Sitting down with Crytek’s Peter Holzapfel, Producer on the upcoming FPS WARFACE, one gets the immediate feeling that he’s more than happy with the upcoming AAA free to play shooter coming from Crytek through Trion Worlds in North America. We talk about the game’s worldwide appeal to shooter fans, F2P junkies looking for a quick fix and how the game is being published in different territories by different publishers for a few minutes, then we get down to the game proper, which is pretty fantastic and quite fun. Note that this is coming from a guy who doesn’t play shooters heavily. I’m more a fan of story-driven games and not multiplayer focused group shooting each other in the head games, but I do know a well-made game when I see and play it. What’s immediately apparent (aside from some more amazing CryEngine 3 visuals) is how accessible the team-based shooter is. Yes, it borrows elements from Team Fortress, Call of Duty and Crytek’s own games, but the experience is a more contained and faster paced game than any of the Far Cry or Crysis games, making for a perfect online experience.

As soon as you see it in motion, you can tell right away that this is a game from a developer who loves what they’re doing yet isn’t resting on their laurels one bit. The ability to customize weapons on the fly (just find some cover before attaching that scope or laser sight to your Desert Eagle), the point to point nature of the missions and the fact that the game content will be doled out in small doses on a daily basis are just a few of the draws here that may (and should) draw in players of different skill levels when the game finally goes into beta at some point later this year. That doling out of content part (featuring what’s looking like a wide range of map types set in different countries) was the most intriguing element for me because it’s meant to prevent prevent players from burning through the maps and mastering everything over a rainy weekend. Sure, there will be pay content here, but from what I got to play, those who want to earn their stripes and gear the hard (but fun) way by working for it will indeed feel satisfied as they complete missions and earn those new weapons and gear.

While there will be maps set in locations based around the globe, the mix of modern military shooting action and gear with a few futuristic bits was a great touch. The multi-part map we played had plenty of the usual snipers and machine-gunners to take out, but there was a nice surprise of a “boss” battle at the close of the stage where a bulky-looking by highly mobile mech burst onto the scene and required dispatching in order to end the level. This required teamwork to boost one or more players to high ground where rocket launchers were socked away that could make short work of the heavy metal menace. It was a bit of work trying not to get shot up or blown up by the mech’s constant attacks, but I’m proud to say it was yours truly who got to put two rockets into the thing, taking it down before it decimated my four man team. Once a day’s missions are completed, no new free content is available until the next day, but players can buy into more stages if they want to . I like the smaller format structure simply because I don’t have the time to commit to so many games.

Although the business model will probably change over time, WARFACE seems to be geared towards players who want to dip a toe into the FPS waters and not have to commit heavily from the beginning to a subscription model or deal with some other issues found in other games in the genre. It’s also pretty clear that focused multiplayer teams will do far better than trying to go into the game like Rambo on a steroid bender. A beefy PC that can run this smoothly is necessary (well, it IS a Crytek game after all) and while no console version is currently planned, I’d actually play this if it were on a handheld or home system at some point. Of course, that idea wold make this not so free to play and/or restrictive to what Crytek is doing on a technical front, so you won’t see me railing against the need to have a great gaming rig. Given that the majority of genre fans who prefer their FPS experiences to be as fast and smooth as possible, I doubt any of them will be griping about much on the technical side of things.

Still, some balancing needs to be done in terms of making the wooden training targets I found in the shooting range a bit less bullet resistant, but I’m gathering the upcoming beta will reveal more (and better) suggestions from the community as it grows. Holzapfel’s attitude about the game is positively upbeat, but even he admits that people are “either going to play it or not play it” at the end of the day. We both agreed that as it’s completely free to dive into, anyone can come try out WARFACE and if they like it, that’s obviously good for Crytek as well as those users who “get” the developer’s rather nifty experiment in the huge F2P marketplace. It may not be the first free to play FPS out there, but if users take to it like they have the developer’s other games, it could end up being the best one available – as always, we shall see…