Crossfire X is somehow the successor to the wildly popular CrossFire from 2007. Despite launching in 2022, Crossfire X manages to introduce gameplay that could be found from fifteen years ago, makes a few teaks and manages to create one of the clunkiest first-person shooters with the worst aiming in years. Poor controls, a myriad of bugs and an extremely limited pool of maps and modes keep Crossfire X from reaching the potential to be anything other than a knock-off version of the original CrossFire.
The multiplayer modes on offer are broken up into two categories. Modern features typical gameplay elements such as mantling up ledges and aim-down-sights (ADS) while Classic traps players with the gameplay from its 2007 original, lacking the ability to use ADS as its most notable negative. Modern has two game modes only:
- Search & Destroy – the classic game mode that pits two teams against each other, with one trying to plant a bomb and the other to defuse it.
- Point Capture – three points are available for capture and must be contested until one team has held them for a cumulative duration.
Classic has four game modes in the form of:
- Search & Destroy.
- Spectre – One team of soldiers defends against the invisible knife-only wielding team
- Team Deathmatch – classic team deathmatch rules with the first team to secure 100 points declared the winners.
- Nano – an infection like mode that starts a single player as an alien that converts any player it attacks, ending when no soldier remains uninfected.
These modes each play out in a singular map. There is no map rotation, not even something as subtle as a day or night variant. This immediately traps Crossfire X into a downward spiral of repetition and when coupled with questionable issues such as spawn-killing, reaching areas that can be impenetrable with enough players camping them and falling outside of the map to name a few, these modes just fail to be fun or worth revisiting. The complete lack of variety in terms of maps makes no sense and the painful yet limited scope of modes prevent the desire to gain experience, earn in-game currency or unlock new weapons, skins or operators.
This leads into the very poorly integrated microtransaction situation. Microtransactions are to be expected with a free-to-play title such as Crossfire X but the way this has been executed regrettably lands Crossfire X firmly in the ‘pay to win’ side of the ongoing argument. There are two forms of currency in-game, GP, which can be earned simply by playing can also be bought with real money and CFP, which can only be purchased with real money. Some weapons, attachments and cosmetics can be bought with one, the other or in some cases either. To further complicate the process, some items such as Operators can only be bought via the Microsoft Store, requiring purchase outside of the game itself.
GP, CFP and outright cash can be used to buy things in-game, and that’s before considering that additional items can only be unlocked by purchasing the Battle Pass. The Battle Pass system in Crossfire X is not unlike what has been done in other titles, charging a fee to activate the Battle Pass, and then awarding gear, items, cosmetics, XP boosts and in-game currency by reaching new tiers of the 50-tier system.
Microtransactions and poor gameplay aside, menus popping up for no reason that prevent the player from actually playing, aim-down-sights that likes to toggle itself off and on, and spawning in walls are just a few of the other very many bugs present in the free-to-play first-person shooter. Issues don’t just lie in the gameplay however, the extremely clunky cursor controlled main menu is prone to ignoring any kind of command, preventing the player from accessing any of the sub-menus attached and constant freezing and crashing.
Crossfire X looks and sounds as bad as it plays, it just doesn’t feel anything like a game should in 2022, and even going back ten years would still leave it feeling out of place. It’s such a shame to see such poor gameplay, a complete lack of any kind of map or mode variety and ‘pay to win’ microtransaction mechanics be further plagued with such an immense amount of bugs that almost render the experience unplayable due to its quality and absence of a ‘fun factor’.
Dayne