Thursday, January 10, 2013

Facebook Launches its First Ever First-Person Shooter



          When people hear gaming and Facebook in the same sentence, games such as Farmville, Restaurant City, and Zynga Poker comes to mind. Game developer U4iA (pronounced Euphoria) was behind the game known as Offensive Combat, a game where any one of the 1 billion Facebook users can easily just click and play. One of the biggest concerns with any browser based first person shooter is whether or not it can run smoothly despite the fact that the computer a player is using does not have the most enhanced hardware.

          In terms of overall style developers at U4iA wanted to create a balance of a shooter that was straightforward yet, had an element of craziness to it to appeal to all audiences. The guns used in the game are a mixture of fantasy blasters, melee weapons, and guns modeled after those used in the real world. Again this shows that U4iA is trying to create a middle ground for hardcore and casual gamers to play on. There is no doubt that this game has the potential to be successful given that its free so players don’t have to worry about spending $60 for a game disc, not to mention that its browser based so as long as you have access to a decent internet connection you can enjoy the game.

          The gameplay is fairly straightforward, point, click, and gain experience for killing your fellow Facebook users. Items such as weapon upgrades, and character customization kits are available to buy through transactions using your hard earned experience as the currency.  In terms of graphics it is no Call of Duty or Halo, but looks top notch given that it is a purely browser-based game.  The cartoonish characters give a new twist on the first-person shooter since most shooters these days try to emulate real life soldiers.

          As entertaining as this game looks and sounds there are a few things that are in question. First is that we need to evaluate is the lasting appeal of the game, can the developers at U4iA studios update the game in a way that will still keep players glued to their seats for hours? Furthermore is this something that has the potential to compete with the massive shooter franchises that gamers have grown to love? Offensive Combat is game that can keep players glued to their computer screens for hours, and it already has been thus far with over 500,000 players playing daily. With this much traffic U4iA will be able to earn money from advertisements which as a result will allow them to keep working hard on delivering new features to Offensive Combat.

          In terms of franchise competition, Offensive Combat would not come close to first person shooters like Call of Duty. One of the main reasons for this is that Offensive Combat is built for a platform that is not as stable as a console, browser based games tend to have many glitches, and can only go so far when it comes to improvement. Furthermore Offensive Combat is meant purely for multiplayer purposes, as opposed to Call of Duty which features a campaign. Overall Offensive Combat has the potential to be a fairly prominent shooter providing the developers at U4iA studios handle the game in the right way.




          

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