Combat Arms: Quarantine Mode Review: Zombie Survival of the Fittest

Combat Arms, the highly popular first-person shooter (FPS) from Nexon games, now offers a Zombie seek-and-destroy game mode. Although this new featured was implemented almost a year ago, I finally decided to take another look at this free online game and determine whether "Quarantine Mode" made it worth revisiting. As a fan of anything related to the "Zombie Apocalypse" trend, I hoped that the latest lure from Combat Arms would be worth braving the horror of a free-to-play (F2P) game's community.

The first thing I noticed was the hilarious animation for the "infected" players: streaks from red, beady eyes-and a lumbering gait-mark who is a zombie, and who is a gun-wielding, anti-infection mercenary. The fact that the zombies are bullet resistant counter balances their melee-only disadvantage; believe it or not, I found being a regular player versus the gnarled-hand-wielding "infected" was far more challenging. Plus, as I mentioned, the zombies get those nifty eyes.

Combat Arms has the same problems most F2P video games have: hackers, obnoxious players and an abundance of overly-competitive, highly-immature fans. "Quarantine Mode" has brought in fresh blood, as the "Zombie Apocalypse" theme present in video games, TV shows and movies is almost always a hook to bring in a new crowd. Still, the implementation of a new gaming mode is a nice gesture from Nexon, who profit considerably from the Combat Arms store which offers better in-game items for real-life funds.

Still, there's something incredibly satisfying about the "head shot" and "nut shot" features of Combat Arms, and "Quarantine Mode" gives players yet another option in the buffet table of how to annihilate friends and foes alike. Luring friends onto voice chat and going head-to-head, or team-versus-team, is a great way to share laughs and relieve frustrations; adding the Zombie element by way of the infected opponents add yet another hilarious dynamic to the game, and I found myself laughing even after dying, watching the end of the round play-out with the shambling hordes versus the human hold-outs.

"In Quarantine Mode, the fun doesn't end with fending off zombies. Even if you get infected, you can continue playing as a zombie and spread the zombie bug to your friends and other soldiers," IGN quotes Min Kim, Nexon's American vice president of marketing. The last man standing-or simply the one to resist becoming a zombie chew toy the longest-gets all the bragging rights among competitors.

"Quarantine Mode" really is Zombie survival of the fittest. It was enough to bring me back to Combat Arms to test the new features with a group of friends, and the hilarious quality is enough to have me recommended it to other FPS and F2P fans.

Sources:
IGN, "Zombies Take Over Combat Arms"