Crossfire X Review – First Person Success or Complete Mess?

If you are a fan of the FPS genre, you would be forgiven for not knowing about the original Crossfire, a PC-only multiplayer first-person shooter from Korean Developer Smilegate. Never fear, though, as its sequel, Crossfire X is here, albeit only for Xbox platforms. However, is CrossfireX worth your time?

Game Name: Crossfire X
Platform(s): Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), Xbox One
Publisher(s): Smilegate Entertainment, Xbox Game Studios
Developer(s): Smilegate Entertainment, Remedy Entertainment
Release Date: February 10, 2022

Crossfire X is the follow-up to one of the most played multiplayer first-person shooter PC games ever, 2007’s Crossfire. This time it makes its way to console, with the bonus of two single-player campaigns co-developed by Remedy, the studio behind Control and Quantum Break. 

The story of Crossfire X is split into two separate campaigns. Both were developed by Remedy powered by their Northlight Engine. The first of these, Operation Catalyst is available through Xbox Gamepass. Although many players are currently unable to download it. In Catalyst, you take control of a group of highly trained soldiers from private military group Globe Risk. They are trapped behind enemy lines on a rescue mission. All while trying to uncover the secret operations of the mercenary group known as Black List.

The second is Operation Spectre; however, it is only available through purchase. Which is an immediate sequel to Catalyst. This time putting you on the opposite side of the conflict as you take command of Black List. In a bid to recover sensitive intel, before it reaches Global Risk.

While this is on the surface, a story we’ve seen hundreds of times in the FPS genre. Filled with fairly generic characters, twists, and turns you see a mile away. For me, Remedy’s signature flair and a little bit of weirdness give the story and delivery of that story a hint of Metal Gear Solid, which helps to set it apart from the other single-player campaigns. I enjoyed my time with both stories and would be keen to play any future expansions in this universe.

Am I Playing Two Different Games?

Gameplay is an odd one because depending on if you are playing Single Player or multiplayer, the game can feel quite different. So stick with me here.

In single-player, everything feels fairly good. Guns are fun to use, although some feel almost identical due to some guns having identical recoil, shotguns also feel under-powered here which is sure to disappoint some of you. Outside of the guns, everything just felt about as slick and responsive as it should, running and jumping sliding. Oh, and the signature Remedy time slowing mechanic that allows you to pump the bad guys full of lead in slow-mo was always fun to use and looks good as well. My personal go-to is the Car-4 rifle.

Missions take the typical point A to point B structure with some cool set pieces scattered throughout, so nothing new there but no less enjoyable than ever. No spoilers, but any section that involved sniping was a particular highlight for me.

As for multiplayer, there are two different ways to play here, classic or modern Modes, with their specific playlists but more on that later. Classic Mode feels more like a tactical shooter to me, with its lack of sprinting or the ability to aim down sight (ADS) outside of weapons with a scope already built-in, such as sniper rifles. This mode feels slow to me, and one can often miss the action. Those of you that enjoy the more tactical side of FPS games might find enjoyment here.

I personally much prefer the feel of Modern Mode. Where sprinting returns and sights are an option for every weapon. There is also the added benefit of three skill points to use in each match towards perks such as; ammo on kills, increased sprint speed, and more. This mode is going for something more in line with faster-paced shooters such as Call of Duty.

The one thing I didn’t like about the gameplay experience in multiplayer, though, is the sluggish feeling of some basic actions. Actions such as crouching and jumping felt off. For example, a full sprinting jump often covers less distance than a standing jump. Crouching feels slower than it should, which isn’t a problem in single-player. It also completely removes any noise from footsteps. Which just isn’t realistic at all. Combine this with the general lack of polish throughout multiplayer. That could in part be down to the use of a different engine from the single-player campaign. It leads to the feeling that I’m playing two completely different games.

Are my eyes broken?

