(10 votes, average: 4.1 out of 5)
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Cross Fire

Description: Cross Fire is an online first person shooter that boast lots of guns, great game play and one of the most unique modes of any FPS to date Ghost Mode.

Cross Fire Review

Crossfire is a free, fast paced military FPS, based upon Counterstrike which is taking the world by storm! Crossfire, with similar graphics, weapons, maps and layouts is of course always going to be compared to Counterstrike which many see as the “original”, however with an innovative and creative GM team, Crossfire has been hand tailored to form a newer, more custom based FPS.

Originally a Chinese based FPS, over the past year crossfire has been taken on into the western world with servers based mainly in Canada and West Coast USA. A UK based server is also soon to be implemented to account for the large number of EU and Eastern players. Originally crossfire was run by Subagames, but in mid 2009, Z8 games took over and have continued to keep the game as enjoyable since.

Gameplay:

Crossfire is based around the military warfare of two teams, the Global Risk, and the Black List. Each has their own background available on the website, but from the gamers point of view; the Global Risk are essentially the “good guys”, a team of anti-terror ex specialist forces, as with the Black List are “baddie” terrorists bend on destroying the world (A / B site in the case of Search and Destroy!).

What makes crossfire original and different to other FPS’ however is the level of modification which has taken place into the game play. There are 8 different types of gameplay available:

Teamdeath match – Two teams pitted against each other to get the most kills
Search and Destroy – By far the most competitive game type, with the BL team working to plant and destroy target bomb sites whilst the GR try to eliminate the threat.
Elimination – BL vs. GR, eliminating the opposite team in a round by round teamdeath match
Ghost Mode - BL team has only the use of knives, partial invisibility, speed and stealth to plant the bomb and defeat the fully armed GR team
Free-For-All – Every man for himself!
Each game mode has a large variety of maps and options, from knife only, pistol only, snipers only, all weapons etc

Perhaps one of the largest controversial aspects to crossfire is the weapons and ranking system. Both are interlinked due to the fact that from the first few sets of ranks, players receive Game Points from which they maybe buy new weapons and armors available in the item mall.

A wide variety of weapons are available, which increase in variety and type usually every month or so when new patches are introduced. Many exotic and interesting weapons exist and some controversy exists as to which weapon is best. More so, controversy exists from the manner in which weapons are bought.

Crossfire has a “donation” system like most other free to play online games. In which “ZP” can be bought in exchange for real money, via a number of online banking units such as paypal, rixty etc. Players who essentially buy these ZP points have option to buy and test more weapons and armors than a non-donate player.

This to an extent does allow donate players an advantage. However… as yet, donate players still have access and the capability to buy the most powerful sniper rifle (AWM), as well as the highest ranking gun (Scar Light). Armed with either of these, tactics and a degree of skill, a non-donate player can easily compete with donate players.

Aside from a variety of weapons, the Item mall also allows for exchange of ZP for GP, (GP can also be obtained from general game play, however the amount is in general extremely low considering that weapon repair is always necessary), body armors (advantageous only to donate players), and a selection of character types including female SPOP forces.

As a new player to crossfire, this can at first seem slightly daunting, which the aspect of choosing the wrong gun, and not wanting to rank up to a higher level using the initial standard M16. However, given a few days to get used to the system and test some of your dead teammate’s guns, this array of Item Mall options soon turns into a kid-in-a-candy-store situation.

Specifications and Effects:

One of the strong points of crossfire is the fact it does not take a brand new computer with an amazing graphics card to run it (the max resolution being 1024×768). The graphics are somewhat reminiscent of the old Half-life series, with much improved textures and sprites.

Although not in the same league as newly released FPS in terms of graphics, there are some positive attributes to this system. For example; the gameplay is much sharper and faster-paced, often with milliseconds between reaction times. For an experienced FPS sniper or rifleman, this FPS game will put you through your reaction paces, with quick-scopes and 2 shot headshots being common.

GMs and Patches:

The GMs are a relatively responsive team, who always help out where and when possible and are happy to check the forums and receive PMs. New patches are brought out most months, often trying to suit the community’s needs and requests.

