Opinions in the game playing world seem to be deeply divided over this multiplayer war shoot-em-up. Whilst Softonic users have made it one of the most popular game downloads on the site, one game player says, “Its so bad that it's a crime against humanity that makes the holocaust seem like a stubbed toe in comparison.”

War Rock is yet another in a long line of Korean games such as Kal Online and Gunz Online that feature plenty of blood letting on the battlefield. Anyone who has played the Battlefield series will be familiar with the format of War Rock. Once connected to the server, you can choose one of the three game modes before being guided to the lobby where you team-up with team mates or chill-out before war. There’s also a random game generator where people join together in a massive free-for-all. This can result in some particularly violent sessions as many people log on just to release their frustrations rather than play the game properly.

You can then pick one of the five characters - engineer, medic, scout, soldier or heavy weapons expert. If you decide you don’t like your choice but don’t want to quit the game, the best thing is to commit suicide as you are granted a “resurrection” after which you can reincarnate as a different character. Don’t spend too much time thinking about it, since you can choose again after death. Note that if you want some real bloodthirsty action, choose the heavy weapon expert character – he gets to use an M-60 or rocket launcher. The engineer only gets a spanner whilst the medic gets a bucket and sponge. Whichever character you choose, you have to fulfil a set of missions and win a series of medals to progress to the next battlefield.

A map guides you through the game showing you where medical kits, engineering and ammo bases can be found and used. The movement of the character however can operate rather strangely. You can move well forwards but going sideways is painfully slow and this is really annoying when you are under heavy artilery fire.

The drawbacks to this game are numerous and have been detailed on countless forums. For a start, the weapons don’t really act in a realistic manner as they hit exactly where it's pointed even if you're running, jumping or even being hit by grenades and gunfire. The result is that you can beat snipers easily with just a cap-gun which makes the gameplay far too easy. In many cases, you don’t even have to fire to kill your opponents. Simply getting into a tank for example instils such fear in the enemy that many just collapse in front of your eyes in an apparent act of suicide. The aim of the tank cannon isn’t terribly important either – as long as you hit the fire button in the general direction of those that remain, you are pretty much guaranteed to massacre them all. Destroying tanks is not so easy however – the anti-tank missile launchers are not much more powerful than a machine gun so you’ll spend a lot of ammo just trying make a chink in the armour.

The sound of the weapons is also surprisingly poor with the M15 sounding like a beanie gun at times. The other major drawback is lag-time which users blame on the coding and server overload. Although you can play against players in other parts of the world, the time lag can be so severe that after having shot someone, it can take up to 5 minutes before they keel over and die.

On the plus side, War Rock has low system requirements meaning even older PCs handle it with ease. It’s also entirely free to download and play which is unusual for a game of its size and popularity. It also offers a wide variety of combat situations and scenarios (how many other games can you choose to simply observe a war from a medic’s perspective?). The vehicle combat over ground and through water is also particularly good as is the sophisticated system of progression as you advance the game which you’ll do pretty quickly because its far too easy.

Overall, there are better battle games out there but if you enjoy an easy killing spree, then you’ll love War Rock.