The first-person shooter genre in the West is dominated by megahits like Call of Duty and Halo, but in places like South Korea and China, it’s a different story. Smilegate Entertainment’s Crossfire series has been a huge success outside of North America, and it is now one of the most well-known video game franchises ever. Smilegate has teamed up with Remedy Entertainment to make the Xbox exclusive CrossfireX, although FPS fans might be better served elsewhere.
Additionally, Smilegate developed a free-to-play online multiplayer option for CrossfireX in conjunction with Alan Wake maker Remedy Entertainment. This game is not worth your time, despite the fact that Remedy has a proven track record of delivering high-quality single-player stories, and Smilegate has a proven track record in the free-to-play business
Both halves of the CrossfireX campaign must be purchased individually if you want to play both halves. However, CrossfireX players can choose to play Operation: Catalyst and Operation: Spectre in any order they like, with Catalyst’s events leading directly into the story of Spectre. It is possible to complete both campaigns in a few of hours at the most, but both are essentially bad from start to finish.
Campaign by CrossfireX
This campaign by CrossfireX, Operation: Catalyst, is horrible. It accomplishes exactly what one would expect from a typical Call of Duty campaign, almost to the point of parody. Players are forced through a series of halls populated by oblivious foes, each of whom stands around waiting to be shot. It’s drab and lifeless, with nothing to pique the interest of players or keep them entertained in terms of gameplay.
During the CrossfireX campaign, players must deal with input delay, an unruly camera, and unstable controls. The controls will be a major issue for players, since there is a steep learning curve when transitioning from a high-quality FPS to this one. A Call of Duty campaign soldier in a drunken stupor was utilized to control the game. As time goes by, players will adapt to the game’s peculiar aiming and find it more fun but still dull.
CrossfireX offers
It’s fun to take down evil guys, and the slow motion feature adds some visual interest, but this has been done before, and better. CrossfireX offers a power fantasy, with players able to instantly eliminate large numbers of adversaries with a wide variety of weapons and explosives, even on the suggested hard setting.
While it’s fun to watch enemies fly across the screen when you throw a well-timed grenade, players will soon find that most of those enemies were caught in the blast because the AI failed to move out of the way. It is not uncommon for players to come across enemies that will stand in front of the numerous explosive barrels that litter each level, or who may attempt to flee only to stop moving while still inside the explosion’s radius, waiting to be destroyed by the impact of a grenade on the ground.
However, Operation: Catalyst is only a few of hours long, so players are only forced to endure a simple military shooter storyline with some of the most forgettable characters ever seen in a game. CrossfireX ends on a high note with an intriguing plot twist that transforms Operation: Spectre from a military-shooter into a sci-fi thriller. Players will be eager to see what weird thing will happen next, even if it doesn’t better the characters or the narrative.
Operation: Spectre
If you’re looking for Remedy Entertainment-produced action games like Operation: Spectre and Catalyst, you’re going to have to go elsewhere. When you consider that Remedy is most known for its award-winning Control series, it’s hard to think that they’d be engaged in this.
Throughout the CrossfireX experience, there is a noticeable lack of attention to detail. In contrast to the vast majority of previous console games, players will have to slide a pointer across the screen in order to choose options when the game first launches. If that wasn’t bad enough, prompts will go up on the screen telling players that pressing the A button will advance, but they must first drag their cursor to the question. Some may say that criticizing the user interface is nitpicking, but given that the game is an Xbox exclusive and there is no PC version, it is perplexing that the user interface appears to be designed with a mouse and keyboard in mind. This is a perfect example of how this game appears to have been rushed out the door with little thought. –
CrossfireX’s free-to-play multiplayer doesn’t fare much better, but it does provide the greatest enjoyment. Depending on the mode, you’ll feel like you’re playing a stripped-down version of Call of Duty or Counter-Strike, with CrossfireX ripping off the best parts of both games. It’s difficult to recommend CrossfireX in its current state nna notary, given how many other free-to-play first-person shooters are out there that do a better job with control and aiming.
For those who are interested, CrossfireX multiplayer is likewise divided into two sections. The “Modern” multiplayer mode lets players to roam about and shoot down the sights more freely, but the “Classic” multiplayer mode is more restrictive. For example, the Black Widow map has Search & Destroy, Point Capture on the GR Tower, and Escort on the Babylon map, however these features are not currently available in the game.
