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Saturday, April 6, 2013

Nerf Swarmfire Review (7/10)

Honestly the coolest blaster I've seen in recent years and now, I finally got one. Say hello to the Swarmfire, time to rain hell on unsuspecting foes.
Coming from my own personal experience, I'm not a fan of electric plunger systems, from the modding part at least. There are too many complexities involving electronics and traditional plunger systems and if one falters, it screws up the entire operation of the blaster. Which is why I have no plans on modding my Swarmfire unless its for painting. I know this blaster has been out for about three years now so its fairly outdated of me to do a review but whatever. It was on sale at Academy for 20 bucks anyways.

This thing to start has one of the most comfortable shells I've used. The stock fits snugly into your shoulder like a glove and the grip is nearly identical to the Longstrike which I love. Only downside is that the blaster is super front heavy, and due to the circular configuration of the barrels the grip is also very wide and may be a little annoying. The plain aesthetics are what really sold me; this whole streamlined look it has just makes it look that much more menacing than it already is. The stock is removable for who knows what reason as its incompatible with everything but the Swarmfire. What would be nice were some strap mounts through.

The performance is good, not great but good. And just to take note, my model is a MK1 meaning that it has a orange trigger and is therefore not as powerful as the blue triggered MK2. Being full auto it range is not exactly a problem being that if your target out ranges you you can move up and unload another barrage of darts and you're sure to nail him/her. Its getting about 30 to 40 feet and being an earlier model and electric plunger powered, I can't really complain. Rate of Fire, well for an automatic? That's slightly faster than a Stampede, and its a bit of a letdown since it got gatling style barrels and I bet it can hit slightly better fire rates without taking the wear of the internals into account. Stampede probably was slowed down since it was a clip system and the risk of jamming was possible but not here.

I never opened mine but just by looking at SG's shot up top, its enough to make me use it stock. Unless you have good experience on both standard plungers and electrics you must know that if you upgrade one thing like a spring lets say, you need to amp up its voltage to bypass that added stress. Uses 6 C Cell batteries, why? Well who the hell knows?

The Swarmfire is a great blaster, I wouldn't say its quite at the level for tackling long term wars over long distances but more suit for fast paced close quarter matches where your less likely to reload the thing(You'll probably either tag everyone of get shot in one load) I like it and since my town is pretty far off from a closet full of blasters and and modifying them, the hundred or so Nerfers around here who use stock Mavs and whatnot seem to think I just pulled the thing straight out of space and cower when it comes within sight of them. It great for just unloading a barrage of 20 darts, albeit sluggish, I'd rather have control than a PowerClip dumping its magazine in one trigger pull. I give the Swarmfire a 7 out of 10 since its seriously cool and performs well, it just needs a little somethin' here and there.


The Verdict
Range- 30 to 40 feet is decent considering Elites have nearly taken over.
Size- About the same length as a barrel less Longstrike, just way bulkier.
Reliability- Can't jam, risk of running out of juice in the middle of a firefight though.
RoF- 1 dart per 0.5 seconds.
Ammo- 20 Tagger Darts
Modding- Definite potential, you just need to know what your doing.

Is it Better than?

Rapid Fire AS-20- Yes. This old relic of Nerf's glory days with air power still can pack a punch against modern blasters, boasting the same ammo capacity and a higher rate of fire than modern automatics, but it falls short in reliability, range, and the fact that you have to pump the damn thing God knows how many times only to see your ammo gone in a few trigger pulls.





Stampede ECS- Depends. While the Swarmfire boaster a larger default ammo capacity and is far more comfortable. Both have similar ranges but the Stampede is more modular. Where the Swarmfire run out of ammo and may take about a minute of so the reload a drained clip, the Stampede can swap in a matter of seconds. Plus this is better for longer battles where ammo counts.


Nitron- Yes. The Nitron has far better range over the other blaster mentioned but has the worst rate of fire and the noise factor takes into account since its flywheel. But like the Stampede, you can swap ammo in a few second where you can't with the Swarmfire.

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