CrossFire (video game)

CrossFire is an online tactical first-person shooter for Microsoft Windows by South Korean developer SmileGate. Neowiz is the Korean publisher of CrossFire, and deals with SmileGate directly. All other publishers must go through Neowiz to get to the developers. The game was released in China by Tencent, with Tencent as the exclusive agent service company. Tencent operates the game through the internet, with service areas covered and the networks supported by China Telecom and China Netcom. The tests for its software bugs were started publicly on April 2008.

According to The Korea Herald, the game was the world's top grossing game of 2014 at 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion).^[1]

It will be adapted into a film.^[2]

Gameplay

A mission success screen on a team deathmatch mode, the player holding a M16

CrossFire is a free-to-play first-person shooter that features two mercenary corporations named the "Black List" and "Global Risk," fighting each other in an epic global conflict. Players assume the role of either a Black List or Global Risk mercenary, joining an online team that must work together to complete objective-based scenarios. With the exception of the Zombie mode and Wave mode, each mode can support a maximum of 16 players, each divided into an 8-man team.

Players will progress and be promoted through various Military Ranks, beginning at trainee, with the highest being Marshall. Players also have the ability to customize their character's equipment and appearance through in-game items.

CrossFire has a free currency which is called Game Points (GP), which are earned through playing and completing matches, buying premium items that grant bonus GP, or fulfilling certain missions. Premium and special items like modified weapons can only be bought using monetary currencies. The content tends to vary from version to version.

Modes

Crossfire features several game modes, each with unique maps and rules.^[3]

• Team Deathmatch: Teams work towards goals, such as first to x many kills, or the team with the most kills.
• Search & Destroy/Destruction Mode: Black List's objective is to plant and detonate a C4 charge in a designated spot or kill all of the Global Risk players. Global Risk's objective is to eliminate all Black List players or prevent Black List from planting and detonating the charge within the match's time limit. Players do not respawn. Rounds last up to 3 minutes.
• Elimination: Similar to TDM, except players don't respawn when killed. In some maps, players start only with their melee weapons and must pick up guns pre-set in the map. Rounds last up to three minutes, with Global Risk defaulting in wins.
• Ghost Mode: All Black List mercenaries have invisibility and melee weapons, while all Global Risk mercenaries are fully visible, but can use all available weapons. Black List emits a heavy breathing sound, footsteps, splashes while running through water, and also become significantly visible while moving.
• Free for All: No teams, kill as many players as possible. Players respawn at different locations. The round ends when a player reaches the kill quota for the match or the timer runs out. Weapon restrictions exist for this mode.
• Mutation Mode/Zombie Mode: One or two players are infected and turned into mutants 20 seconds into the round. An infected mutant will begin with 4000–6000 HP. When a person is hit or attacked by a mutant, they become a mutant with 2000–3000 HP. Players can evolve through mutating other players or absorbing dead mutants, which increases max HP and have an special ability. When the time is up or all mutants are dead, the soldiers win. If all the soldiers become mutants or die, the mutants win. Mutants are flung backwards when shot.
• Escape Mode: A game mode where Black List team must "escape" through a portal a certain number of times while the Global Risk team tries to prevent them. There are walls and doors that can be destroyed to make the escaping team's job easier or is a requirement to escape, at half time the teams switch sides (if the team finishes escaping early, then they immediately switch sides. If they don't complete their goal, then the other team only has to finish what the other team started).
• Hero Mode: The game plays mostly like Mutation mode, but features a "Hero" character. 20 seconds into the round, one to three players randomly will become mutants and one will become the "Hero". Hero's main weapon is an FN FAL with a grenade launcher with plenty of ammunition and also can take two hits from a mutant before turning. The downside to being the hero is that they cannot hide effectively like regular teammates as there is constantly a marker named "hero" above him, which can be seen by everyone. A mutant taking damage to a certain amount of HP will acquire Rage which not only counts for an evolution stage but leads to different level of evolutions. Also, mutants here will continue to respawn when killed unless they are killed with a headshot. The game ends when either the soldiers survive until the round ends or they are all turned into mutants.
• Zombie Apocalypse: 4 players in a Zombie Apocalypse-esque scenario. Zombie Apocalypse consists of a team of four Global Risk mercenaries trying to survive a fixed amount of rounds with a boss at the final round. The enemies featured in the game are a variety of "zombified" Black List mercenaries and mutants, each kind having their own unique characteristic (The "sprinter" for example could run rather than stagger like regular zombies, while OMOH, SAS, and SWAT zombies could use guns to attack the player from range). Also, along with the usual GP and EXP reward at the end of the game, each player is rewarded with a box that contains two or three random items. What kind of box they will receive depends on their score at the end of the game and the higher, the better the items. The game ends once the players survive through the rounds and kill the final boss in the map or if all the players are killed and cannot respawn.
• Hero Mode X/Hero Mode Extreme: Random players are turned into mutants after 20 seconds and one of them is chosen to be the "Terminator" which has 6000 HP and can infect players with ranged lightning bolt attacks, making it a rather daunting foe for soldiers. Mutants can only be prevented from respawning by being killed with a melee attack rather than a headshot. In this mode, mutants lose life extremely quickly as the starting damage multiplier is 250× the power. The premise of this mode is that once only 2-3 players are left, they are turned into Commandos, which cannot be infected like regular soldiers and possess dual knives, which does massive damage to mutants and prevent them from respawning altogether. The round ends either with all players infected/killed or if all the mutants are killed and cannot respawn. The new Hero Mode X expansion gave several new maps.
• Elite/Bounty Mode: This mode is the first with given money and battle results, similar to the concept of Counter Strike. When the battle begins, players can only use the pistol equipped in their inventory and must buy other weapons using their cash. Cash can be gained by killing opponents or planting/defusing the bomb. This mode is like S&D Pro.
• Wave Mode: 5v5 or 4v4 team based mode. Both teams must destroy the opposition's defense towers in order to reach the base, which has two "Last defense tower" guarding it, players must destroy those two towers to start damaging the base (clearance of all side towers is not needed). This is the first mode where you can pick one of eleven classes before joining the room. Each class is different and has its own unique skills. This mode also introduces NPCs, airstrikes, mortar bombs, energy transmitters and Class Upgrade Systems. The Room Key holder can toggle Team Balance (Players get to be auto-selected evenly according to the player's level) on or off in this game mode.
• Shadow Mode: A variant of Ghost Mode. A player becomes a Shadow warrior which is an advanced ghost character. This mode introduces security devices such as Sensors, Lasers and Sprinklers to track down the Shadow warriors. In this map, there are certain part of the floors which are covered with different textures (including broken glass) that will make more noise than others, making it easier for the Mercenary Soldiers to hear the Shadow Warrior movements.
• Ghost vs Mutants/Zombie vs. Ghost: Ghosts; invisible when not moving and equipped with melees only. Ghosts have a points gauge, which fills up automatically overtime. It will fill up faster if Ghosts are moving. Havoc/Grand Terminator stays the same, but is now unable to see Mercenary's locations.
• Soccer Mode: An extension to Team Deathmatch. The only map that currently supports this is Stadium. Players are equipped with melee, and each team has a goal net. At the start of each 'round', the soccer ball is set in the middle. Players try and attempt to get the ball into the goal. Whoever touches the ball picks it up. The ball drops when the carrier dies. You can shoot the ball with G (default key). Melee kills still count as points, but goals obtain you 3 'kills'.
• RPG/Melee Mode: Team Deathmatch variant. Players are equipped with Melee, and start the game with an RPG. RPGs travel slowly (crouching speed), but deals massive damage. Players will not receive an RPG when respawned if the RPG is still in action on the battlefield.
• Super Soldiers TDM: A combination of Team Deathmatch and Wave Mode. Players are able to equip classes into bags they have available, giving the ability to change classes during the middle of the game without leaving. Players level up as time passes by. Unlike Wave Mode, this mode consists of only human players and no NPCs of any sort.
• Rapid Surge Mode: Similar to S&D mode, the differences only is that the bombsite is near on the Blacklist Base.
• Zombie Knight Mode / Biochemical Knight Mode: Mercenaries evolve into Knights while Zombies evolve into Armored Zombies. Zombie Knight Mode's maximum number of advanced heroes (Knights) depends on how many mercenaries are infected and how many people have joined the game room.

