Facebook FPS: UberStrike brings gunslinging action to social networks

UberStrike
While browser first-person shooters (FPS) like Quake Live and Battlefield Heroes have been around for a while now, we've patiently awaited the day for our favorite modern American past time to come to Facebook: shooting things. South Korean developer Cmune has brought its browser FPS game, UberStrike, to Facebook. And it is, for lack of a better a word, awesome. Playing much like commonly known games such as Quake, UberStrike brings the traditional online FPS to the world of social games in a huge way.

Take a look behind the break for more about this shooter on Facebook.
Character Creation
For those familiar with how FPS games work, there won't be much different here than the novelty of having one on Facebook. But those new to genre will learn best through trial and error. Installing UberStrike requires players to download a one-time Java program to help run the game. Once inside the game, you'll find yourself in Character Creation where you're given a few options to customize your avatar such as skin tone, clothing color and hair color. (But only male avatars are available, what gives?) After that's through, the lobby awaits, which serves as the game's live chat room as well. This is where players can organize games together and buy Credits (the game's paid currency) bundles.

More importantly, this is also where you'll access games to play. Clicking the "Play" button will take you to a list of servers that are located in various parts of the world by region. It's best to choose a server closest to where you live to ensure the best play experience. For instance, I live on the East Coast, so choosing a West Coast server would still be playable, though I might suffer from serious lag and control issues. After choosing a server, you'll be presented with a list of games currently playing on that server.

Gameplay
Fortunately, the games are separated by map, player number and gameplay mode. There are currently only two gameplay modes available: Death Match and Team Death Match. In other words, you can kill everyone around you or kill everyone on opposing teams. Choose a game (or create your own) and you'll assume control of your character and get to the meat and potatoes of UberStrike.

Gameplay is simple enough, control movement using a combination of the WASD keys and the mouse to aim. Clicking the left mouse button fires and keys 1 through 5 cycle through weapons. The aim of the game is rack up as many kills as possible while staying alive, so be sure to pick up as many armor and health packs as possible. The balance between attacking other players and staying alive by collecting armor and health makes for a Facebook gaming experience that is sure to keep you on your toes.

Death Scene
As for visuals, this game looks impressive for being on a platform that normally only runs Flash games and not much else. Uberstrike operates in full, though minimally detailed, 3D with even a physics engine that affects the flight of projectiles and, how should we say, bodies. The graphics can be scaled for performance or looks through the Options menu where you can also remap controls and even sync a game controller for the console FPS crowd.

However, we're put off by just one thing: The Shop. Acquiring new weapons is far different than in other FPS games where they're found on the ground. Using Credits, players can buy licenses for more advanced weapons. The keyword here is "license." Buying a weapon or other enhancement only grants access to the item for a certain time period. This wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so expensive. To paint a better picture, buying, say, a Force Cannon for one week's use costs 2,184 Credits currently. However, that's about $4 for an item that's only going to last you a week as opposed to other games where that would be a one-time purchase.

While there are items and weapons available for coins, they'll never be as powerful as the paid items. Unfortunately, that's the current state of social gaming and it's unlikely to change for some time. That being said, UberStrike is a game that could get FPS fans hooked almost instantly and might even make some FPS players out of you.

Play UberStrike on Facebook Now >