A Free-to-Play Shooter with a Fatal Flaw?
At times, it is hard to come up with introductions for these reviews, you know. See, it’s not always as easy as sitting down and feeling the words flowing from my brain through the keyboard directly to your eyes. Sometimes it is hard to be inspIred by the subject of the review, whereas at other times, it’s something as simple as a late night dulling the creative juices. I’ll let you decide what the issue is this time around.
Anyways, FragPunk is a “5v5 hero based shooter” and it is also free to play. It’s been put together by the team at Bad Guitar Studios, coming across as a bit Overwatch-y. However, there is a twist; a mechanic that promises to mix things up.
Aesthetic and Annoyance
We’ll kick things off by focusing on the presentation of FragPunk first, as the story promises to be threadbare at best.
There are a number of arenas that the game takes place in, and they are, on the whole, a well designed bunch. There are the usual tropes that run across them all, with multiple routes through the areas and various choke points that can be utilised in combat. The arenas all have a strong identity, and look very nice, so a good mark there.
The heroes are an unusual looking bunch, with a distinct identity, almost personality, for each one. With various cosmetic options to buy (and yes, the real money store is not only fully functional, but quite aggressively pushed throughout all the menus) and weapon loadouts to choose from, you can certainly make your character your own.
Voiceovers are all present and correct, with your character seemingly never short of a quip or two when they are fighting. These do tend to set your teeth on edge after a while, and if I hear “You’re hungry today, little gun!” one time when I reload, the controller is going out of the window. All in all, FragPunk looks and sounds pretty good, with a special mention going to the gunfire noises.
Minimal Narrative, Maximum Mayhem
Don’t expect a story to be pushing things on though. Basically, there are a group of people, they meet in various different locations, and then they have a huge ruck. That’s about all you’ll get with FragPunk. At least Overwatch attempted to have a go at a story…
Who cares about narrative in a game of this type though. It’s the gameplay that matters and it will come as no surprise to learn that the majority of your time in FragPunk will involve shooting the other team. Thankfully, there is a tiny bit more to it than that.
See, you’ve got various different modes to play, starting with the basic arcade mode. It’s here where we have a team of attackers and a team of defenders, and the attackers have to plant a device and then defend it. Meanwhile the defenders are trying to either stop them or defuse the device once it is activated. This mode is also available in Ranked mode, but the caveat is that you have to reach level 30 in order to play it. And this may be tricky, as I’ll discuss later on. There are also options in the form of Outbreak, and also some rotating modes, which as I write are set to Team Deathmatch. There’s no doubt that FragPunk is stuffed with the amount of content seemingly on offer.
Shard Cards and Laser Guns
But how does it play? Well, I’ll deal with the gimmick first – the Shard Cards as they are called. At the start of a round, you can vote to have cards activated with your team, and these can cause a few interesting effects. Having bulletproof heads, for example, or on the flip side, having bigger heads than usual can certainly alter the way the game plays. There are a good 100 different cards to choose from, so as I’m sure you can see, these can alter the flow of a game.
The gunplay is actually pretty good, with a nice feel to proceedings. Coming from a background in the Battlefield games, I was expecting the guns to have recoil, but they are pretty much laser rifles, with only the LMGs giving any movement of the barrel, especially if you go full on, rock and roll auto with them. The assault rifles are pretty much unbeatable I’ve found, and even if an enemy gets the drop on you, it still feels possible to win the ensuing gunfight.
FragPunk advertises a low TTK (Time To Kill) as one of its advantages, and this certainly does keep the tempo of the game very high, ensuring a hectic feel throughout.
Using cover, flanking routes and making the most of all the other usual tactics works well, and initially through this review process there were quite a lot of people playing. Certainly enough that you never had to wait more than a minute for a full lobby, anyway.
Player Drain and Pricey Perks
However, that player count has certainly dwindled, so much so that a recent attempt to play resulted in failure; there were not enough people playing in any of the modes to get a game. In fact, the player base appears to have fallen off a cliff, and to be honest I’m not shocked. You see, apart from the Shard Cards, FragPunk is a pretty generic shooter by feel, and there are less annoying options out there.
A Free-to-Play Shooter with a Flawed Foundation
What this means is that if you can find a lobby, there is a bit of short term fun to be had with FragPunk. However, the aggressive pushing of the store, the annoying voice overs and the crazy achievement list means there are much better shooter options out there.
Even the Season Pass has two tiers, and costs a fair old whack of real-world money: I thought Destiny 2 was bad, but this is even more expensive!
If you are looking for a free to play game, you have much better options.
Important Links
Bend the Rules! Free-to-Play FragPunk Explodes onto Xbox Series X|S, Play Anywhere & PS5 – https://www.thexboxhub.com/bend-the-rules-free-to-play-fragpunk-explodes-onto-xbox-series-xs-play-anywhere-ps5/
Fast-paced 5v5 hero shooter FragPunk announced for Xbox and PC! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/fast-paced-5v5-hero-shooter-fragpunk-announced-for-xbox-and-pc/
Download FragPunk on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/fragpunk/9MW715J1P29D/0010
