Why is this free???
There is absolutely nothing brand-new about this game. The same guns you've seen and the same play modes. Nothing fantastic there, but thing about this game is that it does NOT seem like it's free or even should be. The graphics in the game are incredible for a free game, I don't know if I've really seen a game that had no price be this pretty. Given, it isn't jaw-droppingly gorgeous to be sure but it looks better than most budget titles out these days.
The cool thing about this game is that there is really well done weapon modifications and player mods. You can purchase guns through points you get in battles and use them for 1, 7, 30, or 90 day intervals. The more time you want with it the more it's going to cost. Same goes for attachments. You can have a sight, silencer, and a high capacity magazine on all at one. That's a little overbearing, especially as you can silence a L96 sniper [is that even really possible?]. Each class of guns has the same upgrades so you don't need to buy a billion.
There are 8 maps in the game and 4 modes of play. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, CTF, and Search & Destroy. They are good enough to keep you entertained and keep a good flow going. Remember, a lot of console games had even crappier amounts of maps in their original forms. Each map seems well balanced but there are plenty of places to spawn camp on each map and that's a little lame.
The weapon choices are fairly decent, with a wide array of assault rifles, SMG's, LMG's, and snipers. Your secondary can either be a pistol or a shotgun. Melee weapon is a knife and then you can have 2 grenades on you; not 2 kinds, just 2 of one kind. The weapons aren't the greatest when it comes to physics but it IS a free game after all, what do you expect?
The best part about this is that it runs cleanly on low-end systems. I'm using a Presario C500 with a missing driver and it's working just fine and dandy. I have a little amount of hiccups and slowdown but that's to be expected with online FPS games.
All in all, this is a great freaking deal. The game is free and it provides a really awesome experience for it. If you're lacking on the game department for a while and have time to kill, Combat Arms is a great choice. If you got your Xbox 360 stolen while Call of Duty 4 was in the freaking system [happened to me] then this is a pretty good alternative. It doesn't take up much hard drive space so give it a shot. Combat Arms is a great game at a great deal.