War Rock Review (PC)

Free or Pay2Play Battlefield alike

I first played War Rock about 5 months ago. I found it in a free games directory. At that time it was in an early beta phase, but was very playable.
Now I find myself reviewing the latest version. Now as well as the free2play main game, there are purchasable extras, a bit like you get in some free MMORPGs.
War Rock is a FPS tactical shooter, in a similar vein to Battlefield crossed with counter strike.
There are 3 game modes.
Close Quarters Combat – this is a search and destroy mode. One team has to set a bomb, the other has to stop them. This mode is played in quite a small map and is fast paced.
Urban Ops – very similar to conquest mode in battlefield. You have to control point an a map. This is a slightly larger map, allowing a bit more tactical play.
Battlegroup – This is played on a very large map. There are an assortment of vehicles available to drive and pilot. This mode feels a lot like battlefield!

The game plays like any other FPS. Each mode has a nice different feel to it. The maps are all good. I really like the close quarters? maps, claustrophobic but well laid out. On the larger maps the vehicles feel good. They are easy to control and fun to drive around in. The character classes work well, every player should find something they like, with a good mix of weapons and abilities.
This brings me onto something that does separate War rock from most other FPS games. The unlock system. This is something you will either love or hate. As you play you get the ingame currency, Dinars. You can also purchase these in the premium edition. With this money you can buy new weapons and items to use in game. And this is where I start to pick holes in things.

Unlike BF2 or 2142, when you purchase an item, it is not yours forever. After a certain number of days, up to 30 if you spend enough, it goes. I can’t figure out if I like this, but I don’t think I do!

One of the things that does let this game down a bit is the graphics. They seem dated, they remind me alot of quake 2. Functional but dated when you look at BF2142 or COD2.

War Rock sounds pretty good. The guns sound realistic and you really can get into all the battle crys and explosions!

All in all the game plays well, some of it is free and it is fun. But there are problems here. The main one is that it does not feel finished!
The first thing I noticed was that I could not change my keyboard configuration. It is really quite laggy. I run on a 2mb broadband connection. Once I got into game, my wife started to grumble. Turns out it took so much bandwidth, she got kicked off the net!
As mentioned the game can lag, to put it mildly. People jump about all over the map without a single frame of animation in between!

Installation was a bit of a pain. Not paying attention I ended up installing some toolbar thing, easy to get rid of, but irritating. Once installed I then had to download 40mb of updates. I only downloaded the game 10 minutes before, surely it should have been up to date!

Ultimately you have to ask yourself one thing. Is this worth paying for. As a free game it is good. For free it is great value and really it is good fun. But I can’t see a good reason to buy it or get the premium bits. There are new weapons available, but you lose them after 30 days. To be honest I would be more inclined to buy Battlefield 2142! Like all these games though, if you play for free you are likely to get a kicking by players that did pay! Mind you the purchasing scheme seems a bit complex at the moment, with Bronze, Silver and Gold packages available. With luck that will change soon.

Time will tell how this game goes. I see it as something that will improve over time. I don’t think this is a finished product yet, so feel funny reviewing it.
As such I will re review it as and when updates come out. This is only fair!
It is fun, but not yet worth paying for. For now have a go on free play! www.warrock.net/

The Good: Free version available, Good character classes, great action
The Bad: Paid version has to few extras, laggy, feels unfinished


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Bronze Y AwardBronze Y Award
3.5 3.5 / 5

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