The visual presentation is a similar story. The single-player mode looks pretty good and has Remedy’s visual DNA all over it. A similar colour palette and overall visual makeup to Control is almost immediately apparent. Cutscenes look particularly good and lighting. There is a Ray Tracing option which adds some nice reflections here and there. In particular, the VFX during the ‘Bullet Time’ ability being used stands out. Seeing sparks fly and explosions will never fail to look good here. Gun models all look decent as well.

By comparison, everything in multiplayer looks pretty messy. Jagged edges, less detailed gun models, lights issues, and more. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I first jumped into the multiplayer. Unfortunately not, on a visual level, the multiplayer is just unable to keep up with the single-player.

Sound and Music – Some parity, maybe?

I am pleased to report that on a sound level, we have a lot more parity between the single-player and multiplayer portions of Crossfire X. Most of the sound effects are the same here for guns, footsteps, etc. Guns sound about as I expected. They don’t have the reverb of the recent call of duty titles, but they aren’t bad. Although some sound better than others. Shotguns again are a weak point when it comes to sound. I did have some audio issues on the multiplayer side. Like hearing my gun repeatedly being reloaded. In one game a complete lack of gunfire sounds. Which was extremely disappointing.

Something that wasn’t disappointing, however, was the musical score for the campaigns. It felt like 80’s and 90’s action movie music. It may not be to everyone’s tastes but for me, that is exactly what I want from an FPS campaign.

Technical Experience – The Many and The Few

That’s right, we are back to the tale of two halves again. So as for Single Player where I received some serious pop-in issues and one dialogue glitch during the first 30 minutes of my playing. I had zero issues, and it’s worth noting that I replayed that first 30 minutes without issue as well. That sounds promising on the technical front, right?

Well, that’s where multiplayer comes in. I was riddled with countless audio and lighting issues during my few hours. These would happen regardless of mode or map. The technical problems put me off playing more multiplayer.

A baron wasteland

Multiplayer is a key part of pretty much any FPS game these days. The difference between success and failure is often content and progression. Unfortunately, this is where the Crossfire X experience just isn’t delivering.

As I mentioned earlier, multiplayer is broken into two modes Classic and Modern. Between these two modes, the offering is slim. Classic has four match types: Team Deathmatch, Search & Destroy (S&D) and Spectre. This is similar to S&D, but the team trying to plant the explosives only has three things to use invisibility suit, knife, and smoke grenade. The final mode in Classic is Nano which is Crossfire X’s take on the infected type mode.

Modern only offers two match types at launch, with a third called Escort coming soon. The two on offer are S&D same as classic, and Point Capture. Which functions a bit like domination from Call of Duty. This is the only match type to offer kill streaks: Heartbeat Sensor, Boogieman, where you become a Dual-Wielding super-soldier, and a spectre suit which is the invisibility suit. None of this would be bad until you realize that each match type has its specific map. Yes, that’s right, one map for each match type.

They are: 

Black Widow, a sniper friendly map set in a small town for Search & Destroy
Laboratory, a partly destroyed dome-shaped weapons lab for Spectre
Transport ship, a small square map with not much but some shipping containers as cover points for Team Deathmatch
Babylon Lab, one of the bigger maps set in some underground ruins for Nano
GR Tower, an office building with an outside lower level for Point Control

Out of these, my favourite map is GR Tower without question. I wish I could play my favourite mode Spectre on it. My least favourite map has to be Transport Ship, with my least favourite mode being Nano by a country mile. The basic actions such as jumping are too clunky during multiplayer to make playing as the nano-infected any fun. It requires a lot of jumping. 

Progression is simple. You unlock guns and attachments through in-game currency GP, which you earn for playing matches. You also get cosmetics for completing challenges and leveling up the battle pass. The main problem is all of this is far too grind-driven in my experience, I played 10-20 games, gaining about 20 GP per game. One attachment is 300 GP, and guns can be upwards of 2000 GP. I also only managed to level the battle pass two and a half levels in this time. You can, of course, also buy cosmetics with micro-transactions.

Review Disclosure Statement: Crossfire X was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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