Weapons

Crossfire features weapons based on real life models, with each weapon belonging to a category. Categories include machine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, etc. Each category is functionally similar to their real world counterparts (Ex. Machine guns are heavy, powerful, lay down heavy fire and have long reload times, Submachine guns are lighter and fire faster but deal less damage, Shotguns are effective in close range but ineffective at long distance, etc.) Weapons often have many variations, including different skins which give them different attributes. In addition, the re-skinned versions are often more rare. There are also some weapons which are different from other weapons like the VIP weapons, which has more powerful functions like faster reload, among others. Certain modes have mode-exclusive weapons.

Characters

The characters of CrossFire

Characters are the avatar of players and is what they will look like while playing in the game. A note is that while all characters are visually unique from each other, they are all functionally the same with no real advantages or disadvantages from each other in terms of stats, apart from a few limited-edition characters who are, for example; able to see better through smoke or reduces the visual incapacitating effects of flash bang grenades.

The characters featured in CrossFire is a combination of both real and fictional Special Forces groups. The real groups featured are: The Russian OMOH, the LAPD SWAT, the British SAS, the German GSG9, the Korean 707th Special Mission Unit, the United Nations Special Forces, and the American Navy SEALs. Each character also has both a Black List and Global Risk variant. Some characters are bought with GP, while some are bought with premium currency. There are special characters found in some modes like the knight.

There are also mutant characters for the Mutation/Hero modes, which unlike regular game characters, each have unique abilities and appearances like the Havoc, the Revenant and the Nanos.

Different versions of CrossFire

CrossFire was released by different publishers worldwide. These are the countries that CrossFire was released in:

Revenue

In 2013, the game was one of the three most popular video games in China, with a revenue of almost $1 billion.^[4] It was the world's top grossing game of 2014 at 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion).^[1]

CrossFire is the most played online FPS game worldwide, with over 6 million concurrent users and 400 million registered players according to developer Smilegate.^[5]

Film adaptation

It was announced that Neal Moritz will produce a film version of CrossFire.^[6]

References

External links

• CrossFire NA/UK
• CrossFire Europe