I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Phantom Forces.

What they absolutely nailed here is the gamefeel. It's incredibly fun to superdive around each of its maps with shotguns, which, even with the nerfs done over the years, still absolutely shred. I'm not joking when I say that this Roblox shooter made for babies has some of the best gunplay you'll ever see in a free-to-play game, and the automatic shotguns in this game are among some of the best I've ever seen in any shooter, flat-out. The staggering amount of variety in weapon types is also absolutely bonkers to the point where it's overwhelming. Customization may not have the depth of more recent tacti-cool efforts, but again, for a Roblox game, what's there has to be lauded. You can turn shotguns into snipers and vice versa; it's ridiculous, and I love it. The amount of playstyles you can find in this game, down to suicide bombing the enemy team with grenades that explode on impact for shits and giggles, is crazy.

In an ideal world, this game would absolutely be in my top-ten of all time. To say that of a Roblox game is madness, surely. But simply throwing this under the same lampshade as the other games on that platform is doing it a disservice.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for Roblox's target audience, and here is where I simply can't praise this game. There are a ton of children playing Phantom Forces. I've met a handful of adults who happen to play it, one of which would go onto games with their spouse in toe, but the general consensus is that there's a shit-ton of kids on Phantom Forces at any time of day.

...with that in mind, Phantom Forces has loot-boxes.

It has for many years at this point, actually, and with the inclusion of melee weapons that can only be earned through these boxes, it's only gotten more flagrant over the years. Pair that with a progression system that borders on so slow and sluggish that, past a certain threshold, your only viable options to progress are to buy currency or gamble what you have on skins to sell, and I'm sorry, I have to deduct points. In any free-to-play game, that's bullshit. But you might argue that it's the only way the model is sustainable, and because Roblox hardly pays its developers for their work, it's inevitable that a micro-live-service like this has to make ends meet somehow. I would skeptically nod my head if children weren't involved, but knowing that they are and in big numbers, I can't give this a higher rating than three stars. It simply isn't moral to.

I'm sorry Phantom Forces, I love you, but getting kids hooked on gambling in your micro-casino is gross.

Also some of the maps kinda blow, and Capture the Flag really isn't suited for this game's mechanics and map layouts, but that's beside the point.