I’ll admit that I was a little apprehensive about trying this out. The words “it looks like Counter-Strike!” kept flashing through my mind while I was downloading it. I was never really a fan of those Calls of Modern Duty games, so I figured that if I set my standards low enough no matter what happens I would be pleasantly surprised at the results. Oddly enough, Firearms: Source manages to not only meet my low expectations, but surpass them by far. Beneath the tried and true modern warfare exterior lays a polished and well-executed shooter.
But it’s of no surprise to me at least that Firearms is a good game. I mean, there’s only 12 years of multiplayer experience that they borrow from the original Firearms game, even though the original team has very little to do with the Source remake. The Source remake channels the classic Half-Life Deathmatch feel really well, and I’ve never been happier to be wrong about something. If you remember, I said that Firearms was something akin to those pretentious “realistic” games, and it’s nice to not have a video game try too hard to take itself seriously.
Yes, despite my apprehensions I actually ended up having fun playing Firearms: Source. But as I was playing, Firearms’ little flaws kept cropping up and making the four or five complete matches I played into a somewhat sour experience. For instance, the complete lack of a deathcam (or even CS:S’s pre-update camera that looked in the general direction of your killer) led to many deaths that left me wondering what happened.
Another niggling flaw was the actual health mechanics. When fighting another person one-on-one, the element of surprise was the only thing that kept me from losing duels. It boils down to whomever started shooting first would end up the victor. This was incredibly inconvenient for me, since my usual loadout was a sniper rifle, the game’s only shotgun, and bandages. The shotgun just couldn’t shoot fast enough to match, say, an M16-A1. I wish there was more weapons besides the usual assault rifles, snipers and pistols. There’s only one shotgun, and a grenade launcher, which made me kind of disappointed.
I’m pleased to say that the mapping is superb, though. There weren’t too many chokepoints and plenty of ways to actually flank the enemies. A flashlight is needed in some of the darker maps though, and it’s unfortunate that you can’t buy one. The dark maps also make it harder for you to snipe, because the indicators that show if a person is friendly fade out after a certain distance. This is only compounded by the fact that there isn’t much of a difference in uniforms between the two sides (one is tan and one is dark green), and in the dark it fades to a bluish color that is hard to distinguish. Oh, and the UI, especially the Skill trees, is kind of dull. Just saying.
But don’t mistake my criticisms for condemnations. Firearms: Source is great–not perfect, not by a long shot–and the skill trees give a nice little differentiation to FA compared to the thousands of other Source multiplayer mods. There’s a lot of room for improvement, and once the community starts churning out maps for it, you’d be hard pressed to find something better.
No. Buy the game you terrible person.
@Anon: You mean an illegal version of CSS then? :p
Pingback: Rapid Fire: Firearms Source to get Steamworks | UserCreated - PC game mods news, reviews and features
I am actually very surprised to see so many good pre/reviews about firearms source. I played the original quite a bit, an excellent game, and so I was very happy to find out about the release of a sourcegame with the same gameplay in mind.
I was terribly disappointed though, there’s many, many things which are very different; perhaps deliberately, but I don’t enjoy the source version anywhere near as much as the original. In fact, I uninstalled it the same day I tried it out!
In firearms, well, firearms were important. You had lots of options, and every weapon you chose was really different; a bit like ‘The Specialists’ which also had a broad range of weaponry and equipment, but even more options than that. In source, I see the attempt to do a similar thing; yes, there are lots of weapons, but they all feel the same, they act the same. The sniper rifle doesn’t kill, and that’s when you can actually hit someone running at the speed of light. In firearms, you ran particularly slow, and you had your run button to sprint, using up stamina. Yes the run button is there, yes the stamina is there, but there is absolutely no reason to use it, cause you’ll feel like your aim is collecting golden rings at the speed you’re running.
Another thing I remember from firearms is the ‘rather although not completely’ lineair maps. The ‘rather’ linearity of the maps provided a way of forming fronts, and having to be indeed very sneaky to be able to get anywhere further than your side of that front. I’m missing this in the source version too.
Overall, I’m very disappointed with the general feel of the game. Something as simple as the running speed couldn’t have possibly been overlooked by someone who played the original, I find it very weird that anyone would make something called firearms: source and not notice such a thing.
I will definitely check out the game again in a year or so though, or possibly reinstall the original if things don’t get better ;-)