
While most of us – this writer included – have given up any hope of seeing a Call of Duty or a similar triple-A multiplayer shooter on Switch anytime soon, some studios have attempted to fill this void with their own take on asymmetrical gunfights. Some have been a success (Paladins being a fine example), while others have ranged from the passable (Modern Combat Blackout) to the abysmal (Bullet Battle: Evolution). So where does Warface sit? Is this a worthy alternative to the usual shooter fare? And how does an online shooter in the traditional mould translate to Switch’s hardware constraints?
The CryEngine-powered FPS launched on PC in 2013 (a month prior to the launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts and the current generation of console hardware) so it’s certainly been knocking around the proverbial battlefield for a while. It was one of a number of shooters looking to undercut the FPS big boys with a free-to-play model, but as with all things, the lack of an initial price does mean you’re not getting a super-polished triple-A experience. What you are getting is a time capsule of a shooter, encased in the amber of ‘the good old days’. It’s a very serviceable and enjoyable experience that looks and plays like a fan-made mod of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and CS:GO.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s certainly a little outdated by modern tastes. Thankfully, many of us still long for the simpler days of loading up a lobby and running around in a game of TDM while a bunch of kids insult your mother. Warface ticks that box, with a simple and no-nonsense formula that features all the things you’d expect a post-COD4 shooter to have. M14s! Environmental mantling! Tactical slides! Gun customisation! Easily abused spawn traps! Warface wasn’t heralded as the second coming when it first launched on PC (or when it hit PS4 and Xbox One last year, for that matter) and it certainly isn’t now, but hours and hours into our playthrough we’re still quite enjoying ourselves.
That’s because Russian developer Allods Team knows it doesn’t need to do anything particularly revolutionary to justify its own existence. The fact we’ve got a CryEngine-powered game running on Switch is a marvel in itself for those who care for such a detail, running at a relatively stable 30fps/720p in TV mode and 540p in handheld mode. If you’re jumping into this after a few rounds of Battlefield V (or, indeed, the PC or console versions of Warface), you’ll struggle with just how slow it feels at first, but if you’ve been giving Call of Duty Mobile a go recently, you’ll realise there’s still plenty of fun to be had at 30 frames per second.

As you’d expect, this is a multiplayer-focused experience consisting mainly of PvP & PvE modes. The PvP side of things is the most run of the mill, with five modes at launch – TDM (team deathmatch), FFA (free for all), Plant the Bomb, Storm & Blitz – with more modes and content planned for the months to come. Much like Paladins and Fortnite before it, the developer behind the game has brought the Switch version in-line with other iterations so new content updates will go live with full parity. There are even talks of potential cross-play functionality as well. At the moment, the servers are for Switch players only, but with a healthy community building so far (we never struggled to find a match) it’s clearly proving a popular addition to the eShop.
There’s also some PvE modes, which offer up some enjoyable ways to co-op with other players, such as taking on waves of zombies on the streets of Chernobyl and an endless army of robots on the red dunes of Mars. It’s actually a lot more serviceable than the equivalent Zombie modes found in Call of Duty Mobile right now, and with support for in-game voice chat, it becomes one of Warface’s more memorable experiences. Of course, the benefit of being a seven-year-old game is there’s been a lot of content support over that time, so if you’re new to the game you’re getting access to over 50 multiplayer maps and a lot of rolling weapon updates and skins. Some maps are better than others (such as one set in a train station, where a train will periodically pull into the station, connecting both sides of the map) and while a lot of them favour snipers with their long corridors and open channels, there’s enough of them to balance out the quality.

Gunplay is decent and the hitboxes for enemy players are surprisingly precise (especially when compared to the likes of, say, Modern Combat: Blackout). ADS could do with being a little faster, but headshots are relatively rewarding to pull off, even in the standard rifleman class. We found the TTK (time to kill) to be a little too high for our liking, meaning it doesn’t take that many shots on the torso to down an opponent (or be downed yourself). Spawn points don’t cycle either, so it’s possible to find a good spot and farm kills in a spawn trap. The sheer speed of respawns means you’ll be overwhelmed quite quickly, but it’s an odd choice nonetheless. The newly-added SED class (which is effectively a knock-off Terminator) is also a little OP, making it a bit of a super tank at the moment.
