Even the biggest games in the Battle Royale genre use bots, and there is no shame in doing if it ensures that matchmaking time is 30 seconds or less; however, when a game starts matches that are predominantly filled with bots and mobile players, it requires that bots pull a lot of the weight to ensure matches are competitive and not a massacre.
This is doubly important when a game forces players to take along AI party members instead of real players when activity is low.
Unfortunately, the bots in Farlight 84 are barely functional at the best of times, and the predominantly mobile player base, many of whom do not have access to gaming-quality mobile hardware, are barely any better.
This results in matches where skilled PC players finish with a kill count in the 30s and a K/D of 15 when facing a predominantly bot and mobile player lobby.
In a recent Team Deathmatch that included a mix of real players and bots, I scored 29 of the 30 kills my squad managed, while the best player on the other team had 11 out of 12 kills for his team, showing that PC players of any level outclass mobile and bot players by a startling degree.
And this is not an unusual occurrence, as I had scored over 75% of the points in any given match for roughly 90% of the matches I had played, something that just should not be possible, especially when I was often playing one-handed while browsing Twitter on my phone.
From bots standing still and refusing to return fire to mobile players who move their character with apparent boat controls, there is very little challenge for PC players outside the highest levels of ranked mode, which are ironically and unfortunately infested with cheaters.
While this is fun at first, entering every match knowing that the odds are greatly stacked in your favour, right up until the top ranks, where you have the odds stacked almost impossibly against you, makes it very difficult to recommend Farlight 84 until these issues are addressed, due to the negative effect this will have on player retention.
Image credit Farlight 84 - Published and developed by Farlight Games.
While Farlight 84 is not the first Battle Royale to add a TDM mode, it’s always a welcome sight. It gives new players a chance to practice before entering the Battle Royale mode, which is a little more competitive than TDM, which, as we already discussed, is essentially a walk in the park for anyone with even mediocre abilities due to the skill issues plaguing the mobile-centric player base.
Like many eastern free-2-play titles, Farlight 84 gives players a chance to unlock certain cosmetic items that are normally sold at a premium by playing the game (excessively) in a way to drive up the engagement; while I would prefer just buying said skin, it’s a great way for people who intend to play the game often a way to save a few bucks, which is always a good thing.
Image credit Farlight 84 - Published and developed by Farlight Games.
Oddly Farlight 84 is advertising as a Christmas cosmetic in July. It is bizarrely common with Eastern titles, with many Eastern free-to-play titles promoting seasonal cosmetics or including them in year-round giveaways, despite having fairly comprehensive holiday events.
Due to being a mobile game at heart and having very low hardware requirements on PC, Farlight 84 rarely drops below 220FPs when running at 1080p with ultra settings on moderately powerful hardware. It often runs even higher at 240FPS during less intense engagements.
Farlight 84 is a very well-made game with high production values for a mobile-first game and a large and engaged community. Yet, it feels like a cheap knockoff of Fortnite, and while I will admit I enjoyed my time with Farlight 84 and it is miles more engaging than World Boss, I cannot shake the feeling that Farlight 84 is the butt of a “we have Fortnite at home” joke.
Image credit Farlight 84 - Published and developed by Farlight Games.
While Farlight 84 allows every player to take to the skies with their jetpack, for some reason, this ability has been severely limited and results in a pitiful leap into the air that is barely more than a double jump at best, while the ability to strafe with a jetpack is far less effective than the dodge commonly found in many other first and third-person shooters.
While there are a few female characters in Farlight 84 that do not dress in a sexual manner, those that do more than makeup for it, with Maggie, a prominently featured character in marketing, wearing “painted on leggings” and appearing to be suffering from a very deep wedgie at all times, when combined with a selection of other characters that jiggle and bounce like slightly more modest Dead or Alive girls, I must admit to being disappointed in Farlight Games for offering so few female heroes that dress in a modest, or at least not sexually charged manner.
While some may dismiss the way that female characters dress and act as innocent, it is important to acknowledge they were designed this way to be seductive as “sex sells”, and while from a purely natural point of view, that is a valid point, as always there is a greater issue to consider.
While I feel no “lust” looking at pixels on a screen, some might, and for those people, I suggest giving Farlight 84 a miss or perhaps playing a character that isn’t dressed in an intentionally provocative manner.
Image credit Farlight 84 - Published and developed by Farlight Games.
While intense encounters with players of equal skill are rare for PC players, that does not diminish the fact that Farlight 84 has excellent gunplay that is similar to the best that Fortnite has to offer, which is to be expected considering that it is built on Unreal Engine 4, which Fortnite itself used until it migrated to Unreal Engine 5 in December 2021.
I must preface this by saying there is nothing wrong with the maps in Farlight 84; however, they just feel lifeless and honestly like something from the 7th console generation, which in itself is not a bad thing, but after playing modern third and first-person shooters, being forced to play on such a non-interactive map that lacks destructible objects, opening doors, and breakable windows feels like a step backwards to a much simpler and not necessarily better or worse time.
Image credit Farlight 84 - Published and developed by Farlight Games.
While being able to engage in vehicular combat in a Battle Royale is a nice change of pace, and I was a huge fan of Fortnite’s and Call of Duty Blackout’s combat vehicles, Farlight 84 approach to this issue feels lacking.
Despite the developers’ efforts to make the vehicles look cool and offer great functionality, they lack combat ability. I find it often better to exit a vehicle before engaging the enemy, as while vehicles have on the surface much more powerful weapons, slow fire rate and lack of accuracy make engaging the enemy while in a vehicle a far less rewarding prospect than doing so on foot, and this even applies to encountering multiple enemies in vehicles of their own.
It’s not all bad news, however, as while Farlight 84’s vehicular offerings are lacking, the issue is one of balance and not design, and if the developer invests in making vehicles more powerful while still ensuring that they remain balanced, Farlight 84 has an opportunity to become the first Battle Royale that allows for intense and engaging mixed infantry and ground vehicle combat, a mix of combat mechanics that has served the Battlefield franchise well for over 20 years.
Image credit Farlight 84 - Published and developed by Farlight Games.
Farlight 84 is a battle royale video game developed and published by Farlight Games, it was released on April 24, 2023 and it is Free-2-Play.
Farlight 84 is available on the following platforms: Android, IOS, and PC.
Farlight 84 supports:
Farlight 84 offers the following matchmaking options:
The Farlight 84 in-game store sells:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Farlight 84 is rated PEGI 12+ and contains the following:
In short, while I am willing to recommend it due to how well it performs and how enjoyable the minute-to-minute gameplay is, I do not recommend investing heavily in it at this time, as while there is plenty of fun to be had, Farlight 84 suffers from issues that could result in its closure in the not too distant future, and with so many better games on the market, I encourage players only to spend what they can afford to lose, and only to increase that spending as Farlight Games addresses the most critical issues that are hindering the long-term success and viability of Farlight 84.
