Soldier Front Review

First Person Shooter (FPS) games are probably one of the most appealing game genres to Filipinos. The difference of FPS games to other genres is that the gamer is put “in the shoes of the character.” The differences of FPS games to other shooter games are the elements of movement and shooting. One famous game that fall under this category is the legendary, Counter-Strike.

With the rise of several FPS games such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life and Quake, and the rise of the generation of Online Gaming, Koreans developed Soldier-Front. Soldier-Front (aka Special-Force) was originally released in Korea in year 1996. It slowly grew in popularity, reaching neighboring countries like Japan, Thailand and a distant country: United States.

The playable version for Filipinos can be found at http://sfront.ijji.com. This is the website for US-Soldier-Front which is also open for foreign players since the other SF servers are privately for their country (unless you hack by proxies.) Since it is an online game, and you are connecting to a distant country, a decent connection (DSL or better) is strongly recommended.

Soldier-Front offers the same game play as that with Counter-Strike. There are mainly two teams (red and blue) and the main objective is to well… kill the opposing team. Besides these “main” objectives for both teams, there are also “secondary objectives” that exists. For the red team, it is almost always the case that they have to escape the map or retrieve a confidential item (DNA, EMP, Nerve Gas etc.). For the blue team, they must stop the red team from retrieving the items or escaping the map. (Oooh! Missions!) Some people like this idea however, some are not just patient enough to play that much but want to attain a high rank.

Soldier-Front has few twists embedded in its game. Unlike Counter-Strike, where the guns are bought every single time a game starts, the guns in SF are bought at the very start and you must stick with it until you get enough money to buy another gun. There are mainly two types of primary weapons, machine guns and snipers. Ay walang kwenta? But to think of it, since the players here are “used” to having one gun and a secondary, they are able to master the type of weapon they are using. This is also the key of the game on making the players work as a team.

Kung ikaw ay mayaman at gustong magkaroon ng maraming baril… go donate! This is the fastest way of getting in-game money for you to be able to buy guns, accessories, armors and game items. Some items are exclusively for the game coins that you get when you donate. Costing $1 (around P45) per 10 g-coins, the game money is pretty expensive for Filipino gamers. (Ouch sakit sa bulsa…)
As you play along, you get experience points just like in MMORPG games. Another difference of this game to CS is that it has a ranking system. (So hindi lang puro patayan… may competition din for the best!) You start as a Trainee and end up as the General of the Army. As of now, the highest is only a Brigadier General (approximately 4 million exp) in US-Soldier-Front but in Korea, they have ranks higher than General of the Army (Don’t ask me what the ranks are because I have no idea…).

This game offers a 3-Dimensional environment and an applied physics on it. Though this is the case, the graphics are not that good compared to Counter-Strike. For some instances, there are places where people can glitch, meaning, they can go inside boxes where they are invulnerable (ehem… gawain to ngayon ng maraming Pilipino dyan…). But hey! The game is free to play… so don’t cry much if there are game glitches!

The game sounds are “ok” for its genre. Every sound that is in a soldier’s radius is fully audible, making the game more exciting if it’s one vs. one combat. There are unique sounds for every gun and grenades possible so a player can recognize what guns the opponents are using. (Be careful! There are people who can pick guns of those dead guys!)

Warning: Since the game is in beta (at least in US server), there happen to be a handful of hackers lurking around, so please be careful.
So if you’re bored of Counter-Strike or Half-Life, you can try Soldier-Front for a new experience on FPS games.

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Graphics 7
Sound 7
Playability 8
Longevity 7Game: Soldier Front
Platform: PC
Genre: MMORPG FPS
Website: http://sfront.ijji.com