Shooter fans looking for a little variety may soon be able to find their fix from an unexpected source following the release of a jaw-dropping clip showing an impressive Call of Duty clone built inside the wildly successful online platform Roblox. By offering countless user-generated games to play and kid-friendly content like the recently announced Roblox crossovers with SpongeBob SquarePants and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Roblox Studios’ unique game creation platform has managed to establish itself as the online home for millions of players worldwide.
First released for PC in 2006, Roblox lets users use the Lua programming language to create nearly any type of game imaginable within the platform and then make it available for others to play. Remaining relatively niche throughout most of its existence, it wasn’t until Roblox launched a mobile version of the platform in 2012, followed by a release on Xbox One in 2015, that it started to become the cultural phenomenon it is today. Despite Roblox reporting over $900 million in losses for 2022, the platform continues to grow steadily, though ongoing complaints about its aggressive microtransactions have somewhat tarnished the title’s reputation in recent years.
In a new video posted to Twitter, games investor Josh Lu shared a jaw-dropping video of Roblox Frontlines, an impressive shooter built inside of Roblox that looks and plays like Call of Duty’s multiplayer modes. Unrecognizable as something built inside the typically kid-friendly Roblox, the short clip shows off fast-paced, first-person gunplay on two different maps, one of which bears a striking resemblance to the Call of Duty franchise’s iconic Shipment map. Featuring nearly all the elements of a modern shooter, from great graphics and booming sound to killstreaks and killcams, the clip is a testament to what talented creators can bring to life inside Roblox. Replying to the impressive footage, one respondent stated that they didn’t believe it was real until trying it on their child’s account, jokingly adding “I finally stopped playing after 3 hours.”
Providing a bit of context to the clip, Lu followed his initial post with a thread charting the evolution of games created inside Roblox that led to titles like Roblox Frontline being possible in the first place. The thread shows how early Roblox games like 2007’s Ultimate Paintball proved that shooters could work on the platform, with later games like Call of Robloxia adding features like bullet spread and recoil. Many responses to the post were surprised not only by the graphically impressive Roblox Frontlines clip but also by how far user-generated content within Roblox had come over the years.
While it’s unlikely that Roblox Frontlines will upend Call of Duty’s online multiplayer dominance any time soon, it’s still an impressive example of what Roblox creators can accomplish. Its content might be just a bit too mature for the Dave and Buster’s in Roblox, though.
Roblox is available now on PC, Xbox One, and mobile devices.
Source: Gamerant