The original Crossfire was a first-person shooter released in 2007 and became one of the most played video games in the world. With over 890 million players across 80 counties, this is a game that has spawned countless stories and holds a dear place in the hearts of many gamers. Following the success of the game, a Chinese Crossfire TV show has even been released to great acclaim.

With all that behind the upcoming release of Crossfire: Legion, the first real-time strategy (RTS) game, based in the Crossfire universe, fans are excited to see how well developers Prime Matter and publisher Smilegate bring this to life. With the recruiting of Canadian RTS developers BlackBird Interactive, there is a talented team involved in bringing this series into a whole new genre.

Over the past week, I have been allowed to get on the battlefield with the Crossfire: Legion technical demo. While it is limited in scope and design, there is a lot to say about the upcoming game and it will be interesting to see how the full release ends up working out. With that being said, let’s get straight into it.

Gameplay

*Disclaimer* - The version of the game I played was a working technical demo, with 2 factions and set units/leaders. The full version will have 3 factions, a deck customization system, a campaign, and tutorials. I only had the chance to play 1v1 and 3v3 skirmishes.

The first time I loaded into a match of Legion, I understood that the game was about gathering resources, building units, and annihilating my opponent. As Black List, a quasi freedom fighter faction, my main style of play was supposed to be guerilla tactics and hit-and-run maneuvers. As I quickly figured out how to build workers and gather resources, I also built up a sizable infantry force that I used to scout around the area.

The map was a small 1v1 affair, a ring of resource positions with a center point that gave vision into the fog of war when held. About 4 minutes in, my entire infantry force was wiped out by the opposing team’s force of vehicles and infantry supported by explosive abilities. I quickly attempted to delay their resource production so I could hold them off, but a heavy defense line of turrets (that I didn’t know could be built) killed all my men and enabled their troops to counterattack. As I futilely tried to defend against tanks and airplanes with riflemen, I said to myself "This is hard." This would be a theme throughout my time with the tech demo and figuring out how the AI worked. After the first dramatic loss, I switched factions and tried again.

With an idea of what not to do, I jumped into another match, this time as global mercenary conglomerate Global Risk. With a focus on building units and hurling them at problems until they go away and off-map fire support and healing abilities to assist, I quickly threw together a small army and attacked. For the next 20 minutes, my soldiers were wiped out and quickly replaced by my endless swarms of soldiers, tanks, and air vehicles as I tried to push through the enemy’s defenses. When my main base ran out of resources, I started 2 additional resource gathering bases, defended by turrets that are faction-specific. Slowly but surely, I pushed Black List off of the other resource points and destroyed their last base. As “VICTORY” flashed on my screen, I tried to remember why it was so difficult in my last match. The next match I played with Black List reminded me.

The thing about Crossfire: Legion that makes it interesting is also the part that makes it difficult. Asymmetrical strategy, where different factions have different abilities and units, tends to lead to interesting strategies but also can have very distinct advantages for one side or the other. Every time I played as Black List, I was destroyed. 4 of my 5 games as Global Risk saw me fighting the enemy to a standstill and then finishing them off when they could no longer fund new soldiers. While I'm in no way an expert player, I still found it difficult to counter Global Risk as Black List and would have to revert to weird unit strategies that the AI used to fight me just to have a chance. 

Though I became very familiar with both rosters, I couldn’t help but be disappointed in the way the combat felt. It very quickly became apparent that the best strategy for me was to constantly be recruiting units as I threw my men into a fiery killzone to achieve victory while preventing my opponent from expanding their resource production beyond their original base. With their base production eventually failing because of limited stacks of resources (material and oil containers only have so much they can put out before they become depleted), it was simple to crush them over time. While this was enjoyable the first few times, it quickly grew stale and tiring. Games became drawn out as I was unable to completely devastate the enemy army, and had to keep attacking just so they wouldn’t outpace me and destroy my base.

This resource scarcity and inability to craft your own resources make this game feel hectic and fast-paced, as you have to balance getting the limited resources with attacking/defending and replacing the soldiers you lose in battle. While at times it was boring and felt drawn out, it had its shining moments. As the last few tanks I had were worn down by a large group of vehicles, dropping an artillery strike on them which destroyed the vehicles and enabled a swift counterattack, resulting in a win for me, felt like a scene out of a movie. The combat was intense and short, and the slight break of the flow of the game enabled me to quickly destroy my opponent. Even though these moments weren’t too frequent, they do give a glimpse of how the full release could go if the game is polished and continues to be improved.

Expectations

While I didn’t exactly have a blast playing, Crossfire: Legion has the seeds of something great. With more expansion of the unit and leader rosters and a bit more education on how some of these systems interact, there are the makings of a truly excellent strategy game. The coming months will see a lot of updates to the status of the game, as well as reveals about how certain customization and faction mechanics will play out. If Prime Matter can find the balance between hurling soldiers into battle and encouraging out-of-the-box strategies, then I’m sure this game will see definite eSports potential and diverse multiplayer communities supporting the final product.

I’m also hopeful for the single-player side of the game and want to see how fleshed out the campaign is. Will it mostly be a stepping stone to multiplayer or its own refined game mode with replayability? In connection to playing the game solo, I hope that the AI is changed somewhat. While it is fun to fight an enemy that can click way faster than me, it is very awkward when you accidentally break the programming somehow and the enemy stops attacking you as soon as they run low on resources.

Verdict

This was a technical demo, and it isn’t representative of the whole game. So while I wasn’t completely blown away when trying the game out, Crossfire: Legion definitely has my attention in the coming months. The game itself is gorgeous, with almost flawless graphical fidelity and not a single frame drop in any of my matches. Explosions are crisp, the battles are entertaining, and at times the experience was truly great. This is definitely a game to watch this year, as Prime Matter will be making more announcements and include much more for the final game as we grow nearer to release later this year.