The first impression when you enter the game is somewhat both good and bad. It is good because everything is familiar, if you have played before other free MMOFPS, and you will basically know how to move through menus; you will probably feel a sense of déjà vu, because is very clear that the intention of the developers wasn't to change or revolutionize the genre, but to offer a personal interpretation of a well-known and working formula.
Menus have a very standard style with the classic tabs that you would expect from a game like this: capsule market, shop, inventory, mini-game, career and clan. While shop, inventory and the clan are pretty much self explanatory, the other are things that deserve to be explained. In the capsule market you can buy closed boxes that contain random items, and give you the chance to obtain special and unique gear pieces, most of them temporary, anand you could end up with an item that you don't need at all. In the Mini games tab the only thing you will find is only a free training mode where you can spawn dummies and do other stuff in order to get confident with controls and mechanics. In the career tab you'll find detailed information and statistics of in-game performance, results and progress in the game. There is also a complete list of friends and clans, as well as a clan leaderboard, which gives us an idea about the social and competitive nature of the game.
The title also includes a shop where you'll find a huge selection of digital reproductions of real firearms, both available for both cash and in-game currency. Of course there are unique VIP weapons only available to to VIP players, but the differences of these weapons are mainly aesthetic, and allow you to show your VIP status to the other players. A detail that we appreciated a lot is the possibility to acquire weapons permanently. These weapons still need to be repaired, but if we compare it with other many MMOFPS where you can only buy temporary weapons, forcing you to constantly play to be able to buy them constantly, is a remarkable change. This system allows you to buy a new weapon, take a break from the game and return without fear of having wasted your precious weapon.
The account that Gameforge gave us to test the game was loaded with both in-game currency and cash, so we had a good time enjoying shopping all the weapons, equipment and items that we wanted from the shop. There are even weapons, available to all players, with crazy stuff like golden guns, pink-mimetic rifles and more. One of the challenges of the game is to find the weapon that suits your playstyle, because each one has its strengths and weaknesses, or details that make them unique. We personally liked the Famas and the P90, and it was difficult to choose just one. A negative point we want to give Gameforge is the lack of "breathing effect" in the sniper rifles, which is rather common in these games and adds a realistic point.
The control system is standard and identical to any other modern FPS. However, we had the feeling that the jumps were something strange. There are a lot of objects in the battlegrounds which seems scalable, because they are not very high, but you you can't actually jump over them. As we said it's a little strange and sometimes frustrating, but it does not break the game. The strong point where the S.K.I.L.L. -Special Force 2 gameplay aims to differentiate itself from other games is the large number of different game modes.
The game offers a huge selection of game modes:
-Seizure: A typical capture the flag mode.
-Defence: A co-op mode, where you have to defend a kind of nuclear reactor against multiple waves of aliens.
-Survival: This cooperative mode allows you to fight against hordes insect-like horrifying aliens in the purest Starship Troopers style. It is a good way of disconnecting from the competitive game modes.
-Escape: A team have to activate several radio stations to make a distress call and thus be able to flee the area, while the other team has to do everything possible to eliminate them before they manage to escape.
-Deathmatch and team Deathmatch: We all know these modes, but in SKILL there is the possibility of playing them in Hardcore mode, where each bullet is more than enough to kill you. It's very thrilling, also frustrating sometimes, because each player's skill makes a huge difference, and we believe that it could find its spot in competitions as well.
-Explosion: A team has to plant a bomb while the opposing team tries to stop them or defuse the bomb in time. This is one of the most played modes, and is very funny, especially if you play it with friends.
-Party modes: This is where the game tries to offer something truly unique, and manages to do that with some crazy and funny game modes: in Manhunt, one team of players will take the role of the aliens and try to hunt the humans, while the other team will play as the soldiers that have to kill all the aliens. There are three different types of aliens to use, including a kamikaze one which explodes after a sprint. Very fun to play. Glass is probably one of the craziest game modes we've ever seen in an FPS: players are in an arena composed of different floors entirely made of hexagonal glass pieces. You can shoot your enemies or shoot at the glass under their feet to break it and make them fall to the bottom, under which there is just death.
We will now focus on talk about the graphics of the game; S.K.I.L.L. - Special Force 2 feels like a raw gem; the graphics are not bad, but it cannot be compared with the latest free-to-play online FPS, to mention one, Warface. Compared to Warface's graphics, just to make an example, S.K.I.L.L.'s graphics, while clean and enjoyable, lack in details and this makes the maps' design to look a little empty and too simple. The same deal goes with the sounds; they are not BAD, but we think that the developers could have made a way better job with just a little more effort. The steps sounds are often a little unnatural, while the shooting and weapons sounds are average.
In conclucion: S.K.I.L.L. - Special Force 2 is a more than valid free-to-play shooter that puts a lot of emphasis on community and clans. Even if it is not the best shooter around regarding graphics and sounds, offers a very complete and fun experience with lots of game modes. Its simple graphics, solid mechanics, combined with a fair in-game shop and a complete clan system are the necessary tools to deliver a good competitive scenario to hardcore gamers, and a fun and entertaining game for novice players. If you want to try something new without going too far away from your usual games, S.K.I.L.L. - Special Force 2 is a good choice.
RATINGS
- The good: a lot of fun game modes | fair cash shop | complete clan system with leaderboards
- The bad: Not the best graphics around | maps feel a little empty
- Graphics: 7
- Gameplay: 7
- Sound: 7
Overall: 7
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