Don your murdermug: Crytek’s Warface goes live in Europe on October 21

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Next week, Warface stops being just a silly name and becomes what it was always destined to be: a pretty good multiplayer FPS that’ll probably run on your laptop for free. For that reason, you should probably pay it a modicum of heed.

The four-player co-op mode reads like Left 4 Dead but in actuality has a coin-op vibe to it, with all the attendant costs that dubious accolade implies. If you ask me, it’s not going to be the lunchbreak conqueror Crytek have anticipated it to be (though its already a proven success in Russia).

By contrast, the competitive component is an accomplished multiplayer FPS in the mode of Call of Duty and sometimes Counter-Strike. Its maps are particularly worthy of mention – filled with furious bottlenecks and enough coves and hidden passageways to reliably give your opponents the runaround. The beta has been fun.

Given its successes elsewhere, it’s a shame that Warface’s female models have disappointed this week. The results are a lesson on the merits of selective hearing when listening to your community.

Here’s a teaser trailer for the launch, which tracks the difficulties of Man with Briefcase as he attempts to cross a 16v16 map on his way to work. Warning: if you like happy endings, this abrupt drama will not make you happy:

You can sign up to Crytek’s accompanying social network Gface (yup, really) ahead of the launch on the official site. Do you think you will?