Warface is a free-to-play first-person shooter being developed by Crytek for PC and the Xbox 360. Crytek is the same company that developed the Crysis series of first-person shooters so Warface could become a great free-to-play title. In a market that has several established shooter titles (i.e. Call of Duty and Battlefield), Crytek will need work hard to draw an audience to their new title and to keep players coming back for more.
To Crytek’s benefit, Warface being a free-to-play title is likely to draw the attention of players who are looking for something fresh to play without having to spend $60 on a new game. Crytek will also likely release some form of “premium” content to those that wish to pay for it, but that is basically an accepted fact for other free-to-play titles. The biggest hurdle for Crytek will be to draw an initial audience to Warface and hopefully being able to keep players engaged with the title.
From watching the video, the game does look like a hybrid of Call of Duty and Battlefield and that could be a good thing. The different classes will help players to find a role that fits their playing style much like with Battlefield, and could also keep players interested as they try out new classes. The trailer also shows off some fast-paced gameplay which many fans of the first-person shooter genre will be happy to see. Overall, there are some good highlights of what Warface will look like when it is released and should earn a place on your list of “Games to Look Out For.”
However, there are a couple of areas of concern with the game and they are a little worrisome. While the class system is a good idea, it has been done and Warface’s classes look awfully similar to Battlefield. Crytek needs Warface to stand out from the crowd and be different, and that is a little hard to do when your game looks like a game you are competing against.
The big concern, besides the name of the game being Warface, is the game’s release date. 2014 is a long way away in the world of gaming especially with the next-gen consoles releasing sometime in November. There will surely be players still playing their Xbox 360 but Crytek is advertising to a passing era. It feels a little risky to develop a brand-new shooter for the Xbox 360 at this point in time, but it could still work out well for Crytek if the audience is there.
Warface is set to release on the PC sometime before the end of 2013 so PC players will get their hands on the game before the Xbox 360 crowd will. Hopefully, the PC version will give a better idea of what to expect when 2014 rolls around.