However, as time goes on in Crossfire, it can been seen how much more ZP orientated the game is becoming and brings to attention the question of if Crossfire patches are for the enjoyment of the player, or simply a cash-making scheme.

This is highlighted by the introduction of the “Black-Market”. The Black-market is essentially a screen in which players go to gamble their ZP and GP by opening random crates hoping to win special weapons or prizes. The chance is very low, and for some people it can prove addictive, pouring paypal ZP invoices into Z8, trying to get lucky for that one special gun.

Tournaments are themed events are also organized by the GMs, although there is some speculation as to how necessary a pumpkin head armor is, even if it is Halloween in a military FPS shooter.

The GMs are also responsible for banning players who have been accused of cheating. This brings us to a major flaw in crossfire:

Cheating:

Unfortunately, the cheating in crossfire is widespread. Regardless of numerous attempts by the GMs to fix issues, cheating remains the number one major flaw in crossfire. The situation was worse in early 2009, when auto aim, speeders, hulk jumpers, wallers, weapon modifications, shooting ghosts, glitchers, and more were common in most games.

Since that time, there has been significant progress noted, there are no more speeders or weapon modifiers, however, auto aim and wall hackers still remain. There is an in game vote system in place, which allows players to kick other players on their team if they suspect cheating.

However, this is often abused for other reasons or more often than not it fails to make enough votes and the cheater remains. There is often great controversy as to whether a person is cheating or not.

A second option also exists for players to save replays of the entire game, which can be sent to GMs who can make a decision as to whether the convicted player is indeed cheating, in which case a ban is immediately effective.

Even in official crossfire tournaments, cheats are still evident, with some top well recognized and ranked clans putting forward players with auto aim and potentially more. Crossfire does use anti-cheat software called NGameguard. Unfortunately this is not patched often, and more or less always out of date and in the majority of cases can be deemed ineffective.

Community:

Crossfire has an interesting community like most online games, varying from friendly, interesting players to outright rude and abusive players who often don’t make much sense. Unfortunately due to the copious amounts of cheating in crossfire, this community is all too often quick-fire in its approach to accuse genuinely good players of cheating.

The forums show the wide variety of these people, and there is often much tension from clan-clan warfare. This has both negative and positive effects, in one respect bringing much competition to the game, and in another creating a sometimes uneasy environment.

Crossfire’s clan system however is an important part of this community. A clan can be created by any player above a certain rank, and can originally hold 25 players. This can be increased by donating ZP points, until a maximum clan size of 100 members. Each member earns clan points when playing crossfire and the rank of the clan goes up or down in relation to others each week.

There is also an in-game clan chat system and a scrim server for clans to compete against each other. Unfortunately, there are often major problems with “buddy server instability” and games not starting, crashing, disconnections etc. This is again another area in which GMs are investing copious amounts of time to fix, however all in all over the 2009 year, success has been limited.

Conclusion:

Positives:

• Fun, fast paced, easy to play, easy to learn FPS
• Large variety of game types, weapons, armors and more.
• Fun clan system, adding a more competitive edge to the game.
• Crisp clean graphics which do not require high performance computers, yet still makes good gaming.
• Fun, competitive and rewarding individual ranking system
• Wide variety of game modes to accommodate for whatever you feel like playing
• Servers designed for low-rank and high-rank players, as well as the opportunity for both

Negatives:

• Shift from free gameplay to advantageous money orientated gambling schemes
• Not all aspects of game available without donation i.e. weapons
• Misused in game voting system
• Poor anti-cheat software
• Quick-fire accusation community, scarred from periods of excessive cheating
• Poor stabilities for servers, clan servers, buddy servers.

For a new player without a doubt I would recommend downloading and trying crossfire. It is a fun and interesting experience. From there on, you can make the decision as to whether you believe it is worth further investment, both time and/or money.

For an advanced player, I also recommend you download and try crossfire. If you have already played counterstrike, you will soon see the competitive edge in regards to advanced gamers and clans which crossfire holds, but be aware of the more major cheating, voting and donation flaws.

Overall Score: 7/10

By Alexander Sharples for FreeMMORPGs.com