So while Warface runs at a pretty solid 30fps in both docked and handheld modes, the visuals themselves can be a mixed bag. There’s a lot of aliasing, so expect plenty of jagged edges and blurred textures all over each map. The lightning model that the CryEngine can support has been mostly torn out of this version to make it fit the Switch, so most maps either feel too dark or have a jarring soft light that really dates the experience. The use of a Battle Pass (it’s currently locked out on Switch, but will no doubt launch in the weeks ahead) smacks of modern shooters, but Warface can never really shake that budget feel, especially when it’s had to be pared-down further to work on handheld.

This is a F2P experience, so you’re not getting a full game with a healthy handful of catches. The big one here is your choice of weapons is very limited. In fact, each of the five classes (the fifth was introduced as part of the recent Titan update) only has one primary and one secondary weapon to choose from as standard. Levelling-up and completing challenges will gain you access to new boomsticks, but these are on a timer and will disappear from your inventory. The same goes for cosmetic items and skins. Like a certain helmet or weapon? You better cough up to unlock it permanently. There are three currencies to do this with, including crowns (earned through co-op play and challenges), Warface dollars (earned through in-game performance) and Kredits (with a ‘K’) which are basically earned through actual dollar.
Conclusion
Nintendo Switch is really racking up a decent selection of shooters. Warface isn’t particularly pretty, and its approach to content access means you’ll likely spend most of your time playing with rented items and weapons, but it’s still brought solid asymmetrical online FPS action to Switch in a way no other shooter has managed thus far. It might not have the slickness of the bigger boys in the genre, but with stable performance in both modes and a huge amount of content (both now and in the future) the likes of Payday 2, Paladins, Fortnite and Warframe now have another rival for your online hours.
Comments 62
One for the kids. Tried it, uninstalled after 42 minutes.
It's not bad at all. Put an hour in last night and enjoyed it for what it is. 7/10 Seems fair.
" Let me see your war face! You got a war face? AHHHHH! That's a war face!" 😬
i wouldnt say that the graphics are "very dated" as they look better than PS3 and Xbox 360 graphics
they just arent up to par with current PS4/XB1 games
and im not sure if Switch could handle much more intensity...
@sixrings if they ported CoD Mobile then it would for sure completely replace Warface lol it's definitely the better free shooter
@spirit_flame same for me, didn’t even last an hour before it got deleted
More games is good. More games styles is good. Unfortunately I Don't really care for fps games. It lasted about 30 minutes and I had enough.
BIG Caveat Requires Internet not for solo nor offline Playing
My daughters and I are having quite a good time playing this together. If you have local Switch users all playing around each other it automatically puts detected friends into a lobby together, making it very easy to select and invite each other into a group. The difficulty in PvE (which is all we've tried so far, over a couple of nights) ramps up heavily from the very first map to the second, but as you can play the maps over and over again, we just took some time to level up a bit in the first "practice" map and were eventually able to overcome the second. One small downside is "normal" and above maps are required to have more players, so we can't just take our private room with just 3 beyond the "easy" maps. So far, the classes all feel very different from each other (I like the SED, one daughter loves the sniper, and the other the medic), which is a good thing. So far we aren't really upset about skins being times (although that may change soon, as I'm sure they are going to want to have skins for themselves to just use). Except for the SED...which seems to only have the one base skin so far as I can tell. Matches are quick and easy to get into. The only problem I've had with the game so far is sometimes when you first login, the server list is actually not there, and you have to close and reload the game to get it up again. Or logging into the server may timeout once (and it has a lengthy timeout timer), but hitting it a second time seems to then log you straight in. Overall, with the closest competitor being Modern Combat: Blackout, as far as I can see, this is definitely the superior game and we are having quite a lot of fun with it so far.
I might give it a go as it’s free, but I’m not much for shooters. Between Fortnite, Paladins & Splatoon I pretty much get my fill when the mood does strike. The co-op PvE is probably what I’ll try first. That’s something those others don’t offer.
Put in 30 mins then quickly deleted it.
Playtonic Games please make a spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007/ Perfect Dark for the Nintendo Switch.
@Link41x would you be so kind and say briefly, why?
Fair review as always. My problem is that, sometimes, the servers are off or something like that, so I can’t play the game. Other than that, it’s a pretty remarkable game. Lots of fun playing free for all. I’ll try the other modes today
Play this game alot. Loving it!!
I tired firing this up a few days ago and had some server issues. I'll try again tonight.
Does anyone know if this has motion control?
I betcha if they slapped the name Call of Duty on it, the kids will not want to put it down.
