This new FPS is so good, it's almost unfair that it's free: A '1v1 me bro' simulator with 70 maps and no microtransactions that feels like the sickest Counter-Strike: Source mod of 2007

GamesFPSThis new FPS is so good, it’s almost unfair that it’s free: A ‘1v1 me bro’ simulator with 70 maps and no microtransactions that feels like the sickest Counter-Strike: Source mod of 2007When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

Straftat protagonist character pointing gun at other Straftat main character

Where to begin withStraftat, a hot off the presses multiplayer shooter that immediately stole the hearts of PC Gamer’s FPS-likers? I feel like the highest compliment I can give is that it immediately demolished our news team’s productivity, with declarations of “one more round, that one didn’t count,” extending one memorable lunch break well beyond our employer’s allotment⁠—nobody tell my boss!

Straftat is all about lightning-quick, 1v1 FPS duels on small but imaginative maps⁠—70 of them in the free base game, with another 70 included in a $5 DLC. For perspective, Overwatch 2 has 34 maps for normal play, while Counter-Strike: Global Offensive accumulated more than 100 official maps over the course of its decade-plus run. Straftat’s offerings aren’t throwaway either⁠—each one has a gimmick or twist that makes it feel like it could have been a server browser favorite back in the day. My fellow Straftat-obsessed coworker, PC Gaming Show editorial director Jake Tucker, likened Straftat’s endless variety to Mario Party in his FPS newsletterHit Reload.

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Straftat’s movement should feel familiar to anyone who’s played one of its Source engine inspirations (Straftat itself was made in Unity), but Straftat has a capacity for tricks and movement mastery more comparable to Quake and its like. The star of the show is one of the best-feeling crouch slides I’ve encountered in an FPS, with crouching out of a sprint speeding you up like you just dropped into a greased slip ‘n slide. It feels zippy and aggressive, with a low skill floor for incorporating it into your own play⁠—you don’t have to spend hours perfecting movement tech to get going⁠—while some of the sickos we’ve encountered in random queue have demonstrated there’s a high ceiling for if youdowant to practice.

Straftat’s arsenal is impressive as well, with the game leaning into a large variety of disposable weapons. You toss them away to pick up another rather than reloading, and can dual wield any one-handed weapons together. Some of them feel absolutely incredible, like the assault rifles that operate like laser-precise, jacked up versions of Counter-Strike’s AK and M4. Others are deliberately, trollingly shitty, but deployed in fun and interesting ways: A machine pistol that empties all of its bullets in a single trigger pull and sends your camera careening around from the recoil often appears on maps otherwise populated entirely with melee weapons.

If there are dud maps in Straftat, we haven’t run into them yet.

Straftat’s maps can completely change how you play⁠—each one has a curveball, something to surprise you and make you rethink your strategy. One map sticks you in a courtyard with a fair bit of cover and mostly crappy guns, with the exception of a single spawn point for that godly AK-47 right in the middle. A more cautious player might keep to the edges and relinquish the valuable assault rifle, but my coworkers and I always just made a dash for it at the beginning of every round, the first one to crouch slide there mowing down the unlucky (and unarmed) second-place finisher. But getting there first wasn’t always a guarantee of victory: Sometimes the speedier player would mash the pick up button too many times, accidentally dropping the rifle and relinquishing it to the loser.

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But even the more grounded shooter arenas feel great to play in and carry some spark of genius or whimsy. A vertically oriented, Hong-Kong-inspired city block always lends itself to great firefights, while another map’s Escheresque stair stepping ruin populated with battle rifles feels like the perfect arena for hitscan shooter sicko head clicking⁠—a proverbial “Fox Only, Final Destination” for Counter-Strike Deagle devotees. The send up of Twin Peaks’ Black Lodge, meanwhile, not only tickled the lizard part of my brain that enjoys references to other things I like, but also made clever use of warp gates and identical rooms to offer up tense cat-and-mouse games.

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(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

View of opposing character standing at end of bridge before brutalist building in STRAFTAT.

(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

Looking across gap at opposing player in pistol duel in STRAFTAT

(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

Holding dagger in surreal subway looking basement in STRAFTAT

(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

Looking upward at surreal architecture in STRAFTAT

(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

View of planting mine in map in STRAFTAT

(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

Looking down hallway in Black Lodge reference map in STRAFTAT

(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

Black Lodge twin peaks red glowing room while being fired on in STRAFTAT

(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

Looking down red draped hallway at inverted statue in STRAFTAT

If there are dud maps in Straftat, we haven’t run into them yet, and my challenge now is just convincing more of my friends to get in on the fun. If I have one gripe from my time playing, it’s that there’s no in-game system for spectating matches and rotating players in and out for a group of three or more. But even this has a potential throwback, DIY charm to it: We just manually hopped in or out of the game, with active players streaming on Discord for the ones on the bench.

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The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals