Developer: FreezeNova
Publisher: FreezeNova
Platform: PC
Tested On: PC
Masked Forces 3 – Review
Freeze Nova has a thing for shooter games, that’s a sure thing. After releasing titles such as Masked Forces : Zombie Survival and Masked Shooters, they came out with a new first person shooter, following Masked Forces 2: Mystic Demons. Safe to say they aren’t new in this game. But let’s face it, it’s not easy battling against all the other FPS games available on the market these days. Is Freeze Nova treating us with Masked Forces 3 or is it just another game bound to die on the battlefield? Find out!
Story
Masked Forces 3, like its predecessors, doesn’t have a story. This comes as no surprise since it’s a simple first person shooter. One could say that the levelling system makes up for the lack of story. However, there isn’t much to this levelling system, besides that it allows you to get new skins for your weapons, making it rather useless. The game is more about testing and improving shooting capabilities.
Now, a first person shooter doesn’t necessarily require a story and the game not having one isn’t taking away anything from it. As proved before in the Masked Forces series, it makes a decent gameplay without one.
Graphics
When it comes to the graphics of the game, it feels like they could’ve done a better job. Overall, it all looks pretty basic and a bit behind its time. Both the characters and the maps could’ve done with more details and originality.
Sound
The music used in Masked Forces 3 isn’t all that much. It’s a typical first person shooter track that’s playing in the background. You usually don’t really notice it since you’re all tied up in the gameplay but when you do pay attention to it, it comes off as quite repetitive. The same music is used in all modes and maps. The gunshot sounds, footsteps, etc. are also regular. What probably gets the award for best sound in this game are the zombies grunting. It gets you in the mood of the setting and comes off as quite scary.
Gameplay
Masked Forces 3 is a first person shooter. When you launch the game, you can adjust graphics and controls. Mind that this is the only place you’re able to look at the controls; they cannot be accessed beyond this point, neither in the settings on the menu screen nor during the game.
This game uses a levelling system. If you reach a new level, you get a gift which can be money or XP. Achieving higher levels also gives you access to better armor and new skins for your weapons. Money also plays a role since it allows you to buy this better armor and skins. Money is earned through gifts or playing the different modes. The amount of armor available isn’t that extensive, making it less interesting. There is only some body armor and some masks. Besides choosing between different types of armor, you can also pick different weapons. These weapons have three features that play an important role; the damage it does, the fire rate and the accuracy. You can carry three guns in-game plus a knife (except for Arcade Mode).
During the game, your enemies are shown on a small map at the top of your screen. Only when you get close enough to them, a red dot will indicate their location. Blue dots indicate power-ups that you can go pick up.
When the game originally launched, there were five modes available. The first one is called Battle Royal. Here you try to kill everyone before you get killed yourself. The last man standing is the winner. The second mode, DOOM, is similar to this but you get to use some sort of rocket launcher to kill your enemies. Third, we have your typical Deathmatch where you kill your opponents and respawn if you get killed. The winner is the player who reaches 25 kills first. The fourth mode is the Team Deathmatch. As you can guess, this is exactly the same as regular Deathmatch expect that you play in teams. The fifth and last mode is the Zombie Mode. In order to win this one you have to collect a hundred zombie souls. But be alert, these undead will come at you fast!
In the meantime four more modes have been added by the developers. A DOOM Deathmatch is introduced where the last man standing principle fades and the respawning takes its place. In the mode Arcade you get to play with all weapons instead of just three and double jump force is introduced. The Classic Deathmatch and Classic Team Deathmatch are also added where player ability is removed and power-ups don’t spawn.
Of course different maps (called levels in the game) are available. Four maps were introduced when the game launched; Military Camp, Border Crossing, Wasteland and Red Waste. Later Outpost and Garrison were added as well as Waste Town, which is more suited for Deathmatch play. Extra and nice features of the game are a chat that is available and which can be turned on and off and the possibility to turn on night mode for your maps.
Masked Forces 3 can be played both in single player and multiplayer modes. In both modes you can activate bots as you please. Whether you enjoy playing against three or eight bots, it’s entirely up to you. In the Team Deathmatches you can also choose how many bots you want to add in each team. This is nice when you play single player. When it comes to multiplayer, adding bots is usually necessary as well since there are barely any players online most of the time. Even though a one-on-one game can be fun, matches with more players are surely welcome. Like the Steam page says; being a simulation, it’s mainly a nice game to work on your shooting skills.
Conclusion
Masked Forces 3 definitely doesn’t categorize amongst the best first person shooters. The mediocre music and graphics show a lack of in-depth work on the game. Take into account the pretty much useless levelling system and uninteresting and empty multiplayer mode, it doesn’t make a great game. However, seeing as it’s mainly meant as a first person simulator where you can test and improve your shooting skills, it works. You can indeed work on your aiming and whatever you need to train for. Maybe it can be some sort of warm-up for a game like Counter Strike.
Masked Forces 3 - Review,
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