@spirit_flame I did exactly the same it is awful. So sluggish and ugly. Terrible game in this day and age. Play battlefield one then play this then you’ll understand how bad it is. 🤢
Me: Yay, a game which is using CryEngine, one of the best looking graphics engine up to date!
NL: "Visuals are very dated"
Me: Surprised Pikachu face
@janpampoen Yes, gyro is actually on by default.
This game it going to get big. Is a lot of fun.
@janpampoen yes it does.
Really wanted to like this, but it’s so clunky. The menus are dated, getting into a group was buggy and I actually had to restart the game at one point as it went into an infinite cycle of loading and reloading. The gameplay itself is very generic and old school, and upon finishing a mission a helicopter landed, bugged me under it, downed me, then blocked teammates from reaching me to help. Ended up deleting it as I just can’t see putting up with all it’s faults for a game that is overall fairly lacklustre.
@sandman89 Yeah, deff sub par. Just felt corralled in how you move across the maps. Hoping for better offerings elsewhere.
Better than Battlefield V at any rate! Haha!
@mist good joke.
@janpampoen Yes, it has motion controls just like Splatoon where it helps people aim.
I actually like the game. It reminds me a lot of the original Modern Warfare. In other words, it's a bit outdated but can still be enjoyable.
It’s a 4 out of 10 game
Deleted it. Servers are offline more than they are online. Then when they are on line the connection to the servers are dire with lots of lag.
I connected to Amsterdam but even that was 27ms lag at best.
Plus it appears that there is a large ‘hacked’ player element to this game if you read their Facebook feed.
I’ll stick with Warframe until COD or something a bit more polished comes along.
Quire enjoying this myself, been wanting a decent multiplayer fps on Switch and at the minute this scratches that itch. Will be interesting to see what happens long term as looking on Reddit seems to be quite P2W on PC where players have played much longer. Would love a COD game on switch though, Modern Warfare remastered seems like a good option that would run on Switch.
I recently bought Hypercharge Unboxed for the PVP but the online multiplayer on that game is already pretty barren in terms of players for me but I do like playing the single player/ co-op mode.
@WillQuan " Hypercharge Unboxed " - sad to hear it... I was going to get it but I was afraid the multi might be dead pretty soon...
Is it really that bad? Can you get full server games in EU?
I am downloading warface at the moment and I will give it a shot.
If they keep the game relatively fair I will not mind buying a few things... but... if they force pay to win strategy I'll just delete it right away.
@tgchan I played Hypercharged. It's not "bad", more likely it's just not that much of a stand out must buy now title especially when you have Paladins and Fortnite for free.
Warface is honestly the kind of Realistic fps I can't get into. But when I feel a craving for not Call of duty, I'll boot it up again.
Same here. After my first 2-3 missions, I was like wow. This is actually good. Then I did some PVE COOP mission, it was going fine until the end when we had to blow up a helicopter..... the rocket launchers didn’t have tracking so everyone was shooting them all over. Never took it down and one by one each person quit the mission until it was just me. So it took 60sec after that for me to delete it from my Switch to.
Warframe crushes this to pieces for me personally. If we’re talking free. @Rodan2000
@tgchan It is a pay to win game, the better weapons are locked behind a paywall.
@Link41x wall = wall?
or can you grind some in-game currency to unlock those?
I have played a few free for all matches and I like it. Definitely forgot I can enjoy CoD type games. Might get into the team stuff, but having a lot of fun in free for all. Not the greatest shooter ever, but worth the high price tag of $0.00. Also doesn't seem to shove purchases in your face. This is the second free to play game I have enjoyed on switch, Asphalt 9 being the first. Nice ways to tide the time in between purchases.
If you want a uglier, and worse version of COD with the stupidest name given to a game ever then this is just for you! WARFACE!!!!!>%$<|>€||
@tgchan I'm in the UK and I'm lucky if I get a game with 4 people in. When I get a game with a few people in it is fun but often I just get sent to empty lobbies and have to keep backing out and searching until I find one.
So how good are the motion controls? Do they work well? Are there true motion controls, or do they use the stupid motion/dual-analog hybrid system used in the "Splatoon" games?
@KoopaTheQuick I was replying to the other guy about Hypercharge Unboxed (another FPS on switch) haha not had any troubles on Warface, find full games instantly 👍
On the fence about this one.
ABSOLUTELY A MUST FOR EVERY FPS FUN TO TRY~!!
