A good solid arena style fps with a lacking presentation in the single player mode.
At first, new players may feel that it offers nothing new to the genre but underneath its skins lays its true color. The videos on this web site do not show the game’s true nature and speed because the person playing is just playing the game like any other fps. When you watch someone else play who knows what they are doing movement wise then you’ll notice that the game is very different then what is presented here on this website and on other popular websites.
Warpath features an advanced maneuvering system like that found in the Quake series in which players can do tricks like strafe jumping, wall climbing and rocket jumping. In Warpath the moves are slightly different in which the maps are specifically designed to utilize these types of new movements. For example, a big room filled rocks that have angled and inclined surfaces are scattered all over the room and to a regular player this may seem just like a big room full of rocks and boulders. For those of us who have mastered the fine art of “Ramping” the area will seem more like a playground for some high flying aerial combat. For more info on the advanced maneuvering check this video out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kaarb-NYkL8
The weapons system follows in the same spirit as the Quake series because it relies on its simplicity of the weapon characteristics & variety. Like Quake, the weapons in Warpath have simple yet well-defined projectile characteristics and are quite different from one another. The Tyrant is your standard grenade launcher; Violator is your shotgun, Wolverine is the machinegun, Vanguard is the plasma gun, Judge is the rocket launcher, and the Javelin is the precision instagib weapon. All are very simple with no alternate fire modes or combo projectile options. Its just very simple on what they do and how they do it… that is until you upgrade your weapons.
When weapons are upgraded during combat, the characteristics of the weapons change for the better and now your strategy on how you will meet your opponent will change. For example at first the Tyrant fires just like any other grenade launcher and the strategy in using it was either to launch one directly at the opponent, shoot one or more in the opponents path, or lob a bunch into a crowed or confined room. After upgrading the weapon, the Tyrant will then be given a remote detonation device that can be used to detonate the grenade anytime after it is fired from the weapon. With this the player can now use the grenade projectile as a controlled aerial bomb and the only thing the player needs to do is adjust for arc and utilize timing the explosion. The third and final upgrade of the weapon is that an adhesive shell is added to the grenade and now it will now stick to enemies rather than explode on impact. This can be used if you want to kill more then one person by sticking one onto one person and waiting until he gets into close contact with a bunch of other people and then setting the nade off.
Some problems that I have with the game is for one the ammo pick up system. For some reason when you are running at regular speed and you run over some ammo to pick it up, it misses. You need to slow down and pick it up which is a mistake in my opinion because in a fast paced fps like this, you’re going to be a sitting duck. Also the head bobbing seems to get really shaky at times and I was hoping the full version would give us an option to turn that off entirely but it didn’t. A Heavy Body momentum seems very present also in this game as you character will not have the quick change of movement from left to right like in Quake or UT. Although this really isn’t a big deal, it does make the characters movement feel a tad less responsive and heavy when compared to Quake. Finally of course there is the whole presentation of the single player mode. I was honestly hoping to see more cut scenes and cinematic to help drive the stories of each of the races but instead we get still images and paragraphs explaining the plot. I guess for 20 dollars I should’ve lowered my expectations a little bit more.
All in all though, for me it was well worth the 20 dollars I spent. There isn’t that many people online right now because the game is a rarity in stores and the only real place to get the game is online. Also the fact that it is a budget title might also scare off some consumers but in my opinion this is a game that arena style fps fans should try because it slightly changes the way an arena match is played. It can make for some really fast paced matches.