If not for the horrible hit detection and the major hacking problem, Combat Arms could have been a great little game.
So, with all this praise, what could go wrong? Hey, the game's free, there's no reason not to try it, right?
Wrong.
Combat Arms, when you ignore all outside entities, isn't that bad of a game. The graphics aren't as good as a game like Counter-Strike Source or TF2, but they certainly aren't bad either. There are a variety of weapons, some you buy with ingame money which you earn by fighting, and others you can only get from NX Cash, which you have to pay real money. At this point, there are several maps, and they are all pretty good, none of them have major balance issues or bugs that I am aware of.
Combat Arms, if it were designed to be released in a more conventional matter, and by that I mean, without the item shop, dedicated server support, a SDK, and a retail release, would have been a lot better game, because all of the essentials of a good shooter are there.
Unfortunately, in the state Combat Arms is in today, I can't recommend it for anyone. There are just way too many problems to ignore, and the game just feels like a chore to play.
The first issue, and the one I'm going to get out of the way immediately, mainly because there isn't much to say about it, is the constant lag. If you have been playing MMOFPS games for a while, then you are certainly no stranger to lag, but Combat Arms takes this to an entirely new level. This is a combination of a couple things, which I'll just go over briefly.
1. A Diverse Player Base - You would think this would be a positive, and it would be if all the players weren't thrown into one gigantic pot and essentially left to fend for themselves.
Well, this isn't entirely true, there are now 4 versions of Combat Arms for different regions. One for North America, one for Korea, one for Europe, and most recently, one for Brazil. I have only played on the North American version, but trust me, its still incredibly laggy.
2. Awful Hit Detection - Sometimes, even when you are dead on, your target just simply will not die. This isn't really noticeable in close quarters combat, but when you are trying to snipe in a level like Snow Valley, you'll notice that you are missing shots that you are clearly making it.
Basically, for your purposes, all you need to know is that the game is really laggy, its not stutter laggy, but it is extremely unpleasant to play and quickly gets frustrating.
So, lets move onto another topic, hackers. Once again, hackers are extremely common in MMOFPS games, but once again, Combat Arms goes above and beyond. There is some sort of anti-cheat program, but it doesn't seem to do any good, as Combat Arms is riddled with more hackers, and possibly even more annoying, hackusators than any other game I have ever played and probably ever will. There is literally a blatant aimbotter in every other game you will play. For a multi-player only game, this is a total, 100% deal killer.
However, even the rampant hackers are not the most annoying thing you will have to deal with in Combat Arms. That title, of course, belongs to Nexon's absolutely laughable item shop. So, even from the game's early beta stages, Nexon ensured everyone that beyond aesthetic changes, nothing would be available in the Cash Shop that wouldn't be available in the game through normal means.
Technically, they've kept this promise, but there are now characters you can buy that have the ability to set up sentry turrets, use flame throwers, along with an assortment of other ridiculously cheap and unfair advantages. Though you can technically get these with the ingame money, it is so expensive that you would have had to buy your normal weapons with NX Cash to be able to consistently afford it, so the only real way to get it is through paying Nexon.
Oh yeah, and about those guns. Other than a limited selection of NX cash guns, which you can buy permanently, you rent your guns, either by the day, week, month, or 3 months. This absolutely ridiculous process essentially forces you to keep playing the game in order to get enough money to fund your weapons. it just makes it even more difficult to build up enough of a surplus to go buy something cool, forcing you to spend real money on NX to get it. It's basically a never ending cycle which just results in added frustration.
So, I think I've whipped this game enough, there are a few good things about it that I'll go through here.
There is a nice variety of game modes, and they've done several major content updates in the past, so I imagine that this would continue. I particularly like their take on Call of Duty: World at War's Nazi Zombie mode. It's clearly a ripoff, but its still fun.
As I've already mentioned, there are plenty of maps, and they are all pretty high quality. They are by no means perfect, but the chances are there is a map you will like in Combat Arms.
The thing is, this is a free game, if you're reading reviews for it on Gamespot, chances are, you have probably played the game and formed your own opinion on it already.
So yeah, the final verdict, a disappointing game with some nice production values, but HUGE problems.
Download and play with caution.