When I saw there was a new shooter where you play cards for all sorts of zany power-ups, I thought ‘new?’. I was sure I had played this game a while ago, but when I headed over to FragPunk’s Steam page, I saw that while it was indeed a new game, it was also nothing like the one I remembered. Those blessed with faster brains than me may have already figured this one out – there are in fact two games with this same central gimmick.
While FragPunk is the new kid on the block, Friends vs Friends launched in 2023 to… honestly, not very much of anything. Its peak player count of 5,578, which came around launch, is not nothing, but it’s just a tenth of the 54,313 FragPunk launched to earlier this week. Unlikely to be remembered by many, I hope FragPunk eating its nachos earns it a crumb of goodwill, as the PvP deckbuilder from Brainwash Gang deserves another chance at the spotlight.
FragPunk Is Not The First Game To Mix Shooters And Cards
FragPunk and Friends Vs Friends are not like for like. FragPunk styles itself as a modern hero shooter, with an art style that channels the likes of Valorant and Marvel Rivals. It sees itself as a modern, competitive shooter aiming for the esports audience, and many of the game’s negative reviews (it currently sits at Mixed on Steam) call out its confusing monetisation and high pricing. You heard there was a new hero shooter out, well, this is a new hero shooter. It does that thing all hero shooters do.
Friends Vs Friends is not a hero shooter. There are characters, and the different characters have different abilities, but really they’re just a personal touch for you as a player. The real difference comes from the deckbuilding and the wild array of cards. Friends Vs Friends also has a lot more fun with the concept – while FragPunk has more competitively focussed cards built around healing, obscuring line of sight, and reviving, Friends Vs Friends gets sillier, with cards for slow motion bullet time, turning you into a block of ice, or making health bars invisible.
Even cards that are similar across both games (they’re actually called ‘shards’ in FragPunk, which takes away some of the fun silliness) don’t quite hit the same. Big Head in Friends Vs Friends makes the game feel like those ’90s and ’00s cheat codes where you’d skate around in THPS with a massively inflated cranium. In FragPunk, it makes heads a bit bigger so headshots are easier. It doesn’t seem to quite fit the cartoonishness of the premise to take the card part of the game so seriously.
Should You Play Friends Vs Friends If You Like FragPunk?
While the games do have key differences, the whole point I’m trying to make is that people drawn to FragPunk should give Friends Vs Friends a chance. Despite alternative approaches, both games seem to have germinated from the same seed. Put simply, if you like the equation of Guns plus Cards, but don’t think FragPunk is the answer, check your working, carry the one, and this time you might come out with Friends Vs Friends.
They’re both shooters and they both use cards to influence your abilities while challenging you to survive in PvP. The differences are plain to see when you zoom in, but on the face of it these are incredibly similar games. Anyone who likes one (probably the more recent and popular FragPunk) should try the other. Friends Vs Friends definitely deserves a second look.
There are three choices, the way I see it. If you are absolutely loving FragPunk, then that’s easy – keep playing FragPunk. If you like FragPunk enough, but the cards (sorry, Shards) feel like they’re in the way, well… are you new here? Play any other online shooter and you’ll find no cards. Enjoy. But, as I suspect some people will find, if you think FragPunk is only okay and wish it did more with the card gimmick, Friends Vs Friends is the friend you need and a friend indeed.
- Released
-
March 6, 2025
- Developer(s)
-
Bad Guitar Studio
- Publisher(s)
-
Bad Guitar Studio
Source link