Take Artic
Combat (AC) by Webzen for example: On the outside: It looks a lot like a Call
of Duty: Modern Warfare clone with some slight tweaks, but on the inside:
…It’s a Call
of Duty: Modern Warfare clone with some slight tweaks. AC feels and plays like CoD:
MW and it certainly does not try to hide it.
Previously:
I got to try AC out during some early closed beta impressions, and I was
surprised by how much the game kept a pacing similar to CoD: Modern Warfare
games while keeping the tactical tension of Counter-Strike, but with my
extended time playing in the Open Beta, the tactical tension started to wear
thin, and AC revealed itself to be nothing more than an another imitator,
rather than an innovator.
Customization
Customization
in AC is on a basic level: You have the option to change the uniform and
accessories that your solider wears, along with having special character skins
that give players a small boost in earning in-game points and level EXP. There
are several different passive and active skills that players can bring along
into battle. In CoD: Modern Warfare games, these would be known as ‘perks’ and
‘kill-streaks”, and while a vast amount these skills have been built up in the MW
series over the years, there isn’t many to choose from in AC: There’s grenade detection, faster C4
planting/defusing, quick reloading, increased maximum HP and semi-regenerating
HP (this one is permanently given to all players for free.)
In terms of active
skills, there’s only one: An RPG-7 rocket launcher that becomes available after
getting five-kills in a row. While they plan to add more passive and active in
the future, the amount available at the moment is just poor overall, which will
certainly not help with allowing players to change up strategies on fly.
Other than
that, No other form of customization exists in AC. You can’t tweak your
firearms with any sort of tactical gear, so there’s no way to create a unique
weapon to call your own.
Controls
The control
scheme for Arctic Combat are set up just like any other FPS title out there:
WASD keys for movement, left mouse button to shoot, right mouse button for iron
sight aim, etc. The controls are responsive, but the different kind of firearms
among weapon types (Rifle and Sub-Machine Gun) lacked any distinct feel between
them when fired, despite their stats showing different firing and stability
rates. The only weapons that felt different amongst each other were the sniper
rifles that had VERY noticeable re-coil differences.
Gameplay
The gameplay
takes several nods from the CoD: Modern Warfare games in terms of pacing:
Soldiers aren't bullet sponges, so players can get picked off and killed easily
if they’re not careful. At the same
time, however, play too cautiously and you may end up getting pinned down near
your base by aggressive enemies. Here, you need to find a balance and
constantly switch off from tactical to run & gun, and by ‘tactical’, I mean
very basic camping. While working with your team is recommended, it’s very
possible to be a lone wolf and mow down a whole squad of enemies. Not much
thought is needed in considering where your enemies may attack you from, since
map sizes are all moderately small, making most fire-fights very predictable.
Also similar
to the MW games: Enemies will randomly drop pick-up items including health
packs, UAV support, Chopper support and Airstrikes, with health packs being the
most interesting, giving players a bit of strategy in either picking them up to
recover health, or using them as bait to lure out enemy players (or at least
that’s how I used them.) UAV support and Chopper aren’t as special since
they’ve also been napped straight from MW: UAV Support allows players to see
enemies on the mini-map for a short amount of time, and Chopper support summons
a helicopter that will fire missiles at any enemies that it flies across. If an
enemy chopper is in the area, players can shoot it down, but it’s not as
exciting as it looks or sounds once you’ve taken it down for the 20th
time (all by yourself, even).
With several
different types of game modes to choose from, including old stand outs like Team
Deathmatch and Bomb Defuse, players will find one that they’ll be most
comfortable with, but there’s nothing here that’s unique and original.
There’s
honestly not much else I can say about the action found in Arctic Combat,
because the gameplay here has been done plenty in other military shooting games
before it. You run, you gun, you kill, you die, you respawn. Rinse and repeat.
Visuals & Presentation
Arctic
Combat uses the Unreal 2.5 Engine, and while it will undoubtedly run well on
many aging PC setups, the texture quality is very moderate and bland, even with
the visual options set to maximum. Gun
fire and reload animations seem natural enough and the sound effects for gun
fire also sound appropriately close to their real-life counterparts. The
voice-over work they’ve done for AC (including radio chatter) sounds
hilariously overdone. The American Soldiers literally sound like newly enlisted
college frat kids that just got back from a drinking party. They all speak with
an exaggerated tone to make battles (seem) intense. There’s also Russian voice
work done for the game, and I can only assume it’s been given the same
treatment.
Community
AC features
all the basic community features that gamers have come to expect from an online
multiplayer game, including friend lists, private messages and clan support.
The player base is filled with your expected bunch of friendly, not so
friendly, quiet and obnoxious gamers. Once again: nothing out of the ordinary.
Overall
To put
things very bluntly: Arctic Combat is about as average as a F2P shooting game
can be. It’s not particularly bad in many regards. It’s just that everything
about the game has been done in shooters before it and has been done better. It’s
certainly not bad to pick up for a quick fix, but there’s much better
alternatives out there.
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