"Fragpunk’s unique take on the hero shooter genre is refreshing, but without a massive increase in active players, it may already be too late to ensure its long-term survival"
Fragpunk’s staggered launch did immense damage to the playerbase, with around 80% of the PC community having dropped the game before it even released on console, and while the last few weeks have seen a small uptick in players, the Steam community is still 97.3% smaller than it was at peak.
While there are players on other PC launchers, and Steam does not represent the entire Fragpunk PC community, for any title to lose that much of its community in such a short window of time is alarming and, in the case of Fragpunk, very disappointing.
Why am I disappointed to see Fragpunk struggling to retain, let alone attract players? The answer is very simple.
It is genuinely a very good tactical hero shooter, and while I initially was not convinced about the inclusion of the shard cards, they really do make gameplay more interesting, and when combined with AAA-tier gunplay, there are a lot of reasons to enjoy playing Fragpunk, a few of which we will list below.
With players on both teams being able to choose gameplay modifiers (shard cards) that affect how Fragpunk is played between each round, each and every round feels unique due to the inclusion of modifiers ranging from increased speed or damage to more interesting cards such as “turn into a penguin” and a melee weapon-only modifier that forces players to put away their ranged weapons and duke it out with knives, axes, and hammers, which, while hardly far more civilized weapons for a more civilized age, still get the job done!
It is honestly one of the greatest innovations the tactical shooter genre has seen in years, and I hope that Fragpunk either grows large enough to ensure its long-term survival or another developer takes up the mantle and incorporates similar mechanics into their own game, as frankly, shard cards are the innovation I did not know the genre needed, and I hope they stay around in one form or another for many years yet to come.
While Fragpunk looks fantastic, it is not the prettiest game in the world for one very good reason: the developers have opted to focus on performance before visuals, and it has paid off, with players on Xbox Series X and PS5 regularly able to enjoy framerates north of 240FPS, with spikes into the upper 280s.
This level of performance is nearly unheard of on console, especially for a game that looks this amazing, and I personally feel this was not only the right choice but the best possible choice the developers could have made if they hope to differentiate themselves from dozens of other equally good-looking titles on 9th generation consoles and current-gen PC hardware.
Fragpunk’s characters look fantastic and manage to do so without leaning fully into portraying every female character as a potential OnlyFans model.
While there are some problems with presentation (especially of late), with the developers appearing to take a “flash panties in case of emergency” approach to the recent Halloween event, for the most part, female characters look both cool and attractive at the same time.
While some do show a fair bit of non-sexual skin, this is the same for many male characters, with shirtless, well-muscled male (and partially shirtless) equally ripped female characters representing the muscle mommy and daddy crowd fairly well.
Am I disappointed in the way they have started to sexualise certain characters to appeal to gooners? Absolutely, and while some think this is a non-issue, they could not be more wrong, with Jesus Christ himself having this to say on the matter.
While some may think this is a non-issue, with many young children and teens playing Fragpunk, I feel the developers made a huge mistake in trivialising the upskirting of a character, especially when sexual harassment is a serious issue faced by girls and women of all ages, some as young as their target audience.
Do better, Bad Guitar Studio!
FragPunk is a free-to-play first person shooter game developed and published by Bad Guitar Studio, it released on 6 March 2025, and is available on PC, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
FragPunk supports:
FragPunk offers the following matchmaking options:
The FragPunk in-game store sells:
FragPunk supports the following peripherals:
FragPunk is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:
Fragpunk is a really fun 5v5 tactical shooter, and the addition of card-based modifiers ensures that each and every round feels fresh; however, its relatively small playerbase is concerning.
While I fully recommend playing Fragpunk, especially for those with access to all operators via Xbox Game Pass, I would personally feel reluctant about investing too much time or money in a title that may prove unsustainable in the not-too-distant future.
Ultimately a great game, but certainly not unmissable, and not one that I would invest a large amount of time or money into without clear signs that the developers intend to support it for at least a few more years before the harsh realities of running a live service title catch up to them.
We found FragPunk to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
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