| War Rock | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Developer(s) | Dream Execution |
| Publisher(s) | Nexon( )K2 network(    )Lievo (  )ABS-CBN (  ) |
| Engine | Jindo 3D |
| Version | 7/03/2008 Update |
| Platform(s) | Windows Me Windows 2000 (officially but unsupported by International version) Windows XP Windows Vista (officially as yet, unsupported) |
| Release date | 2004 () February 2007 ( )March 2007 ( )September 1, 2007 ( )2007 ( ) |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooters |
| Mode(s) | Online game, Single player practice |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M)( )Teen (T)( |
| Media | CD (1) Online download |
| System requirements | Pentium III 800 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM, Radeon 8500LE, Geforce MX 400 or better video card, 1.6 GB free hard drive space
A list of working graphics cards can be found here. |
| Input methods | Keyboard, mouse, Joystick |
War Rock (Korean: 워록) is a multiplayer online first-person shooter available free for download. Even though the download is free the game is ad-supported and requires registration and a valid e-mail to play. The registration form blocks mailinator and other disposable e-mails. The retail version comes with additional features in comparison to the free version. War Rock has low system requirements compared to other contemporary online first person shooters. This gives the game a wider audience, allowing casual gamers and those who do not follow the latest trends in PC gaming hardware to play.
The International versions, in contrast to the Korean & Japanese versions, have no blood. K2 Network made this change to the International version so that the ESRB rating system would mark it as a T for Teen.
K2 ended its beta-testing on January 31, 2007 in preparation for the February 7, 2007 commercial release.[1]
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The game is set in the midst of a civil war in the fictional country of Derbaran between government soldiers and a rebel organization called the National Independence Union (NIU). The location of Derberan is usually squeezed onto a map of Central Asia between real countrys to make it appear more believable. [2] Players select between the two teams and engage in battles using 20th and 21st century military equipment, including a large assortment of infantry weapons and vehicles.[3][4]
There is a reasonable selection of weapons and equipment compared to other games, ranging from real firearms like the Colt M1911 and PSG-1 to a fictional hand held version of the M134. The weapons are split up into different categories - for example, a sniper rifle can only be used by the Sniper character, and rocket launchers can only be fired by Heavy Troopers, although there are a few exceptions, including all secondary weapons. You start with only default guns, but can rent more weapons with Dinars as you level. Some weapons have additional restrictions such as level requirements or premium membership. New weapons and items are introduced to the game a few times a year with patches, though recent additions have been for premium members only. Equipment available from the PX(post exchange) ranges from character adjustments that boost experience earned to adrenaline shots and medic boxes for health boosts.
Upon entering a game, players choose from five character classes, consisting of Heavy Trooper, Assault, Combat Medic, Combat Engineer and Sniper,[5] although they can switch classes at any point in the game before respawning after a death. Players can lease weapons from the armory using the in-game currency, Dinar, which are either earned by playing games, or through buying a premium package. Some weapons have level restrictions, and are only available to premium customers. As of 11/21/2007, users may also rent weaponry with real world money directly from the game's Marketplace web site, with no level requirements., as of 1/2/08, PX items were available in the marketplace to premium and non-premium members alike. Players that have purchased retail will have an extra weapon forever for a certain class, along with some bonus equipment (typically Smoke Grenade x1 for all classes without the retail weapon and Med_kit 2 for Medic class, for which there is no retail weapon). Retail packs are limited edition boxes created to promote War Rock upon its commercial release. No new retail packs have been made, so they are in quite high demand amongst War Rock players, because of the advantages gained in game. For example, when a retail code is applied to an account, as well as a certain gun (either the G36 with a 100 round drum for the engineer, L96 for the sniper, M60 or FAMAS for the assault, the M249 SAW for the, or the M134 minigun, both for the Heavy Trooper), but two months of Gold Premium was applied to the account for 2 months before April 30, 2008 due to the retail packaging mentioning VOIP functionality which at the time had not been introced. VOIP has since been added, and retail codes activated after April 30, 2008 would only give the user one month of gold premium. Though to this day it is known that retail packs are in short supply.
