Combat Arms

Combat Arms is a multiplayer, free-to-play modern first-person shooter developed by the South Korea-based developer, Doobic Studios, and published by Nexon. The game uses the Lithtech game engine to produce advanced graphics.

Gameplay
Combat Arms gameplay is similar to commercial games such as Counter-Strike, Ghost Recon 2 and Call of Duty. The game offers many different modes of play, including One Man Army, Elimination, Capture The Flag, Search and Destroy, Elimination Pro, Last Man Standing, Bombing Run and variations with objectives, as well as multiplayer co-op called Fireteam mode and Quarantine mode. During the first winter of the game, a special mode of Snowball Fight is unlocked. Combat Arms uses a player ranking system based on total experience, using common military ranks that players can obtain. Completing objectives, killing other players, and levelling up one's rank gives the player money in the form of Gear Points (GP), which can be used to purchase new weapons and accessories. All items purchased have a time length of anywhere from 1 to 90 days, after which the gear is deleted from the players inventory. Sometimes players can buy Permanent weapons with Nexon Cash (NX). Players can also purchase equipment from the Black Market (also known as Nexon Cash Shop) using NX that are bought with real-world money. Primarily, the Black Market equipment is cosmetically different from regular shop items and has no rank or level requirement that many of the free items require. There are some items that may be obtained only through the Black Market, including permanent weapons.

Combat Arms has over 4,000,000 registered players .The game supports community features such as clans and an in-game friends' list. There is one current official gaming league known as the World Online Gaming League that Nexon America sponsors.

Development
Combat Arms closed beta started on May 29, 2008, exclusively through FilePlanet and ran until June 6. This beta was limited to users from North America, South America, and Oceania. In the closed beta, 4 maps and 30 weapons were available. On June 26, Combat Arms went into its Pre-Open Beta Phase, whereby the game was open to the public, but it was still being tested and changed to prepare for Open Beta. Pre-Open Beta was still limited to users from North America, South America, and Oceania. The Official Launch of Combat Arms started on July 11, 2008.

On the August 8, 2008, Nexon announced that a Combat Arms service would be started by Nexon Europe for European Players. On September 25, 2008, the Combat Arms Europe Teaser website was activated by Nexon Europe, and on October 28, 2008, Nexon Europe started the Combat Arms Europe Closed Beta testing. Closed Beta testing finished on November 11, 2008, and the Open Beta testing began on December 16, 2008 and lasted until January 15, 2009. The game is now fully released in Korea, North America, Australia, and Europe. On April 2, 2009, Nexon America announced that South American service for Combat Arms will cease on April 9. Those who have any amount of Nexon Cash (NX) will be allowed to play until October 9, or until their NX falls below an undefined amount, whichever comes first. An in-game voice chat system, provided by Vivox, was implemented in the game on November 25, 2009.

On June 29, 2010, Level Up! Interactive, the premier Brazilian free games publisher announced that it had attained publishing rights of Combat Arms in Brazil. The teaser website was launched.

Critical reception
Metacritic aggregate reviews place Combat Arms with an average of 71. Reviewers cite many bugs and glitches in the earlier versions.

GameZone's Michael Splechta reviewed the game on 3/11/10, saying "Combat Arms is fun. Simple as that. If you can overlook the annoying players, then anyone looking for a competitive online shooter should look no further. This is free to play FPS at its best."