Battleswarm: Field of Honor – The MMOMFG Review
Huzzah, my first review! And the honor goes to Battleswarm: Field of Honor, a free to play FPS/RTS hybrid from Game World Tech. Battleswarm gives you control over human soldiers or bug armies to battle against the computer or other players online. It’s very Starship Troopers, with some of the bug units taking inspiration from the series, which is never a bad thing. Without further adieu, I’ll jump right into what makes this game tick.
What’s Good
Two sides are better than one - The main selling point for Battleswarm of playing either side is easily the best thing about the game. Being able to switch from a first-person shooter to a real-time strategy game keeps things from getting stale. Go from blowing up giant bugs with a grenade launcher to swarming over puny humans with legions of creepy chitinous creatures pretty much on the fly. This keeps your options for gameplay open when you’re exploring what it has to offer.
Customize your own depth - Both sides are distilled down to the essence of their respective genres. For the humans, it’s see bugs, kill bugs, and occasionally planting a bomb to destroy a bug producing structure. For the bugs, it’s build bugs and swarm, however, there is a system for a good amount of strategy and customization. Humans have to set their load out before a match starts, which can affect how they fight the bug menace. Do you want a long range sniper rifle or an area of effect toxic cloud? A boomtastic grenade launcher or monster minigun? Pick any two you want, but some are more effective against certain bug types than others. Also available to set are armor and hotbar items, such as health restorers and grenades. The bug side has their own set of upgrades to choose. Before a match you choose what kind of bugs you will be bringing, with a max of six, each with their own effectiveness and special abilities. Your avatar can level up as well through completing missions and assignments. As you rank up you get access to better gear. Knowing what works and what you’ll be up against can give you the edge to control a match.
What’s Bad
Operation Manual - The game provides a tutorial for what to do in a map, but everything else is left to the player. All my initial instincts to operate the interface, the lobby, your equipment, and the store were wrong. It took me far too long to figure out how to equip guns and armor, and my first play through as the bugs, I only had one type in my arsenal because I had no idea you had to bring them into the map. Adding a few pop-up instructions for new players on how to use the interface would go a long way to ease the player into the game.
Beginner’s Guide - Even with the available customization, the game seems too much like training wheels for the genres. Remember my first match as the bugs, the one where I only had the one unit to build? All I had to do was spam build it whenever I was under attack and I managed to win. I’d say that as you get higher up, that just won’t fly. But playing as the humans against real opponents, the match consisted of me holding down the fire button as a never ending stream of the same bug came at me. Mowing things down is entertaining, but when it takes one button to do all that, what’s the point? There’s no ammo to conserve, armor to repair, or resources to gather. This makes it accessible and easy to play, but as for a fun factor, it lacks any real meaning.
Don’t worry, it’s a rental - There are two forms of currency in the game: gold and MetaTix. Gold is earned by completing matches and doing daily assignments, while MetaTix can be bought from the game with real money. Functionally, they enable you to buy new items. But the kicker is that your weapons and armor aren’t really yours. Depending on how much you want to spend, you are able to rent a weapon, piece of armor, or bug unit for a limited time. The more money you spend, the longer you can have the item to use. I don’t really understand the logic behind it aside from forcing players player to keep at the game just to keep themselves equipped.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? - There are a number of game modes, from arena pvp, team matches, and capture the flag. The problem is that there are very few people to play with. To get the full experience there needs to be real players on either side, but at the beginning there’s hardly anyone. And even later on, the game is not significantly engaging enough when there are people to play against.
Worth Remembering
The first time I walked into a bug horde, minigun a-blazing, it made me feel like a complete bad-ass. Miniguns do tend to have that effect.
Worth Forgetting
The time I spent trying to equip said minigun. Double click? Really?
Overall, Battleswarm has all the makings of a solid game, but the execution leaves it lacking. Both sides of the equation suffer from the same problems. Gameplay is simple and does not improve a whole bunch as you get further into the game. The capability is there, and no doubt some have discovered the way to make their avatar uberleet, but there was no hook for me. While this game get points for combining the two genres, simply put, there are better games out there in each category that, while not free, will keep you engaged longer and more than likely be more fun. If you want something you can hop into, shoot a few things, or swarm over battlements in between classes, then give it a shot. But as for something to actively play over a long course of time, Battleswarm: Field of Honor falls short.
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Nice one.
