CrossfireX was a first-person shooter game developed and published by Smilegate Entertainment for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on February 10, 2022. The game was the third installment in the Crossfire series. Remedy Entertainment worked on the game's two single-player campaigns, which are also available on Crossfire HD. It received generally negative reviews from critics.
On February 3, 2023, Smilegate announced that the game would shut down on May 18, 2023.
Gameplay
CrossfireX was a first-person shooter and the console version of Crossfire (2007). The free-to-play multiplayer component is similar to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which sees two opposing teams, representing two hostile private military factions, compete in game modes to complete objectives. Classic mode sees the attacking team attempting to plant a bomb while the defending team has to stop them. All players are equipped with standard weapons. The Spectre mode is a variation of the classic mode, though the attacking players are spectres, who are only equipped with knives but they can stay invisible when they are not moving. There is also a Modern mode, in which the two teams need to fight for maintaining control over two objective points in a map.
The single-player portion, which is also found on Crossfire HD on PC in China, which would not be free-to-play, consists of several operations. Each operation includes several episodes. At launch, there would be two operations available. The story explores a global conflict between Black List and Global Risk, two private military factions.
Plot
Operation Catalyst
The first campaign follows a team of Global Risk Soldiers in the country of Azkharzia who are sent in to find and kill Black List officer Alexander Steiner. The Global Risk team is led by Major Cavanaugh and consists of Captain Hall, Specialist Randall, and Private First Class Moralez. The team assault an abandoned hotel where Steiner is supposedly staying but soon find out they've instead killed Steiner's body double. Although the team manage to fight their way out of the hotel, Cavanaugh and Hall deduce that they were set up as Black List was well prepared for their arrival. Cavanaugh is shot shortly afterwards and Hall is knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant. While unconscious, Hall has an unsettling vision of being in his own house through the eyes of someone else. Hall is soon reawakened by Moralez and takes command of the team.
With their extraction aircraft shot down and Cavanaugh's long range radio missing, Hall plans to use a nearby communications tower to call for extraction despite Moralez's insistence on heading towards the rally point instead. While making his way up the tower, Hall is captured and interrogated by Steiner who reveals that Cavanaugh is alive and demands his location. After breaking free with the help of his team, Hall plans to head towards mines where Cavanaugh is supposedly being held and manages to capture Steiner along the way. However the team is soon ambushed by Black List soldiers led by the ambitious Commander Fontaine and soon Moralez who has secretly been contracted by Fontaine to sell out the team. Moralez soon kills Steiner under Fontaine's orders but refuses to kill Hall and Randall as it wasn't part of their deal, leading Fontaine to kills Moralez instead while Hall and Randall manage to escape.
Despite being out numbered, the survivors continue deeper into the mines where they find a facility housing a super computer known as Catalyst which is capable of predicting the future through human memories. It is soon revealed that Fontaine plans to use Cavanaugh's future memories to wipeout Global Risk, although Hall manages to shoot her before the machine kills him and the team soon manage to escape via helicopter.