Combat Arms

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Developer(s)	Nexon
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Mode(s)	Multiplayer single-player

Combat Arms is a free-to-play multiplayer first-person shooter developed by South Korea based developer Doobic Studios and published by Nexon.

History

The closed beta started on May 30, 2008 exclusively through FilePlanet and ran for one week. It ended on June 6th. This beta was limited to users from North America, South America and Oceania. In the closed beta, 4 maps and 30 weapons were available. On June 26, Combat Arms went into in Pre-Open Beta Phase, whereby the game was open to the public, but it was still being tested and changed to prepare for Open Beta. Pre-Open Beta was also limited to users from North America, South America and Oceania. The Official Launch of Combat Arms started on July 11, 2008. On the 8th of August 2008, Nexon announced that a Combat Arms service shall be started by Nexon Europe, for European Players. On 25 September 2008, the Combat Arms Europe Teaser website was activated by Nexon Europe.

Gameplay

File:Combatarms1.jpg

A screenshot from Combat Arms.

Combat Arms is entirely a multiplayer game with no single-player mode, and contains 4 game modes: Elimination (Team Deathmatch), One Man Army (Deathmatch), Search & Destroy (Bomb mode), and Capture the Flag, and as of now consists of 9 maps: Warhead (factory), Pump Jack (oil station), Snow Valley, (a missile launch site in the middle of snow-covered mountains), Gray Hammer (power station), Junk Flea (desert junkyard), Cold Seed (snow-covered mine), Two Towers (communications tower), Brushwood (a small jungle map, with a down plane hideout), and Sand Hog (unknown map coming october 1st). Players who start a room, (known as the Room Master) are able to choose the map, game mode, set score and time limits, and controls the weapons other players can use or not use, (for example, Melee only, or No sniper rifles allowed). Players are able to obtain in-game money known as gear points (GP) and experience after a match, allowing them to rank up and buy new weapons and equipment, such as armor, uniforms, and backpacks for their persistent characters. There is a rental system of equipment instead of actual purchases of the weapons and gear. The rental periods are 1 day, 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days, each rental period costing more in-game money. This rental period has caused much criticism to the game as players are upset that they cannot own weapons that they buy forever and that they have to keep playing to make up for the GP they used to purchase weapons and gear. The game design was based on a game known as Heat Project, a game made in Korea. The game also uses a customizations system where players can buy silencers, larger magazines, and different types of scopes.

Reception

Most users have agreed that Nexon has produced the greatest game that no money can buy. Combat Arms has proved to be a huge success and has started a new chapter into free, online gaming.

The game has been criticized for its inaccurate statistics of the weapons, as well as the extremely strict profanity filter. For example, if a player types "sniper", it will show up as s**er, filtering the "nip" out of the word (any profanity, no matter how many letters, shows up as **). Nexon's recent August 21 server maintenance has also come under fire for the witch-hunt style player bans being put in place. While results are mixed, it is believed that all players confirmed to have been cheating were banned or demoted to the lowest rank, Trainee. Many of these players claim innocence, whether because they only did it once or by accident.

Further criticism has been placed on Nexon for allowing users to download the game, register an account - which includes a users email address, only for the player - if from outside of NA, SA, Australia, or New Zealand to be prompted with an obscure message "ErrorCode = PI, 30022" when trying to play the game.

One of Combat Arms most recent series of patches on September 30-October 1, 2008 is at the center of new critizism which include the servers' long maintenance hours and down-time. The newly released real cash based pay-per-use system officially dubbed as the "Black Market" where player can use Nexon cash(obtained through paying using credit cards/PayPal service) to buy exclusive items also received mixed receptions due to fear that it may proof to be disadvantageous for players that could not afford to pay for these exclusive items which some believes to be superior to regular items that can be bought using GP. Critics also brought the subject of sexism on the game pointing out that the game does not have any female characters available to choose from(for free) when you first create your CA account and that the only female character(known as Mei) has to be bought from the Black Market. Finally, among other issues plaging its new patches was a bunch of glitches and server meltdown which Nexon is currently trying it's best to rectify.

Nexon has also been known for its slow and unhelpful customer support. Players have also complained about Nexon's slow website and their forums.

Maps & Plot

Combat Arms has ten maps, in a variety of different environments, like desert, snow, jungle and urban. The maps "Cold Seed", and "Snow Valley", are snow. "Pump Jack" and "Junk Flea" are desert. "WarHead", "Gray Hammer", and "Two Towers" are urban, "Brushwood" is in a thick jungle; the latest map to be released is "Sand Hog". There is no one country the game could be set in, due to the variety of the environments. In the map "Cold Seed", a mine named Oskrov is mentioned on the loading screen, suggesting it is in Russia. Also, there is no specific plot to the game, other than that there is a war going on, involving terrorists. There are only a couple mentions of a faction, the United Alliance, in the map "Pump Jack" and "Two Towers" loading screen. Each of the loading screens display a hint to the player, such as mentioning various game controls.

External links

• Official Website
• Combat Arms on MMOHub.Org