For Online Saturday this week i tried out Warface for the first time. With there being soo many game modes to choose from, i decided to focus on something familiar and played Team Deathmatch for an hour.
Going into this, i knew nothing about the game. it wasn't until after i had played it that i learned that it's been out quite a while. Obviously it will have changed along the way, but it's still impressive that a game as old as this has retained enough players to keep being updated and to keep being brought to new platforms. But it also means the developers behind it know what they're doing and it showed. this was one of the better online experiences i've had as a new player. More so when you compare it to last weeks Trackmania video, https://youtu.be/we766gY1WPw. the experience for first time players was soo rough, that i couldn't recommend it.
One of the key ways in which Warface was so approachable was that it starts with a tutorial. It's not too big and full of too many new things either. it focuses on two classes and uses in-game action. at every step, everything was clearly highlighted and the text prompts were simple and easy to follow. the main screen does look a little dated and is clearly not designed for consoles. my guess is it's the same screen across all platforms. but it works because only one of them options is playing the game and it's clear and simple "Play".
Going into play, again whilst looking a bit dated, you're greeted by all the game modes divided into three sections, Co-op, Spec Ops, and Versus. whilst these may not be that clear to everyone, what i really do appreciate is that there's a little bit of text explaining what's happening. so Spec Ops was a mode i didn't know what it could be, but after reading the text and looking at the images i understood that i was playing a mission that would have maybe 4 stages, maybe 5, and that they take time. that's soo much more information that Trackmania. and this applied to Versus, too. There are 8 modes but when you move the cursor to one it clearly says what's going to happen. Great.
That's not to say the game doesn't have it's own quirks and issues. the bottom of the screen is a mess and never clearly explained. there are 3 currencies down there, bonuses, and mail. A lot of these screens are dark, the text is often small to very small, to the point where i wonder how legible it is if you played the Switch handheld. Whilst the game is keen to move onto the next game, i feel like there's not enough time given to the player to change class and then there's soo much time given to loading that could be better hidden. the load times are rough in this game. it took around a minute and a half or more to just get to the main screen after clicking start on the icon on the Switch home screen.
It's age could be one reason why the game felt a little old school. and i don't mean that in a negative way. i've tried many newer online shooters and not really enjoyed any of them. so coming to a game that felt old, but in a familiar way, was actually refreshing and Warface actually felt easier to pick up and play. the classes were clearly different, the maps were smaller, respawn times were fast, and the action was frantic. This did mean that in Team Deathmatch the medic class did feel a little useless as people died too quickly and when they did they didn't hang around to be revied. Maybe it'll work better in a different mode. And with the game being as old as it is, at times it felt like i was playing against people who knew all the best places to attack from. the game says that it's trying to balance the teams but it became clear that this didn't mean all new people were together and all veterans were together, this game tries to make teams featuring both.
There was a lot i didn't get to see so i won't be deleting the game. i think i'll come back later and try out some of the other game modes. It's free to play and i do recommend it. More so to players familiar with online shooters during the PS3/360 Generation, but also for those looking for something less serious than Modern Warfare.