one) has a server especially for newbies to play on. One you get promoted a few times, you are not allowed to join it anymore. Promotion is very similar to the Battlefield games.

7

Hmm, having played for about 10-20 minutes, I think I’ve made my verdict.

The good
Gameplay is reasonably fast-paced.
Servers don’t lag too badly.
Controls are reasonably tight.

The bad
For all their variation, the weapons seem far too generic. It basically boils down to Rifle Guy, Shotgun Guy, SAW Guy, or Sniper Guy.

You can’t unlock a weapon or item permanently, you can only use gold that you earn in-game to rent gear for a set amount of time. It takes a lot of games to rent a solid equipment set, which means that someone who only plays for 20 minutes twice a week will eternally be at the mercy of those who pour hours into it.

Maps are far too small and generic, reducing a lot of games to “Run around randomly until you see someone or get seen. Shoot or get shot. Repeat.”

No protection against spawn camping, which means that if your team lets the other guys get a foothold, they can and will stand directly outside the (single!) respawn point and take turns chucking grenades in.

Reasonably juvenile player base. I don’t play many FPSs, so I might be complaining too much, but every team I played on and played against had at LEAST one inconsiderate jackass spamming teamchat with homophobic banter or spouting other such rubbish instead of playing.

You can, with real money, rent equipment that greatly outperforms the default stuff. This breaks the game for me.

All in all, it isn’t BAD, but I’d just as soon stick to playing BF2/TF2 with people I know. :slight_smile:

8

I didn’t have any of that problem with the spamming of teamchat.

They state in the FAQ that the “real money” weapons are specifically set to not be game breakers. I haven’t (and won’t) spend real money, so I have no idea if that’s true or not.

Personally, for a free game, I had a great deal of fun getting headshots on folks.

It would be nice if the respawn points weren’t so… weird. I respawned, moved forward, and got killed by someone that had spawned directly behind me. Annoying.

But beyond that, I’ll keep playing. It’s loading now (in theory) on my home PC. Seems like it could be quite stress relieving to frag some actual people after a rough day at work.