Soldier Front 2

Soldier Front 2 Review

By, Omer Altay

Soldier Front 2 is a tactical MMO shooter developed by South Korea developer DragonFly Games. It's the sequel to first Soldier Front game and is known as Special Forces 2 in Asia. Soldier Front 2 was originally released in South Korea in August, 2011 and made its way to into open beta in the U.S. through Aeria Games on June 27, 2013. Since its initial release, the game widened its reach by launching on Valve's Steam service a week later on July 3, 2013. The original Soldier Front game managed to reach over 6 million players in South Korea alone and became an eSports hit in Asia. Given the success of the first game, it's no surprise that DragonFly released a sequel.

Gameplay

Soldier Front 2 is built on the Unreal 3 engine and boasts realistic graphics similar to Alliance of Valiant Arms. Having played dozens of Korean FPS games, the first thing I noticed after jumping into Soldier Front 2 is its incredibly smooth and responsive gameplay. Like other “tactical” shooters, players tend to die in a few hits with headshots killing enemies in a single shot. The recoil in Soldier Front 2 also feels a lot more tame than most shooters, making assault rifles extremely effective even at long range. I found headshots a lot easier to land in Soldier Front 2 than Combat Arms and Blackshot.

New players are given the chance to play on the game's “new recruit” channels, which are rank restricted to players below 1st lieutenant and with less than a 1.3 KDR. This ensures that players on this channel are all within the same low skill level, which allows beginners to get a good feel for the game. Players can venture into the “open” channels which have no rank restrictions right away, but should stick to the beginner areas until they're forced out. Easier matches means players can earn more Soldier Points (SP), which can be used in the game's shop to purchase gear.

Permanent Weapons! Not Pay to Win!

Players earn SP simply by playing Soldier Front 2 and can use this as currency to purchase one of 30+ weapons. Unlike most shooters, weapons purchased in Soldier Front 2 are permanent and can be upgraded up to 5 times. Players unlock upgrades by using the weapon they purchased and unlocking various achievements. The AWP for example can be upgraded to rank 2 by getting 40 kills with it and rank 3 by getting 300 headshots with it. These upgrades only add marginal benefits. A rank 5 AWP isn't much better than a Rank 1 AWP. The only difference is a slightly higher clip size and less weight, allowing players to move a tad bit faster. Unlike Combat Arms and Alliance of Valiant Arms, individual weapons can't be customized beyond simple upgrades. So that means no custom scopes, triggers, etc. The whole upgrading aspect more than makes up for this though.

Weapons have rank restrictions on them, meaning new players can't purchase certain weapons right away, but it's not a big deal because it takes quite a bit of time to farm enough SP to buy a weapon anyway. Soldier Front 2 also offers “chrome” versions of weapons, which are only available with Aeria Points, the game's premium currency. These “chrome” weapons offer no advantages over their regular counterparts, ensuring a fair gameplay experience. Chrome weaposn don't have rank requirements and look slightly nicer, but aren't superior to the free weapons in any way.

Gear in the Shop

Aside from weapons, the Shop in Soldier Front 2 also offers other gear like Gasmasks, gloves, hats, and other goodies. Players can rent “lite armor” for 7 days at a time which increases armor. This is the only piece of gear that everyone should buy regularly, as it actually impacts stats. Almost all the other gear is purely cosmetic and doesn't impact the actual gameplay, but does provide players with bonus SP and XP. Players start with the Russian Spatznaz “special forces” character unlocked, but can purchase UDT (Kroean Special Forces), GAFE (Mexico), GIGN (French), SAS (Britain), and Delta (USA) using SP. Special Forces unlocked this way are permanent.

Unique Game Modes

One aspect of Soldier Front 2 that really shines is its unique game modes. Aside from the typical free for all style deathmatch and team deathmatch modes that practically every shooter has, Soldier Front 2 offers Snowball fight, Shatter and a few other interesting modes. Snowball Fight has players fighting eachother on a Christmas themed map lobbing snowballs at each other. These snowballs are quite deadly though and kill in two hits! Shatter is available in “party mode” and requires players to destroy the glass underneath opponents to make them fall to their deaths. Soldier Front 2 also has a unique PvE mode called “Xanthid survival” where players cooperate together to fend of waves and monsters called Xanthids. It's surprisingly fun at first, but gets stale rather quickly. Still, it's a nice feature to have, even if its not that popular. The game also has an odd 5v5 moba style mode called “hero” that lasts 30-50 minutes, but it's rarely ever played.

Conclusion & Other Thougths

I've played a lot of free to play Korean “tactical” shooters and despite the fact that Soldier Front 2 doesn't bring much “new” to the table, it's still extremely fun. It just does everything it tries to do really well. Some of the game modes are unique, but let's face it. Most FPS players aren't looking for a PvE or MOBA experience, they're looking for a polished traditional FPS experience, and Soldier Front 2 is offers exactly that. The game also has a robust clan system, called “corps” for those looking to make a name for themselves and their buddies. The only real complaint I have with it is the occasional hacker, but cheaters are something every FPS game had to deal with.

Final Verdict – Excellent

Soldier Front 2 is an incredibly polished free to play to shooter that's both fun and balanced. With impressive visuals, responsive gameplay, and a good variety of weapons and game modes, there's no reason not to give Soldier Front 2 a try.

Soldier Front 2 Screenshots

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Soldier Front 2 Videos

Soldier Front 2 Links

Soldier Front 2 Official Site
Soldier Front Wikipedia
Soldier Front 2 Wikia [Database / Guides]

Soldier Front 2 System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: XP / 2000 / Vista / 7 / 8
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3 GHz or AMD Equivalent
Video Card: GeForce 6600 / ATI Equivalent
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk Space: 5.5 GB

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: XP / 2000 / Vista / 7 / 8
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3 GHz
Video Card: GeForce 7800 GT / Radeon HD 5430D
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk Space: 5.5 GB

The official system requirements for Soldier Front 2 don't list hard drive requirements, but based on our installation of the game, Soldier Front 2 takes up about 5.5 GB of space.

Soldier Front 2 Music & Soundtrack

Soldier Front 2 Additional Information

Developer: DragonFly Games
Game Engine: Unreal Engine 3

Closed Beta: June 12, 2013
Open Beta: June 27, 2013
Steam Release Date: July 3, 2013

Foreign Release:

South Korea: August, 2011 (CJ internet Netmarble)
Japan: June, 2012 (NHN Japan)
China: April, 2012 (Published as Tornado Force by CDC Games)
Taiwan: December, 2013 (Wayi Entertainment)
Europe: January, 2013 (GameForge)

Development History / Background:

Soldier Front 2, called Special Force 2 in Asia, was developed by South Korean game studio DragonFly using the powerful Unreal 3 game engine. Development for Soldier Front 2 began after the first game's smashing success. The game launched in South Korea in August, 2011 and was licensed to Aeria Games for the U.S. market, where it launched into open beta on June 27, 2013. In its first year of release, the game was awarded the 2011 Korean e-Sports "Best New Title" award.

The North American version of the game from Aeria Games shut down on August 4, 2015. It was relaunched under the title S.K.I.L.L. - Special Force 2, but that version was also shut down by September 30, 2019.