Masked Forces 3 is the latest of the Masked games. After having recently played the F2P game Rebel Forces (very similar and also from Freeze Nova) I found out that Masked Forces 3 can also be played for free in a Browser version, so I gave it a shot for this review. It is however important to state, that the browser version of MF3 is inferior to its steam counterpart by having an awful framerate. Online matches with other players are limited to around 20 FPS and playing the Doom mode (which features a lot of explosions) drives it down to around 10 FPS and makes it a real slideshow. These framerate problems of the Browser version appear regardless of your PCs capabilities. The 4 Euro Steam version of MF3 (most expensive of all Freeze Nova games) on the other hand has a stable and good performance. Steam players (which are a very small minority of MF3s already small population) therefore have a clear advantage over all other players. Some might even call it Pay to Win and I honestly believe that Freeze Nova is aware of the bad performance of the Browser version and uses it to tempt players towards buying the game on steam.
EDIT: I tried some other browser versions of the game and some ran more stable than before, but they don't always do.
The gameplay of Masked Forces 3 is very much like Masked Forces 1 and Rebel Forces. The gunplay is nearly identical in all 3 games and movement and jumps (which are higher than most FPS) are also the same here. The Sprint function (which is actually more of a teleport function) is one of the few actually new gameplay feature of MF3. It isn't that great however.
New weapons in MF3 are a Flamethrower and a Crossbow, which are okay, but not among the best weapons of the game. The rest of the weaponry is also identical to the other games.
There are only 3 Multiplayer Maps in Masked Forces 3, which is disappointingly little content (Steam version is supposed to have more MP maps, but I can't verify that). The maps however are really large in comparison to the MF1 and Rebel Forces maps. They all have an apocalyptic city vibe (dark red sky lightning and look like they could be from a Terminator movie). Waste Town is probably the smallest of the three and is entirely set in a street block, some multi-storey buildings and the backstreets between them. Wasteland on the other side is, as the name suggests, mostly a wasteland of ruins of a former desert city and some small town area nearby. It is probably the largest map, but also feature the least cover opportunities. Red Waste (the maps names are so creative...) looks like a combination of both maps with wasteland, city and ruin elements mixed together and is nearly as big as the wasteland map. All 3 maps are also available in even darker night versions. I really like the setting of these maps, their design however is just okay and nothing too exciting. For a lot of the game modes however they just feel too big.
The game features multiple game modes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch or the Doom mode, which were also part of the other games. There is additionally also an Arcade mode, which allows players to start with all weapons already equipped. There are also Classic DM and Classic TDM modes, but I couldn't spot any difference to regular DM and TDM outside of not having the sprint/teleport function... Doom Mode in MF3 feels significantly worse than in Rebel Forces, since it on the one hand doesn't allow for higher speed and larger jump settings and on the other hand the large maps don't really fit the arcade style of the doom mode so well.
And than there are also 2 Battle Royale modes in Masked Forces 3. Both modes support up to 20 Players/Bots and the only difference is the weaponry. In Doom Battle Royale players start with rocket launchers (but only have limited rockets, different to regular Doom mode) and in Regular Battle Royale the weapons from TDM and DM will be used. I do like Battle Royale modes, but in MF3 they seem a bit forced. Waste Town is simply too small for a BR and while the other maps have the right size, they just feel like Deathmatch modes without respawns. The gunplay and general gameplay of MF3 is just too weak to save this mode. Doom Battle Royale also sounds more exciting than it is, since you will quickly run out of ammo and the arcady Doom gameplay features a respawn based Deathmatch mode much better than a Battle Royale mode. Both modes are rarely being played by more than 2-3 players, so you will mostly have to deal with Bots in these modes, which doesn't make them any more fun.
The other 'bigger' addition to MF3 is the Zombies mode. There is Regular Zombies (normal weapons), Arcade Zombies (All weapons) and Doom Zombies (Rocket Launchers). The problem of them all is, that there are only 5 Zombies at any time, they are really stupid and their walking animation is awful (it looks like they would be ice skating across the map). There is 0 challenge and fun here, even the Zombie mode of War Identity doesn't look so bad in comparison to this one. You can change the difficulty, but that doesn't make the Zombies stronger or the player weaker, but instead just increases the number of Zombies that needs to be killed overall. The Zombie modes are just being played on regular maps of Masked Forces 1 and Rebel Forces, which don't suit the mode in any way. Sometimes it is better not to add something, than to add something really bad.
There are no Offline Missions in MF3 like in the other games, which admittedly were extremely generic and bad, but instead all online game modes (including BR) can be filled up with Bots instead of players. This is probably better than the Rebel Forces version with Offline missions, but no bot game modes. On the other hand the Bots in MF3 are worse than in Rebel Forces. They often just stand around or move very slowly around and generally feel confused by the larger maps, but open fire on everything in their proximity. These Bots can't really simulate real players. At least the framerate is better in matches against Bot players, it is however still below the steady Steam performance.
The Visuals are comparable to the other games, which means lack of details and general under averageness (Zero visual improvements from MF1 to MF3 doesn't really speak for the game either). Since the maps in MF3 are bigger now, there are even pop up effects, if you walk across the map. Customizability is otherwise the same as in Rebel Forces (which means very basic customizability of everything).
Result:
Despite adding new modes and weapons Masked Forces 3 falls flat in comparison to Rebel Forces. Removing the awful offline missions and allowing the addition of Bots was the right move. The Zombies mode on the other hand is truly horrific and thats is not thanks to the Zombies... The gunplay and general gameplay of MF3 is as under average and disappointing as in Rebel Forces and the only asset of Rebel Forces, the Doom mode, was implemented significantly worse in MF3. The maps don't support the gameplay style and the fun speed and jump modifications were simply removed. I do like the scenario and atmosphere of the maps, but what does it matter, if the gameplay is no real fun. The same issues apply for the Battle Royale modes. Some of the maps could fit BR well, but the gameplay is just too generic and bad, plus the bad Bots don't help either. The worst offender however is the sometimes abysmal framerate of some of the Masked Forces 3 Browser versions (which are the most common versions), which is just not excusable, if you look at the much better performance of the Browser versions of Masked Forces 1 or Galactic Force. Masked Forces 3 tries a lot, but mostly fails.
3.5/10
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen