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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