I am an ex esport CS 1.6 CS:S and CS:go player also bf series casual gamer and this...
it is a blast~!! so much fun you just don't even see frame drops in multi or any uneven pay2win things going on. Just basic start weapons and I mow people like I have been playing the game for years.
Terminator class is just pure joy... You enter enemy lines and just do what terminator do lol terminate everything on your way.
I wonder how the game will feel after hours and hours of gaming but the first hour or so it's been something just out of this world.
A mix of Battlefield and Counter-Strike.
With STORM/rush mode as my 1st and straight away favourite.
If you have any questions fire away. I will be glad to answer them.
@Link41x after a short game I feel like I love with it with all my heart and want to support it lol
Even with basic start weapn m4 it is a blast and I can easily get 6+ kills in a row.
It can't hurt to give it a try, though if it is indeed hacked like some claim, it will be a no go for me in the long term.
@tgchan
Its pretty old skool this game, im a little bit older, and i like it.
Storm and defuse the bomb are quit fun.
I like the engineer class for the mp5
@Jonasty198460 I am from 85 so not really young as well. So far, I have tried only gunner/ammo guy class and a few rounds as SOD/Termiantor.
Despite low reso/frame drops it is so much fun to me that I just simply have no time to dwell on those things lol
Can't wait to find some more free time to sink in more hours and see where's the catch in all this pure joy.
Hopefully it will be good enough to actually play for free without any pay2win walls.
If that's the case I will be more than glad to support it with some in-game purchases.
I was on the fence and didn't want to try it but boy oh boy would I make a mistake doing so ;p
So glad I did. Time will tell how it is with more hours into it.
A F2P game I tried on PC ages ago (and barely made it 2 days before uninstalling) That is the "new online shooter" on Switch after 3 years on the market 🤦♂️
I do not think I have ever played an online shooter at 520p in my life 😅
@Link41x This was me. 7 seems high, especially for the ancient "rental" F2P model. It is a functional multiplayer military shooter for Switch for free, and I feel like that's the best thing you can say about it. It's as bland as sugar-free oatmeal, the shooting feels weirdly snappy and mechanical, the AI is awful, the F2P model is gross and outdated, and it's easily outclassed by military shooters made over 10 years ago.
I've enjoyed it so far, but what's with the difficulty of co-op and spec ops? I mean, most missions on easy are hardly possible. And when all DOES go well, suddenly one enemy or one situation kills the entire team and all was for nothing. I enjoy this kind of mode the most, but it's terribly balanced.
I like this game, but PvE is frustrating with ransoms. Mainly because people pick medic for the shotgun and forget they can actually heal/revive. I've seen medics run away from downed team members so they can get in on the action instead.
That said, PvP is really enjoyable with some interesting maps.
@glorymade I highly disagree, the graphics are substandard to late gen 360, ps3 games. They are definitely not better
@DownRightSam lol it is better then th ps3 and 360
Version.
@DownRightSam Warface is visually greater than CoD MW2 and MW3 on PS3 and 360
Haven’t been able to connect to any server at all sadly. Loads up, I press to play and after a while I get a cant connect to server message. Oh well. Not like I paid money for it..
Missed an opportunity to call it "WARRY MCWARFACE" and hook in the "Oh so random and whimsical" 30-year-old Millennial crowd.
@retro_player_22 well the kids are too busy playing fortnite. I dont think cod is good but the new modern warfare has like no kids playing it. Cod fans are generally fanboys now.
War: Frame > Face
@Shambo I agree 100%! I likewise am more of a co-op than a vs guy, but I've been finding co-op and spec ops ridiculously frustrating. I've beaten a few of the co-op missions, but I have yet to complete a single spec ops mission. They are so lengthy and so hair ripping difficult. Oh, and don't even get me started on how much I despise those heavy gunners!!!
@Jawessome 've noticed that when it says "servers: global" in the upper right corner, it will not connect. When it's saying "server: (a city not too far away)", it will. Takes some tries sometimes, guess it's very crowded with the recent Switch release.
@vio bought some expensive gear for my sniper class (in game currency) that restores my character over time. Now I can take on a heavy gunner alone (still frustrating though), but still, that's no guarantee that the next encounter will not overwhelm the entire team, if we even get a checkpoint between them.
Always curious about those who bought Modern Combat Blackout. Why would you pay £20 for what is a free mobile game?
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...