Nothing quite makes, anyone, feel at home than calmly perched at the coveted sniping position plucking off person after person when suddenly, from out of nowhere, you're dead and have no idea why. This was my experience in Arctic Combat. Its a Free to play game that can be downloaded from Steam and be played in about half an hour.
The game itself reached to the Free to play market well enough. There are points that are earned, per match, to spend on newer weapons, gear, or just hang on to until the next "promotion" to buy the bigger better toys. I spent much of my time trying to figure out, in this game that felt like a Counter Strike spin off, but you buy the items before the match even starts. It gives a feel of "this is all the gear I get until I can buy newer, more bad ass, gear." That being said, as I mow down person after person assaulting this position I found between a crate and a piece of landscape that, somehow, kept me more alive than the traditional run and gun tactics of yore, I realzed "holy s***, I am god right here". Then random kill streak drop from, who I'm calling, Derp Derpington on our team lets the enemy light me up in an artillery strike that I have no idea how else to get other than kill random person who did nothing to earn it.
The graphics bend my ear to Counter Strike and Day of Defeat. Though it's made with the Unreal engine, that allows for gratuitous viloence and gore, its quite tame in nature. It's made this way, I assume, to allow for players of all ages to enjoy playing a Call of Duty style game without having an adult present to monitor their killing spree. The textures are well done, with some unit collision issues that can be annoying at best. The majority of the maps they have available only allow for a short burst into combat before finding that first bullet storm from the enemy camp. The streak of a grenade through the air is a nice touch to know "hey, look over there!" before it harmlessly kills nobody in a poof of smoke.
Gameplay itself is mostly a team deathmatch frag fest. There really is no getting out alive if pitted against some of the best one shot quick scopers I've seen. There is, also, no "safe place to hide" once they get overwatch on your spawn point. From there it's a maelstrom of shoot first or die trying. I was, personally, stabbed in the face by a player who I swore was out to get me. With a wide variety of game modes available from search and destroy (plant bomb, defend it/kill team before they plant bomb, defuse if they planted it) to annihilate (just kill the enemy team and you win) a player will find themselves undone if they get into the horrid position of getting spawn camped and wrecked before they have a chance to really get back in the fight.
The sound is fair to normal for a free to play game. The radio sqawk sounding noises of requesting back up and enemy sniper call out just fine, gun sounds are fairly accurate, but generic, grenades go boom... I'll be honest, I can't say anything more than it's all so generic it kills me.
The game itself, overall, is a nice "time waster" if you're looking to download something fun to play for a short time to get away from the lull of playing Counter Strike, Call of Duty, or Gears of War. It adds that "meat grinder" factor that some players enjoy as they just make the opposing force grit their teeth and throw all their grenades at once down a corridor as they wait for that first head to poke out to be picked off. I can say I enjoyed playing the maps they have to offer with the people who were amazing at plucking my team to bits time and again, but I won't recommend this to any of my friends unless they need a change of scenery from other FPS games.
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