Garena Free Fire

The mobile gaming market has been growing steadily throughout the past decade, and so has the battle royale genre. It’s only natural that more and more Battle Royale games have been making their way into smartphones. Garena Free Fire is a game built with mobile gaming in mind, and in doing so, they’ve eluded many of the mistakes that other battle royale games make when they try to cram their gameplay into a phone screen.

Battle royale lite

Games like Fortnite Battle Royale and PUBG have delved into the mobile market recently, with most of the features that players have come to expect from their console counterparts left intact. Garena Free Fire features a more condensed battle royale experience: instead of the expected 100 player rounds, the matches in Free Fire consist of up to 50 players.

At first glance, fewer players and a smaller map might sound like a deal-breaker for battle royale fans, but it’s a blessing for mobile gamers. One of the worst parts of PUBG is that awkward moment when you’re running around the map, looking for any other player, only for a sniper to come out of nowhere and kill you.

A match in Free Fire lasts a third of what a normal PUBG session might, which is great for a smartphone’s battery. It also means that you can play a quick match of Free Fire during your commute, or when nature calls.

Free Market

One of the disadvantages of being a free mobile game is that developers have to make revenue through some frankly invasive methods. In the case of Free Fire, microtransactions are an integral part of the game.

Sadly, Free Fire’s “battle pass” system is a bit of a mess. Similar to what we’ve seen in other mobile games (like Call of Duty Mobile,) Free Fire uses a tiered battle pass system. Players who pay more get better rewards, and the cluttered UI makes the experience feel more contrived than it really is.

A shooter, not a looker

Visuals are a divisive point in Free Fire. The game isn’t the best looking mobile battle royale game – that distinction goes to Call of Duty Mobile – but the simple visuals mean that the game can run better on a wider variety of devices.

The muddy terrain textures and simple environmental models are overshadowed by the game’s great-looking character models. Being a modern battle royale game, Free Fire features many outlandish skins and characters. Unlike their Fortnite counterparts, however, skins in Free Fire do have special abilities, which gives paying players a slight competitive edge over those who play for free.

As far as battle royale games on smartphones go, Garena Free Fire might be the best of the bunch. The compromises it makes to deliver a faster, mobile-oriented gaming experience are a welcome addition to the genre. The character models look great, even though the terrain could use a graphics revamp.

Pros:

• Responsive and intuitive controls
• Detailed character models
• Fast and exciting gameplay

Cons:

• Annoying microtransactions
• Ugly environments
• Confusing lobby UI