War Rock games are divided into three modes of play: Close Quarters Combat, Urban Ops and Battle Group.[6] These differ in the size of the map, the number of respawns permitted and the availability of vehicles, with CQC being focused on small-scale infantry missions and BG involving huge battlefields with some tanks, transports, boats, helicopters and jet aircraft.[6] Objectives in the different game modes include capturing and defending key positions on the map, planting explosives on enemy targets, accumulating points in a team deathmatch-style game or a free for all match. For Deathmatch/Battle Group, there is also Conquest mode, making it necessary for each team to capture all the flags in the map, or whittle down the other team's points from 999.
War Rock offers a premium option, which gives you Dinar each month and offers a wider selection of the guns in the weapon store, buying premium lets you make a room with custom names, private options, and any map available in War Rock. War Rock features a list of servers which members can log into, so you can choose the closest one to you. Premium members have access to Vivox VOIP for in game chat, however it cannot be used by Free2Play users and is only be available to Gold premium users.
There are other "versions" of the WarRock game. All were developed by Dream Execution but are hosted by separate non-related companies which pay DE for a license to host servers in their regions. There are currently 4, the original Korean hosted by Nexon WarRock, the North American/European Release of (also known as international version) hosted by K2 networks WarRock (In English), Japan version hosted by Tecmo and the most recently created Philippines version hosted by Amped Network WarRock Philippines.
A program named PunkBuster was deployed to reduce the ability of hackers to cheat.[7] However, its effectiveness has been questioned, as many players still feel that cheating is rampant.[citation needed] This is counteracted by the fact that War Rock is a free-to-play game in that any anti-cheat engine would be exploited, seen as the majority of the cheaters don't have to buy anything to play the game, so they lose nothing but the account. In case of a ban, another account can be quickly remade. As most simple hacks are detected quickly by PunkBuster, the demand for "undetectable" hacks has risen and the popularity of paid-for hacks with it, more commonly known as "VIP" hacks.
Due to WarRock's Peer to Peer nature, the game suffers from high latency related problems, such as freezing, warping and invisible opponents. However this is more dependent on the players own internet connection, network configuration, and PC statistics than the game itself. The game requires a faster internet connection than server to peer games. DSL and low end cable connections will pose problems, especially in larger game rooms. At the very minimum, most people agree you should be on 3Mbps cable connection for 16 player or less rooms. For the 20+ player rooms its highly recommended you be on a 5Mbps or higher cable connection.
The game has generated complaints that overall the weapons of War Rock are very poorly depicted, and also the iron sights cannot be utilized by players like in other more realistic shooters such as the Call Of Duty series (it is unrealistic to have as much accuracy with weapons by firing without using the iron sights as in War Rock). For example the M24 is depicted as having an external 5-round magazine, but in reality it has an internal magazine. The P90 is depicted as ejecting from the right side, but in reality the shells actually fall out of a port in the bottom of the weapon. Of course the minigun is not a weapon that can wielded by a walking soldier and overall none of the weapons in War Rock have characteristic damage of the guns in real life and the ammunition they chamber.
K2 frequently holds maintenance and takes all servers down at same time (Every Thursday 2-6pm PST).[8] War Rock is criticized for taking servers down during peak hours, however, it should be noted that War Rock is an international game and, as such, any time chosen for maintenance is a peak time somewhere.[9] Apart from that K2 is also criticized for making War Rock more commercialized by making the "better" guns available to premium members only.[citation needed]
War Rock has remained a free2play game, and some guns were made premium only so as to make the people who were paying for the extra service (things such as priority support, faster leveling, and more maps) feel better treated[citation needed] while eliminating the incentive for free to play players to progress in any realistic manner
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