Combat Arms

As you may know, JJ is away in Uganda for eight more days.  Having limited access to Internet and no modern computer systems, JJ is unable to review or play any games.  However, I will review games for him until he comes back and may continue then.

Combat Arms is a first person shooter put out by Nexon.  It's very unique.  While many games rely on multi player to sell copies,(and skimping on single player), Combat Arms is exclusively multi player.  This means ranked matches, capture the flag, elimination, ganging up on your buddies, or just laughing at some guy you don't know who just got slaughtered. Sounds fun?

It is.

Combat arms is, at best, good graphically.  Bullets have a tendency to turn into streaks, and the flash bang  grenade isn't the best it could be.  There's no ridiculous amounts of blood flying everywhere, the characters look computerized at best, and the fog is just a wall of gray.      The menus and the HUD are nice and feel intact though.  You can tell a gun's type with a glance, and maybe differentiate between a AK-47 and a M-16.  The graphics don't impact the game play that much though

Nexon's real emphasis is on the customization.  You can buy scopes, new weapons, different types of grenades, and even a backpack to hold two more items.  You can outfit your variety of weapons with scopes, suppressors, and extended magazines.  The only catch: they disappear after twenty four hours.  That's right folks.  Items are temporary.  It's not that bad.  You earn enough GP by playing, and the starting weapons aren't all that bad (except for the knife).

They at least let you buy the items for up to 90 days.  As the days go up though, it gets more expensive.  And if you don't want to earn GP, you can always buy a Nexon card and exchange it for GP.  

The sounds and music are fair, but music is never the strong point of fps games, especially multi player oriented.  The sounds are realistic enough, but I never play with the sound up.  

It's just not part of the game. Besides, listening to the rat-a-tat of a machine gun gets very boring very quickly.  But, reading the chats is always entertaining and makes up for the lack of sound.

Everything before this has describe this game as mediocre. (Besides the intro)  It isn't.  Many games pride themselves on graphics.  For combat arms, game play is the main focus.  And for v1.o, It's amazing.  The naps are detailed.  In call of duty 4 (for those who have played it) the maps have one level.  And if they have more, they always go up.  This is an excellent game, but combat arms shows it up. In snow valley, you have about as many, or more tunnels and passageways as above ground routes.  It's detailed, with tunnels leading to every part of the map.  This is the biggest map, but other maps are good at giving multiple routes also.  Combat arms is about variety.

And speaking about variety, the modes are pretty diverse also.  There's elimination, one man army, capture the flag,  and search and destroy.  Each of these have their perks.  In elimination, It's just straight out team vs. team.  Once a team kills so many people, the games over.  These are the shortest matches, but end up being the closest.  Then there's one man army.  every man for himself.  You just play until a player reaches a kill limit.  Capture the flag is self explanatory.  And last, but not least,  search and destroy.  One team is charges with defending a point, the other team is charged with blowing it up.  If one team eliminates the other, the rounds over.  Simple enough.  Right?

And then, you have your actual action. When you fire you're gun, you see muzzle flashes.  Aiming at distant targets with an automatic weapon, recoil kicks in.  It 's hard to keep you're gun level.  You can sprint across open expanses, with the loss of ability to fire and sprint points.

You can kill people, and it lets you know it.  In some games, the enemy just falls down.  In Combat Arms, the enemy falls down, and your number of kills flashes across the screen.  It's not small.  It's big, bold, and befitting of your achievement.  Head shots are also noted.  When you die, it will tell you who killed you, and with what.  And if they've killed you more than 3 times without dying at your hands, it will let you know just how many times they've killed you.

And when you kill them, Instead of just you rejoicing in sweet revenge, they let you know also, with a big revenge across the screen.  

You get exp for your kills and wins, slightly more for head shots and killing the first man.  This exp accumulates and gains you ranks.  These ranks don't do anything besides gain you GP and sometimes unlock weapons,  but the really good stuff comes when you are equal to or above Major general.  These are truly bragging rates.  not only do you have to earn the exp to get there, but you have to have a higher amount of exp than the other guys.  For example the general of the army is the player with the most exp in the whole entire game.  That takes some skill.  

The only thing that irks me about game play is the physics, ladders, and amount of damage it takes to kill someone.  The physics are almost nonexistent.  Grenade and mines just do damage.  Shooting someone won't knock them back, they just collapse.  This may be because Nexon is under funded, but it is annoying for such a good game.  The ladders don't work, for the most part. In combat arms you have to be as good climbing ladders as at shooting.  And the ladders don't make it easy.  You can fall off ladders climbing perfectly.  You can run in circles trying to get down ladders.  once you climb up ladders, you can fall down because there's no room to go anywhere.  And then there's the amount of damage your virtual human body can take.  Normal humans would be on the ground, gasping for air with one or two bullets.  The virtual soldiers can take 5 seconds of running around in circles being shot at before they die.  The only rocket launcher in the game takes two hits.  Mines and grenades can take two hits.  you can poor lead into someone only to have them turn around and shoot you in the head.  It doesn't work.  

Combat Arms is a great game overall, but overall doesn't sum it up.  Combat arms is really summed up by the game play.  This game is addicting.  Like Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, the story or the graphics may be mediocre, but the game play is fun.  It's a game you can't put down, and the nice thing is that you can pick it up whenever you want.  It's quick to install, quick to load, quick to play.  And It has so much lasting value that you could still be playing it by the time Guitar hero 20 comes out.