By Michael Sagoe (mikedot), OnRPG Journalist
Another year, another military FPS title hits the F2P market this week. But this is not just any military FPS… it’s a sequel to Dragonfly’s 2007 title: Solider Front! Now being backed by the ever popular Unreal 3 Engine, Solider Front 2 is looking to take everything you know about military shooters of the past and turn them on their sides.
Of course, with so many shooters already on the market, most of which play virtually the same from each, my initial reaction was “Do we REALLY need ANOTHER one?!”
After a two-day long preview event with some of the game masters, my final reaction was complete and total: “Sure, why not.”
The event first started off as I met up with the GMs in an open lobby room. Although, the match was already in progress, so took a bit of time to get suited up. I wanted to get in as soon as possible, so I just grabbed the good ol’ M4A1 that was already sitting in my inventory and took off. My first match was a “Seizure” mission, where two teams try to either kill all members of the enemy team or try to capture a target or defend the target within a time limit. Of course, I didn’t realize what mode it was until it was all over, so I just ran around trying to kill enemies on sight while my teammates were busy trying to capture the objective.
I got a feel for the controls very quickly, since it was standard FPS shooter fare, and I was nailing headshots with ease. Feeling like an old pro already, things started to turn sour for me when the enemies started growing wise to my hit & run tactics, so I ended up getting taken out quickly during the last few rounds. Fortunately for me, my teammates were able to pick up my slack and won the match easily. One neat thing that I witnessed at the end of the match was a cut-scene showing off my team’s victory.
After the match, I was formerly introduced to the GM team before properly getting set up with some sweet preview equipment. I was given a VIP package that included special recolored weapons, SP boosters and unique player models such as Crimson Mamba.
Nothing says “AMERICA!” more than babes and bullets.
However, I decided to go with the GROM solider skin for now, and saddled up with the SIG551 IronGun, a GLOCK 17 and one other special weapon: A composite bow!
The next match was a bombing mission at an abandon train yard, which reminded me of a particular map from Valve’s Counter-Strike. Regardless, bombing missions are pretty standard in military FPS games and they played out as one would expect: Lots of fire fights ensuing between two choke points near the two bomb sites, and rounds ending quickly with players dropping like flies. However, this was the perfect time for me to try out my composite bow. It threw me off at first, but using the bow requires you to hold the right mouse button down to pull back, and THEN press the left mouse button to release. It’s really hard to nail a target while fighting against enemies with automatic weapons, but when you do get a kill with it, it’s incredibly satisfying.
Moving on, after a few free-for-all and team deathmatches, the GMs insisted that we should try out their most valued game mode: HERO MODE!
Hero mode is unique MOBA style game mode where two teams attempt to destroy a target object in the enemy’s base with the assistance of creepy crawly aliens called Xanthids, which will serve as minions/creeps that attack enemy players, enemy turrets and enemy Xanthids. In true MOBA fashion, players will have to kill Xanthids and enemies to earn gold, which they can use to level up, boost stats, and buy new weapons or special items like Air-Strikes.
Sounded like a neat idea, for sure, so we started the match up and got right to it. As expected, it played just like a MOBA game should, but only in a first person view. There were three different lanes to take and plenty of crossing paths between the lanes which included a cave with neutral Xanthids enemies to fight. There was also a lot of high grass to hide away in, making it easy to get the drop on enemy players. It took me awhile to get used to enemies having an excessive amount of HP, however. And while your weapons have unlimited ammo, they all felt fairly weak. After a couple of attack upgrades, however, my damage was a lot more noticeable.
While there wasn’t a lot of teamwork going on, I managed to take out the enemy turret in the middle lane, and tried to sneak up on enemy base. Sadly, there was another turret waiting for me that took me out fairly quickly. I had to use a combination of Xanthids and Air-Strikes to take the turret out, but the enemy team wasn’t having that. They sent a giant blue Xanthid after me, and I ended up taking a dirt nap.
The match ended with no destroyed base targets, but the enemy team won by getting just a teeny bit of damaged on my team’s base.
One game mode that was out of the ordinary was a party mode called “Shatter”. In this mode, two teams will try to destroy the glass under the enemy’s feet, causing them to drop to their death. It’s just as ridiculous as it sound.
So both teams saddled up and started the match only using basic pistols. Me, being the fool that I was, I charged in, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly I found myself 6 feet under with the glass under my feet constantly being shot, and I was the first one to get taken out. Everyone else on my team, however were playing it cool by trying breaking all the glass on the opposite side of the room to limit the enemies’ movement, and they won the match with ease.
Now that I knew a little better, I decided to play it cool myself and instead tried to shoot glass spots from a corner of the map. Sadly, it wasn’t the best plan as well, with enemies being able to get a clear headshot on me, because apparently you can still defeat your opponent the old fashion way by making them eat lead.
One of my teammates, on the other hand, got the glass shot under him and ended up falling down towards the spikes below, but lucky for him, a bounce pad came up under him, bouncing him back up and down for a good two minutes or so. Too bad my teammate couldn’t figure out how to get back up on the glass field, though. In the end, the enemy team finally picked him off.
Overall, the game ended with my team thrashing the enemy team by a pretty large amount of round wins. I would definitely have to say that Shatter was my favorite game mode. If Mario Party ever included a FPS mini game, it would probably be something like this.
Overall, my experience with Solider Front 2 was a good one. While it may not bring too many fresh ideas to the table, some of its unique game types like Party and Hero mode make it worthwhile. And at the very least: While it may look like many other military shooters out there, it doesn’t take itself too seriously.