Top 10 Most Anticipated Free MMO Shooters For 2013

There’s nothing more relaxing than a headshot. Well, except for several headshots. That is why free-to-play shooters are great stress relievers. With such an amazing list already available, we now take a look at the shooters that are yet to come. By this we mean only upcoming and closed beta shooters, so you won’t find here games in open beta such as Warframe, Arctic Combat and such. So, here’s number 10:

10 – SOLDIER FRONT 2

Soldier Front 2, or Special Force 2 as it is originally known, is your pretty standard military free online first-person shooter. It runs on the Unreal Engine 3 and features the usual game modes and options, but also includes a MOBA-style scenario to spice things up. We can say we’re somewhat excited about Soldier Front 2, in the same way one is excited about a Michael Bay movie: we’ll play it, have fun for a while and then completely forget about it.

9 – VIPER CIRCLE

Viper Circle was announced just a few weeks ago from the time this top was made and we deemed it worthy of getting a spot here. Now don’t get us wrong – it looks like a pot-pourri of a lot of shooters – Absolute Force Online, Mercenary Ops, you name it – but really, if you’re looking for originality, what are you doing watching this video? Go play The Unfinished Swan or something.

8 – HOUNDS

We were divided between this or Dizzel, but since there’s no confirmation on a North American release for Dizzel, we decided to stick with Hounds. This one mixes third-person shooter and role-playing game elements and thus is called a RPS – Role-Playing Shooter. The open beta is live in Korea and hopefully it will launch overseas before the end of the year.

7 – LOADOUT

A crazy mix of Team Fortress 2 with action movies from the 80s and some futuristic weaponry, Loadout is like the equivalent of a Looney Tunes cartoon with lots of guns. But what makes this game really stand out is the in-depth weapon customization. You can create your weapon from several parts and attachments and truly surprise your opponents with some amazing results. So, what will it be this time: a shotgun that fires bouncing bullets or a rocket launcher with laser sight? Your call.

6 – GUNZ: THE SECOND DUEL

If you’re one of the many players that loved the crazy shooting antics of GunZ: The Duel, then GunZ: The Second Duel is definitely taking too long. Come on, Maiet, leave RaiderZ alone for a while and finish this game. With more style, skills, acrobatic action and a Heavy that looks like he’s just taking some time off Team Fortress 2, GunZ 2 should provide a great mix of fun and action.

5 – DIRTY BOMB

After Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Quake Wars and Brink, we’d be forced to think that Splash Damage knows nothing other than shooters. Oh wait, there’s the turn-based RAD Soldiers for iOS, so it was a close call! Anyway, Dirty Bomb is the studio’s upcoming free-to-play FPS and it’s set in near-future London, so have fun comparing the game’s roads with reality – really, some places should be easily identifiable. Dirty Bomb does look a bit TOO familiar, however, so let’s hope it has some tricks up its sleeve. And that recoil still looks weird to us.

4 – MERCENARY OPS

Mercenary Ops is like the younger, realistically proportioned brother of Gears of War. Using the Unreal Engine 3 for what so far seems to be good effect, Mops (as we just decided to nickname it) doesn’t feature any character classes. Instead, we customize our character by choosing two primary weapons, a sidearm, armor and equipment. Amongst the game modes we’ll also get one that resembles Horde mode, with waves of enemies and bosses attacking you and your friends. We told you it was Gears of War-ish.

3 – SURVARIUM

So S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was canceled. You had a good cry. Hopefully now you’re feeling better, happy and excited about Survarium, a free-to-play shooter mostly from the same team that was working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The post-apocalyptic setting is pretty much the same, but now the excuse is an ecological catastrophe, not a nuclear disaster. Although a free MMOFPS at heart, Survarium has a lot more to offer, such as camps and hideaways, a reputation system and hero development.

2 – FIREFALL

Cel-shading rarely looked this good. But graphics aren’t the only thing Firefall has on offer. This is a genuinely exciting open world shooter where you can experience dynamically-generated content and escape the eternal boredom of linear quests. Skill-based combat should keep things interesting and the promise of a cash shop limited to cosmetic options is an appealing one. Now, release the damn game already!

1 – WARFACE

Crytek’s first foray into free-to-play is decidedly a strong one, with an amazing-looking shooter running on the CryEngine 3 and probably one of the most ridiculous names ever imagined. It’s definitely exciting and manages to offer a great compromise between the expansiveness of the Battlefield series and the fireworks of Call of Duty, so it has the potential to please everyone. And we managed to say all this without one single joke about getting your warface on. Oh, wait…

And this was our Top 10 Most Anticipated Free Shooters for this year. If you have any other names and suggestions shoot us a comment below. Anyway, as the year progresses we’ll certainly see more great free MMOFPS games announced, so we can only hope for fantastic year. We’ll see you online and remember: no camping!