Firewall Zero Hour is the real deal. We praised the fantastic tactical shooter in our full review, especially when played with a talkative team using a PS Aim Controller, and we can’t wait to see what’s next for the PSVR shooter. Personally, it’s eating up a ton of my free time on weekends and evenings.
As you level up you’ll start to unlock better gear that enables brand new strategies you may not have seen in your first dozen or so levels. Specifically, at level 21, you unlock the Signal Modifier. This gadget, which can be taken in place of a grenade slot, can only be used on the Defending team. What you do is place the modifier (a beeping rectangle that looks a bit like a WiFi Router) on a surface somewhere near the laptop. It prevents the Attacking team from hacking the laptop unless they destroy the modifier first.
Frankly, it’s a great little device that adds a really tense extra layer to the end of matches as you frantically search for it all around and near the laptop. But just a week removed from Firewall’s launch, players are already finding ways to exploit the device.
Since you can get creative with where you place it, you really have to think outside the box as an Attacker. Most of the time you won’t spot it out in the open, but instead hear it behind a cabinet, under a desk, or on a totally different floor of the building. Saving a grenade for that last moment to try and blow it up is a wise strategy. This isn’t inherently a problem though — it encourages creativity — but when combined with the game’s rule that as soon as all Defending players die you’ve only got a minute left as the Attacking team, it becomes a major problem. PSVR Frank alerted us to the issue just last night via DM.
This means that, if you’re Defending, an almost fool-proof strategy (depending on the map size) is to place a signal modifier and then immediately have everyone throw down grenades or blow up mines to commit suicide. Now, with all four Defenders dead, the timer is set to only one minute and the Attackers have to bypass the access point, find the signal modifier, destroy it, and hack the laptop — all while starting on the other side of the map.
It’s a bit ridiculous.
We’re pretty confident that this issue will be addressed, hopefully sooner rather than later, seeing as how the developers at First Contact have already fixed some of the networking issues from the title’s launch week.
Have you ran into this issue before? How are you enjoying Firewall Zero Hour? Make sure and check out our tips for getting started and let us know what you think of this issue down in the comments below!
Featured Image: PreOrigin Gaming
