The fun bomb

The ‘Free to Play’ market has always been a shady place, with quite a few titles turning out to be complete garbage. On the flipside, it has given the world the two most popular games in history — DOTA 2 and League of Legends. This review is going to be about one such game, Dirty Bomb, that has just entered the open beta stage of its development cycle, and may prove to be one of the most popular first-person shooters in the near future.

Brought to us by the makers of Brink, Dirty Bomb is a class-based FPS with a heavy emphasis on team and objective-oriented play. The game is an amalgamation of the teamplay and tactics required in the classic, Counter Strike, and the shoot-and-scoot, fast-paced nature of Call of Duty. In short, it is awesome.

Players start each game with a group of three “mercs” that you can cycle between lives. Each merc represents a particular class, complete with their own unique loadouts and abilities. There are multiple versions of the same merc with different loadouts and perks, while their core abilities remain the same. The only way to unlock these variants however, is to unlock cases that you either get as random drops at the end of games, or you can purchase from the store using either in-game currency, or real money if you want to get the “elite cases” that assure higher value drops. This micro-transaction mechanic may seem pay-to-win at first, however, after several dozen hours in the game, it was quite evident that that was not the case.

What sets Dirty Bomb apart is its fluent movement system and fantastic gunplay. Aiming down sights is available, although not required at all if you have any experience with Counter Strike. The visuals are great for a free-to-play title and the game also comes with some rather entertaining voice acting brimming with tongue and cheek comedy.

In conclusion, Dirty Bomb is a really fun game. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, however feels really rewarding when your team clinches the win. The huge maps and the fast gameplay lend to the feeling of constant vigilance, never letting the tempo of a match drop. This shooter is fantastic and is really worth trying out.