A free to play FPS

Arctic Combat is a free to play first person shooter, where two generic armies fight each other over a variety of maps. You can upgrade your soldier’s weapons and equipment either by spending points you win in the game, or by purchasing in game currency.

The game client, is a bit clunky – you cannot choose to save your login details or region, for example, which is annoying. From there, you have a pretty complex interface where you can purchase items, read messages and more. You have to find your game here too, and amongst the plethora of buttons, there is a quick play option that drops you right into a game.

The debt to Counter-Strike in Arctic Combat is clear, but it lacks the balance and careful tuning that CS:GO has. Graphically it’s very average, although that means you can run it on almost anything. The free-to-play model means you can find yourself outgunned by other, more experienced or richer players. I found that well aimed headshots with weaker weapons simply didn’t work, which is a sign of Arctic Combat’s poorly designed free to play model.

First experiences with online shooters are often demoralizing, but you expect things to improve once you have learned the maps. Arctic Combat is simply to generic and unbalanced. Free to play FPS games are common now, and we’d recommend PlanetSide 2, Tribes: Ascend or even District 187 over this very bland offering.