Crossfire: Legion, the proven strategic heir to a global phenomenon
Crossfire
Crossfire is a name that in the West hardly ignites the spirits. Many of you probably won't even know him. Yet it is considered to be the most successful online first-person shooter ever, with more than 690 million players from 88 different countries and daily peaks of eight million users. Consider that the TV series, broadcast only in the East, has made more than 1.8 billion views.Why is such a phenomenon little known in our area? Simply because it has taken root in particular in China and Korea where since 2007, the year of its launch, it has in fact dominated the genre. Given these numbers you will understand why the modern remake, CrossfireX, edited by Remedy, is a title considered particularly important in those parts (while we look at it with a certain detachment, let's admit it). You will also understand the excitement of the local audience when they learned of the arrival of a real-time strategy game that bears the name of the franchise, a particularly popular genre, especially in South Korea. If you are one of the fans too, you will be happy to read our first impressions of the project in our tried and tested Crossfire: Legion.
Gameplay
In Crossfire: Legion there will be three factions After a few games at the Crossfire Legion Technical Test it is really easy to define it as a classic RTS that winks at the cornerstones of the genre, such as the Starcraft (coincidentally, the Blizzard franchise is beloved in the East). In total, the game will offer three selectable factions, two already known to all Crossfire players and a third, still mysterious, which has not been introduced to us but information has been promised about in February 2022. The first of the known factions is the Global Risk, let's say the most corporate and dedicated to maintaining order through technologically advanced vehicles and weapons. The second is that of the Black List, focused on the speed and surprise of his attacks.The gameplay of Crossfire Legion will be very familiar to those who know any other RTS on the market, at least those of the Dune II school. It should be noted that we only got to play the 1v1 online skirmish mode, so we don't know how the narrative campaign will be conducted, which is still a mystery.
However it may be, the model followed is the one that sees an initial phase of gathering resources, which allow the construction of various buildings, followed by the accumulation of troops, and then set off to assault the enemies. Everything is handled very quickly and is designed to allow fairly fast games (relative to RTS). The maps themselves do not present any particular roughness, allowing a direct approach to enemies, with a typical design for online multiplayer, where the balance of the initial forces counts, whether they are material or simply tactical. The objective to be pursued is that of the destruction of the opponents, through the conquest of their bases, carried out by demolishing strategic buildings.
Naturally, one must also be able to expand and defend one's base, building productive and defensive buildings, such as turrets, warehouses and the like. The construction system is really very simple: selected the building all that remains is to place it on the map and wait for it to be literally launched from a transport aircraft. In short you will see him appearing from behind the scaffolding.
The commanders
The gameplay is the classic one of RTS Depending on the chosen faction, you can control different units. In particular, it is possible to select commanders, each with unique characteristics that can radically modify the course of the games. In this version of the game we have been able to try two: Cardinal of Global Risk, a man all in one piece capable of calling powerful artillery attacks and giving bonuses to his units, creating areas where they get a rate of fire higher while they are being treated; Phoenix of the Black List is instead a swift and determined warrior, who can create a healing area for his units and can quickly transport his troops to the Ghost Core outpost (the base of operations of the faction), where they become invisible to enemies and cannot be attacked. In the final version, the commanders will be different for each faction.The other buildable troops are a good mix of infantry units, vehicles and aircraft. In terms of actual combat, the game system is based on the classic rock - paper - scissor scheme, so, for example, helicopters are excellent against infantry and enemy vehicles equipped with light weapons, but pay a lot against equipped units. of heavy weapons, such as rocket launchers, which can take them down with very few hits. Basically, however, to pay is to have more troops than the opponent, in order to overwhelm him on all fronts. Also in this case nothing new, although the realization of the whole appears very solid and competent.
What to expect for the future?
The trial version only allowed us to see two maps SmileGate, the development team, already has well-defined plans for the future of Crossfire Legion, detailed with the classic roadmap, which talks about the arrival of the Technical Test in January 2022 for users who sign up (basically the version that we got to try). It includes two maps, two factions and 1v1 versus mode. New maps will be added in February and the third faction will be made available. Matches and ranked modes will arrive in March, and communication tools between players will be added. Finally, new game systems will be introduced in April, such as armies customization. The first public beta will be launched in April, with new unspecified game modes and new maps. The so-called Mentorship Program will also be introduced, of which however SmileGate has not provided any details.Crossfire Legion seems to us a title with a specific goal in mind: that of breaking into the competitive scene. Of course, making judgments right now is really premature, because we have been able to try very little content, but there is no doubt that what we have seen is very solid and well developed, as well as very clean. We will check with the arrival of the new content in the coming months if it is worth participating in this clash of rival factions.
