Offensive Combat Review
It’s impossible to deny the popularity of the FPS genre today. It’s become not only the leading genre in the gaming industry financially, but it’s also one of the best social experiences as well. People looking to play a game in groups are more likely to choose Call of Duty over World of Warcraft, and it’s likely that developers will continue to build upon that need for social interaction. What if you don’t have a great computer though, or if the console you play is out of date? The folks who made Offensive Combat have you covered.
Offensive Combat is a browser based FPS with addictive gameplay at no cost. Does it stand on its own two legs though? We took a look to find out.
Offensive Combat Gameplay
Shooting the Web – Offensive Combat is fully playable within a browser, which sounds like it could make things rather slow and buggy, but for the most part it works perfectly. If you’re used to playing client-based shooters, it’s unlikely you’ll see any major differences between what you’re used to playing and this, which I suppose is the biggest compliment I can pay to it.
Visually Strong – Offensive Combat won’t be the most beautiful thing you ever see, but for somebody who wants to avoid downloading 10GB of resources that probably doesn’t matter that much. For all intents and purposes, this is a game that looks much better than expected, especially in regards to water animations and character models.
Personality Overload – Talking of character models, there are a huge variety of character mods and costumes you can put onto your avatar. These tend to be quite quirky, very funny and a pleasure to see. The question in the long run will be whether you can unlock everything with in-game currency or if you need real money to truly personalize, but that doesn’t take away from the deep character of the game now.
Tea-bagging – There’s nothing better than killing an enemy and marking them with the ultimate showing of disrespect: tea-bagging. Offensive Combat more than lives up to its name in this regard, by allowing you a variety of different tea-bags to experience and to unleash. Just make sure you have enough time to use them or you’ll be shot in the middle of your celebratory dance.
Great Controls – I know, the things people are capable of in a browser today are amazing, but this one seemed good enough to mention. This is a game that looks and feels like a client-based shooter, but it plays like one as well. The controls are exactly the same as experts have come to expect, with the right mouse button for aiming, the left mouse button for shooting, WASD for movement and everything else you’d expect. This is all from your browser and it works without problems. You have to love it.
Standard Shooter – For everything Offensive Combat does to push the boundaries of what’s possible in a massively multiplayer shooter, it doesn’t push much in regards to actual gameplay. That’s what matters at the end of the day. Once the idea of playing a browser based FPS wears off, you’re either going to be happy about playing a fun, personality-laden but slightly generic shooter or you’re going to focus on a game that doesn’t quite seem different enough from the client-based games you already have. I’m not sure there are enough people in this day and age who will benefit from a purely browser-based game to support this one, so hopefully the character can keep it alive.
Where did he go?! – Put this down to the game still being in beta or a moment’s bad connection on my part – perhaps even blame genuine cheating – but there’s a lot of strange moments in-game that make Offensive Combat slightly frustrating. With enemies scooting along inside the floor and enemies who can disappear behind you without a moment’s notice, it often seems as if there’s something genuinely not right with those you’re competing against.
Balance? – I’ve only used a couple of guns so far (see below), but of the ones I HAVE used there has been a pretty obvious winner in regards to which is best. The balance in this game may seem better over a wider average, but so far I’ve been unimpressed and the fact that the majority of people I’ve come across are using the same weapon says an awful lot.
It Costs What?! – This old problem again. Offensive Combat allows you to purchase weapons and mods for those weapons, largely with in-game currency. Here’s the fun bit though: it’s easier to just put in your details and buy the damn things. You get a few coins per kill and a mod for your first weapon costs somewhere in the area of 4000 coins. The first weapon isn’t all that great. Expect frustration or a lower bank balance.
Conclusion
Offensive Combat is a demonstration of what the browser-based FPS games world will be capable of over the next few years and, better, it’s an example of a fun, free shooter, well worth your time and effort. Loading is usually quick, battle is usually fun and fair and the maps are varied. Some might say that the developers haven’t pushed far enough away from the shooters of the early millennium, but others will cite that as their reason for continued play. Personally, this is one I’ll be checking back in with occasionally and I suggest you at least try it out.
