Warmode

Warmode Review

By, Sean Sullivan

Warmode looks like a clone of other famous, or infamous, first person shooter. The first map I jumped into was nearly a doppleganger of Counter-Strikes de_dust 2. Except the developers decided to neglect all of B side of the Map, and left it with A, mid, and long. A portent of what was to come, as nearly every map feels like the viscera of other games stuffed into a Frankenstein Shepard's pie. It's not going win a blue ribbon but the aftertaste isn't bad. It ultimately proves to be fun despite being riddled with unpolished elements. As ridiculous as the game can be, and for all its faults it’s not offensive. It plays like an arcade team deathmatch where the points don’t matter and no one truly wins.

Game Mode[s]

There’s only one game mode in Warmode and that’s Team Deathmatch. Play as either the Terrorists or Counter-Terrorists, starting on opposite ends of an enclosed battlefield. Maps are small, typically two hallways of which the 16 players throw themselves down. There are only six maps at the moment, but each one distinguishes itself. Beyond the de_dust clone one map takes place in a apocalyptic Pripyat while another, Industrial, is a tight storage yard filled with vibrant shipping containers. Regardless of the map, each one presents tight hallways and sharp corners, a miniature labyrinth where players can easily pop out at each other. Making the shotgun almost always a viable choice. And gameplay is fast-paced similar to Call of Duty, with no true tactics needed. Run and gun your way to victory.

I Would Like One Gun Please

Every kill rewards points that can be exchanged for new guns, a grenade, and armor. Not that new equipment is necessary; the starting pistol is powerful enough to knock an opponent off their feet. But for a easily earned 2700 points you can purchase an AK and fire off more rounds at clustered opponents. There’s no fear of losing your gun when you die, as you respawn with any equipment you previously purchased.

Typically, I started by buying a grenade and would chuck it into areas I knew the other team would be clustered. It was easy to pull of double and triple kills, as most of the maps are so condensed that players had barely anywhere else to run to. Then I would rack up knife kills until I could afford the M90 sniper rifle. I was disappointed when I realized that you can’t pick enemy’s fallen weapons. They disappear with them to the grave.

Going Pro

You don’t need to be Cal-M to excel in Warmode. As someone who routinely flashed his own teammates in Counter-Strike 1.6 scrims I dominated the charts in Warmode. So long as your crosshair is near another player's head you’ll pull off a headshot. And that’s because there’s no spread in Warmode, no recoil to compensate for. Every bullet fires down the same linear path where you’re aiming. So, spray and prey is a perfect way to rack up the kills. But that also means that every gun within its class (snipers, shotguns, assault rifles, etc.) functions more or less the same. There’s no obvious variance in the damage they dish out. So long as you can aim in the direction of an opponent before they fire at you, you’re likely to score a kill. It’s too easy and skill doesn’t come into play. The only reason I can fathom that other players weren’t wrecking me was due to the lag.

Lag City

Rubber-banding abounds. I never played one match where players weren't elastically swinging from one end of the map to the other. Or, they stood still, stoically running in place as I unloaded a clip into their cranium—hoping to secure the headshot when the server began responding. The lag would be unbearable in any other game, but in Warmode it proved entertaining. To test just how bad the lag was I decided to only wield a knife.

Either other players couldn’t see me or were reading a book while playing. I ran directly in front of opponents and cut them apart, over and over again. Other times I would swing through a phantasmagoria, as the lag held a model’s position in the wrong place for a prolonged period of time. No one playing CS would tolerate such conditions. But in Warmode it’s almost charming. Although it makes the game impossible to take seriously. It is likely that the client will be optimized in some future update, but I think I’ll miss killing players as a knife-wielding phantom.

Like A Painting?

Warmode’s visuals are satisfactory, being less refined than any modern FPS. But that allows it to be played on nearly any PC. And that seems to be the developer’s goal, to make an accessible FPS that previous generation computers can handle. That doesn’t imply the game is ugly. Maps are vivid, with bold colors contrasting one another. Foliage’s green is almost too bright as you run through the park in Pripyat. Little details like a cracked ceiling with a teetering container in Catacombs are a nice touch, like a tree in a Bob Ross painting. It’s not captivating but fine enough to inspire someone’s endearment.

The sound effects are also okay. But firing into an opponent's head is oddly satisfying given the gameplays crudeness. The thud of an accurate hit sounds like classic Rust’s SFX headshots. And it’s a good choice, as each connection rewards you with a sliver of adrenaline to make you hunger for the next headshot.

Throwing Money At The Wall

Warmode emulates Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike through their cash shop. Rather than offering advantages there are cosmetic items to show off your flair, at a ubiquitously priced $0.99. Badges and masks do little more than show your support for WARTEAM. And while I didn’t feel compelled to splurge when I played, it’s clear more masks will be added to entice players. I can only posit that more variations are planned for the future. The in-game AK-47 is already defaulted with a Kermit the Frog skin, and it seems clear that WARTEAM plans to introduce more gun-skins in the future.

Final Verdict - Fair

Warmode is not the next great FPS, but it's a humorous distraction and an ode to what makes Counter-Strike: Global Offensive great. The large catalog of weapons keeps the game from becoming stagnant so long as players cycle through the arsenal. But buggy rubber-banding prevented me from taking the game seriously. And with only one game mode I don’t see myself running back play it again anytime soon. Don’t rush into Warmode expecting a competitive atmosphere. Instead, gather some friends and enjoy fast-paced team deathmatches where anyone can climb the leaderboards while laughing the whole way there.

Warmode Screenshots

1 2 ... 4 ►

Warmode Videos

Coming Soon...

Warmode Links

Warmode Steam Store
Warmode Steam Greenlight

Warmode Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP
CPU: x86
RAM: 1 GB GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 512 MB Free Space

Warmode Music

Coming Soon...

Warmode Additional Information

Developer: WARTEAM
Publisher: Novalink
Language(s): English, Russian

Steam Greenlight Posting: July 08, 2015
Steam Greenlight Approval: July 14, 2015

Release Date (Early Access): August 26, 2015

Warmode is developed by Russian based developer WARTEAM. Warmode was posted to Steam Greenlight on July 08, 2015, and subsequently greenlit on July 14, 2015. It was then released as an Early Access title on August 26, 2015. Warmode continues to be developed by Novalink though its popularity on Steam has plummeted.