[Courtesy of Nexon GT]
Nexon GT, one of South Korea's largest game publishers, has decided to pull the plug on its latest free-to-play, first-person shooter (FPS) game "Sudden Attack 2", only 23 days after its release. The new game will disappear on September 29.
At the stage of its development which cost about 30 billion won (27 million US dollars), fans pinned high hopes on the sequel of Nexon's all-time favorite "Sudden Attack". Criticism and despair raged, however, after it was actually launched.
South Korea's largest gaming community "Inven" has been swamped with complaints from gamers. Many criticized the poor visual quality of the new game, compared to the current generation of FPS games created by other game studios.
Most of all, gamers were dissatisfied with the stiff and unnatural motion of characters. Other complaints were about a glitch in graphics and their optimization. "SarrSatto", an Inven user, said: "The game developers had everything wrong. Nothing fresh and it's only worse than its predecessor."
The deleted female characters of Sudden Attack 2 [Courtesy of Nexon GT]
The over-emphasized sexuality of female characters also sparked controversy. "Women running around in a battlefield wearing only a wetsuit? This is crazy. All I am seeing is female soldiers with big breasts shooting guns," said another user "TungTungTung".
Nexon GT quickly responded to criticism by deleting female characters, but a heated online debate has not subsided.
Fans also voiced their strong disgust to Nexon GT's in-game purchases. The players can pay extra money to receive power-ups to enhance their gameplay. Paid power-up items are common in most free-to-play games. Normally, such items provide enhancement just for more fun but Sudden Attack 2's power-up items made paid users too strong.
Fans are responding with sneers and mocks to the company's decision. The game's community board in Inven is now abundant with posts criticizing the game publisher for wasting money for nothing.
Aju News Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
