Combat Arms: The Basics
Combat Arms (by Nexon) is an online game that you download to your computer to play. It runs on windows but not on macs. Sorry guys :( I will try to find mac games to post. Sign up is very easy. I signed up and got the email verification from Nexon within a minute. Then I downloaded the game and opened it. I got to choose my soldier and pick a name. Then I went in for some basic training that helps teach the controls of the game. Once you pass training, you are ready to go get killed... er, I mean, battle some enemies!
Combat Arms: Game Play Controls
During training I learned the controls. You use your mouse to aim and fire. Pressing the a, s, w and d keys makes you walk. That's the basic movements. Then ctrl lets you crouch down, shift lets you run really fast, E is the action button (like opening doors), C let's go slow, R is reload, 1-6 is your weapon selection and space bar lets you jump. As you can see, you use a lot of keys on the keyboard which takes some getting used to.
Combat Arms: Getting Ready For a Game
You start out as a trainee and as you gain experience, you level up in rank through 50 (or so) different levels. Once you are ready to play, it has you pick a server then a channel. You can join a room to start blowing your enemies to smithereens or you can create your own room to fight in. Creating your own room is rather cool because you have a lot of settings to choose from (maps, friendly fire on/off, abilities on/off, kill cam, amount of players, # of rounds/minutes/kills and more). Then you get ready to blow people to bits by going to "my character" and picking your weapons.
Combat Arms: Blowing People to Bits... the fun part
Luckily I had experienced gamers to show me what to do (Thanks HeavyBoozer, BakerM_STE__ and AE-Dusk). My first round was kind of sad LOL. I just followed HeavyBoozer or BakerM_STE__ around and tried to figure what we were doing. I did manage to kill 3 of the enemy though. That was pretty cool on my end but looked rather pathetic to HeavyBoozers kills of 718. But I still had fun. The second round I made it further (only because I hid for most of it). But I was getting the idea. (Then my Benadryl kicked in and I had to log off.)
Combat Arms: Respawn Tokens
In Combat Arms, if you are killed during a fire team mission (which is what we were doing), you don't just respawn and keep blowing things up. You have to have respawn tokens. Respawn tokens cost real money. In 90% of the other missions, you respawn. So for the rest of the game I got to watch my team mates who didn't die, all 3 of them (we were a team of 4), run around and shoot people. I did take notes though, so it wasn't wasted time.
Combat Arms: Clans and so much you can do!
There is so much you can do on Combat Arms that it would take forever to list everything. One thing I do want to mention is the Clans because they are such a big part of the game. A clan is a group of people that work together to level up their clan so they can get access to special weapons. Being in a clan gives you a special logo on your characters arm. Clans can war against each other to gain experience points so your clan can level up. If you don't have a clan, you can start your own and have your friends join you. You can only be part of one clan so pick your clan wisely!
As far as the other things you can do, here is a small list of things you can do:
- Buy and sell from a selection of hundreds of gear and weapons
- Send gifts to your friends
- Take jobs. Daily jobs give you items when completed and Gun emporium jobs can help you forge or upgrade your weapon.
- Modify your weapons.
- Choose from a wide selection of mercenaries and specialists that come with special vests.
Combat Arms: Nx and GP
On Combat Arms there is Nx and then there is GP. GP is game points that acts as currency. You can buy items with GP, gifts friends stuff, increases your chance at the gun emporium for upgrading a weapon and other things like that.
Nx is another form of currency that you get when you add real money to your account. There are a lot weapons and items that can only be bought with Nx. You can play Combat Arms without ever buying Nx (my plan), but you can also add Nx at any time to get the special items you want (Miles' plan! Allowance is so cool)
Combat Arms: Our Review
Miles and I decided to rate this game together.
- Overall Game Rating: 10 stars! We really like the game. I liked it much better once I learned the controls.
- Game Play Rating: Me (the non-experienced) 8 stars. It's a little discouraging at times when you are playing against high ranking players. Miles (the experienced, high ranking player) 9 stars. It sometimes lags pretty bad.
- Control Rating: 9.5 stars. Only because they take a little getting used to. Miles says the controls have excellent layout and I have to agree on that.
- Fun Factor: 10 stars! All the way! I really had a lot fun even as the newbie target... I mean, player.
- Kid Friendly? Uh, not really. This is more for teens to adults. I wouldn't let my kids play this when they were younger.
