“In a sea of tactical shooters, Fragpunk is the one finally willing to challenge the status quo.”
Pros
- Card system shakes up the meta
- Fun sense of humor
- Not as punishing as other tactical shooters
- Draws are intense and fun
Cons
- Some dude characters
- Filler extra modes
What do you picture when you hear the word “punk?” Is it someone wearing bright and outlandish clothing, or could it be someone being loud and challenging the status quo? However you interpret the word, that’s what NetEase’s latest tactical shooter, Fragpunk, is in many ways.
In a world where games like Counter-Strike and Valorant exist, bold changes need to be made to help new games stand out. Fragpunk doesn’t just live up to the punk image that typically comes to people’s minds; it uses that spirit to create a true shakeup in the tactical shooter genre’s status quo.
Out of the comfort zone
Fragpunk is a new free-to-play shooter that takes an old idea and makes it new with a card-based hook. For its core gunplay, it does follow in the footsteps of its tactical shooter predecessors like Valorant. Each character, or Lancer, has their own unique abilities. The difference is in how those abilities are presented. To use most of a character’s powers in Valorant, players have to buy them. In Fragpunk, all of them are available from the very start of the game and reset once the round is over. If players completely waste an ability in one round, they can simply try again in the next without fear of being punished. That gives players more freedom within the moment to moment shootouts.
This is a tactical shooter through and through, so fans of the genre should be able to pick up and understand the basics quickly. One team defends a bomb site while the other tries to plant said bomb. Players can either win by killing one another or ensuring the bomb successfully blows up or is defused. That part isn’t new, but everything that happens in between is where Fragpunk truly sets itself apart.
Everything here is designed to keep pushing players out of their comfort zone.
More often than not, players tend to stick with their favorite characters or weapons when playing other tactical shooters (I know I’m guilty of it). That’s pretty easy to do, because shooters typically don’t throw significant changes into a match that force players to step out of their comfort zone from round to round. That’s not the case here, and that’s thanks to Fragpunk’s card system.
At the start of every round, players will be rewarded points that they can use to purchase a series of cards that’ll activate at the beginning of the next round. Each card changes the rules for the next round in a different way. They can give players an advantage by creating fire-spewing shotguns, allowing players to take extra damage, increasing reload speeds, and more. The catch is that these cards will only activate if enough points are invested into them, and more valuable cards often cost more points. It can be a little disappointing to see a card that you really like go to waste because your team didn’t want to invest in it.
Even though this could sometimes annoy me (mainly because I refused to adapt to the situation), it’s a fun X factor that keeps battles exciting and fresh. Fragpunk is exceptional at allowing players to adjust to changing conditions on a moment’s notice. In other games, once you choose your character, you’re locked into them until the game is done. Fragpunk gives players the freedom to switch between characters, allowing players to adjust to everything thrown their way.
Another unique aspect of combat is that players never have to worry about not having enough money to purchase weapons. Even when I was playing poorly, I could always buy and equip a half-decent loadout. There’s a twist to that too: each team has a gun limit. At the start of each round, players will notice a number following the type of gun they can select. If they die in the next round, the number will go down and continue until they switch places. If the number reaches zero, players will no longer be able to select that specific type of weapon, but they can request a teammate to give up one of their slots to use it again. It’s a smart system that ensures that one overpowered weapon doesn’t consume the meta. Everything here is designed to keep pushing players out of their comfort zone.
One of the most surprising changes to how Fragpunk challenges the genre is how it deals with games ending in draws. Instead of simply ending the game in a tie, it does something unique and effectively throws the entire match into a new lobby. From here, players will decide in what order they want to play to duel it out with the opposing team. The catch is only one person can be on the map at a time, and whatever damage you took from the last fight will carry over into the next. The name of the game is to kill them as quickly as possible while ensuring you’re healthy enough for the next fight. If you’re not, you’ll be forced to spectate for the remainder of the game and hope your team can succeed where you failed.
There are other modes aside from standard bomb defusing, including Outbreak (infection), Team Deathmatch, and Melee Deaethmatch, but they feel like filler and will often rotate. Since the game was made to be a tactical shooter, the different modes mostly fall flat and tend to get repetitive quickly. I imagine they’ll largely get played by those looking to complete specific challenges or players who are waiting for the rest of their squad to hop online.
Stay punk
Despite having multiple twists that keep combat intense, Fragpunk doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s full of fun interactions that aren’t usually seen in the tactical shooter space. That starts with the card system. Even though some cards are genuinely helpful, you can’t help but laugh at how goofy others are. For example, there’s one card that players can draw that turns them into vampires and essentially transforms the map into something straight out of Castlevania. Other cards make headshots significantly more manageable because they drastically increase the enemy’s head size. Those silly cards are a welcome reprieve from the tense shootouts; when you’re losing by three points, sometimes you need a good laugh to get through the whooping that was just handed to you.
A large part of Punk culture is how people present themselves, and Fragpunk understands that. The shooter allows players to express themselves in loud and proud ways that aren’t seen too often in shooters. A prime example of this can be seen with the weapon cosmetics. Sure, you can equip a wide range of skins on them that can be unlocked by completing various tasks or spending real-world money. But having a dope skin is just the tip of the iceberg. If players want to, they can create an anime-girl Christmas gun or a cyberpunk-inspired sniper rifle with nothing but ugly charms they just unlocked. So long as players are creative enough, they can make something special with the base skin and have it feel genuinely unique to them.
Although there isn’t much customization when it comes to Lancers, the character designs are a perfect match for that energy. Axon is a standout, character who wears a cyberpunk mask with metal horns sticking out of it while rocking a jacket that looks like it belongs in The Matrix. There’s also Pathojen, with her split red and black hair and eye shadow that makes it look like she came straight from a My Chemical Romance music video. Broker, the first character on the roster, literally looks like a rockstar, and Corona is a flaming monk. Each Lancer visually captures the spirit of punk rock in their own way.
Being punk is about being uniquely yourself, all while challenging the status quo that society has set in place. It is to make it so you can’t be ignored, whether that’s by wearing counter-culture fashion or by being as in-your-face as possible with your message. Fragpunk carries that same energy. It makes it extremely clear that the genre can be much more than it currently is, all while being colorful and not taking itself so seriously that its message feels overbearing. A good tactical shooter is meant to challenge its players and force them to think strategically to ensure they win a match. Fragpunk does that too, but it burns the rulebook in the process. That’s what a true punk would do.
Fragpunk was tested on PC.