Special Forces: Team X review
What happened to the games that wanted to be fun for the sake of being fun? Forget intellectual plot twists, branching storylines and games that make you think about the consequences of your actions, what about the players who just want to shoot stuff and have a good time? Somewhere down the line, games grew up. They traded in cheap thrills to offer experiences that exist in other forms of entertainment, such as movies and TV shows. While that's not a terrible thing at all - we love a Heavy Rain as much as the next website - there is still a place in our hearts for some quick, fun and ultimately meaningless gaming. Luckily for us, Special Forces: Team X offers us these cheap thrills by the bucket load.
Combining an art style reminiscent of the wonderful Borderlands world, a cover-system that would give Gears of War a run for its money and the frantic pace of a Counter-Strike game, Special Forces: Team X just feels fun. Up to 12 players can duke it out online across five different game modes, consisting of the usual Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag added to the more interesting modes like High Value Target, which we'll get to later.
The battles take place across large maps that take an age to travel across, and the way these are generated is one of the most innovative features in the game. Each map is separated into three smaller, individual maps, and players then get a chance to vote on each section they want to see. The amalgamation is hard to wrap your head around at first, but once you realise how it works you'll appreciate how neatly it all fits together and wonder why other games haven't thought of this yet.
The environments themselves are pretty unspectacular with large, square buildings dotted around to explore and obstacles that give you plenty of opportunity to take cover when needed. The cover system itself feels very fluid and precise. One tap of a button when near cover will snap your character safely behind it in a smooth motion. From there you can either peak out and pick off your target when the time is right or just fire a barrage of bullets aimlessly over your shoulder, either feels good.
When the coast is clear you can also use the cover system to leap over obstacles, making traversal that bit quicker. Not to mention how much cooler it looks when you jump over a barrier instead of simply walking around it. A lot of firefights will involve you running and gunning your way out of trouble, but for the long distance shootouts you'll definitely find yourself snapping behind any kind of shelter you can find.
Special Forces: Team X does a good job at encouraging players to stick together and work as part of a team by offering an XP bonus if you stick close to your squad. The XP system itself is a nice little indicator of how far you're coming along in the game and gives you something to work towards. There's no in-game cash involved, so new weapons and outfits for your character are unlocked by simply gaining levels.
Unlocking a new weapon and trying it out is one of the big plus points, it's always interesting to try out new gear and see how it compares to what you've previously been using. It's disappointing, then, that there aren't too many weapons and items to unlock overall. It would have been much more satisfying with more guns to choose from, but here you'll just find the usual rifle, sniper and shotgun replicas that you could stumble across in any shooter. You can also customise the clothes your character wears, but even after playing around with every design he'll still look generic and pretty much the same as everyone else on the map.
The lack of cool guns is partially addressed by what the developers label as 'candy weapons'. These are high-powered arms scattered across the maps in boxes. Come across the box before anyone else and you'll be in for a treat, as you'll probably be equipping a rocket launcher, minigun or, my personal favourite, a chainsaw. Admittedly, the minigun is almost certainly the most powerful weapon in the game, allowing you to take out multiple enemies within seconds. But nothing can beat the way your character runs around the battlefield wielding a chainsaw like a maniac, looking for anyone to slice and dice.
Going back to the game modes, the five of them offer enough variety to keep you reasonably satisfied. The most noteworthy is probably High Value Target, which involves two-four teams. The match starts with a random player as the HVT, who scores five points for every kill he gets, while teammates of the HVT get two points for a kill. All the other teams get just one point for a kill, but their aim is to take out the HVT and become the High Value Target themselves. The team with the most points at the end is then named the winner.
Control Points is another enjoyable mode, featuring three points on a map that have to be 'captured' by players staying close to them for long enough. The points are captured and recaptured by different teams throughout, which results in a lot of back and forth matches that are usually very close. Again it takes a lot of teamwork to make sure you come out on top, players who run around like headless chickens are likely to be respawning a lot more often.
Hot Zone would have to go down as my preferred mode overall. It works much the same as Control Points, except there is only one 'hot zone' at a time and there are only so many points that players can acquire from a zone before it burns out. Once a zone burns out a new one is generated randomly on the map, usually resulting in a mad dash from one end of the battlefield to the other as teams attempt to gain the upper hand.
Our experience with finding available matches online was pretty good, there was usually a waiting time of around ten seconds before we managed to join a new game lobby. When we decided to create our own matches it wouldn't take long at all before other players began joining the game and getting in on the fun. Matches also ran smoothly as well, with hardly any noticeable lag at all.
Special Forces: Team X isn't attempting to be a game changer. It doesn't do much different from all the other shooters out there that you've no doubt played. But what it does do is offer a challenging, exciting and most importantly fun time. Those who are just looking to relax and kick back with a modest yet entertaining game for a few hours won't be disappointed here.