Just played a few hours of MP. First impressions couldn't be any worse. It's still the same COD as always, in the bad sense, that is, random kills from behind or from your sides all over the place. Except this time, it's even worse, with the added verticality. Ghosts was messed up in this regard, but AW is some new levels of bad here, if that was even possible.
When all is said and done, said verticality doesn't add much to the game. I find it baffling that they decided that your exo movement should appear in the enemy's minimap. It incites you to use these new mechanics less, effectively turning the game into the same COD of always, and yes, there's a perk to remedy this, but if players have to sacrifice something in order to fully and properly use these new mechanics then one can only wonder whether they are truly that integral to the game.
Sledgehammer also seems to have some sort of misguided devotion towards Treyarch's work. I don't agree with the decision to go back to the pick 10 (13) system, when Ghosts create a class was an improvement and a step forward in customization, but I can at least understand the reasoning, to a point, since pick 10 worked and people weren't very much into Ghosts. What I just cannot fathom is why they would reuse Treyarch's atrocious netcode from their BO series when Ghosts had, by far, the best hit detection and netcode the series has ever seen. By simply playing a few hours I can tell quite easily that the netcode of AW is, for all intents and purposes, the exact same one used in Treyarch's games. The same issues appear, from visual lag popping up every few seconds in literally every match (Ghosts had none of that), to more severe forms of lag during shootouts, not to mention a wonky hit detection whenever things get just a tad hectic.
Seriously, why is this so, Sledgehammer? In your belief that people like Treyarch more so than IW, were you so obsessed with forgetting that Ghosts even existed, that you had to resort to reusing such a garbage network code, when there was a much better one at your disposal? Surely you could have taken the best things from each of the two developers, rather than blindly and unilaterally taking everything from the one you perceived to be more popular among the fans.
Oh. The graphics. For all the crap that Ghosts has gotten for the past 12 months, I will say that that game looked much better on the PS4 than AW does now. The framerate's lack of stability was a deal breaker in Ghosts, but speaking strictly in terms of graphics, Ghosts looked considerably better and more appealing than AW. I also find AW's weapons and reload animations to be quite bad, downright ugly even, not anywhere near the level of Treyarch's, let alone Infinity Ward's (who have always been king at modeling and animating weapons). And on a more personal note, the art design is just not very appealing, but that's just me.
I find I have complaints about this game left and right no matter where I look, and overall it's been a very frustrating experience to me. Why is the unlocking system so short-sighted, having for example to pull off head-shots in order to unlock something as essential as quickdraw, and then having to repeat the exact same, tedious process for each and every weapon? What is this new shitty reloading system, where I can't figure for the life of me how to pull off one type of reload or another, with the game ultimately deciding that I should just waste two thirds of a perfectly good magazine? Then there's the flow of the matches, which is pure fucking garbage due to the atrocious spawn system that just decides to put respawning enemies right behind your team so that they can flank you without even trying. Last but not least, why does the game only mute the current people in the lobby? I have to use the "mute all" option each and every time someone new comes into the lobby, because the game just doesn't get that I don't want to listen to anybody's crap (not to mention these obnoxious and obtrusive letters popping up in the middle of the screen to let me know who the jackass with the loud music at the other end of the microphone is, because apparently having to put up with the sound wasn't enough).
I didn't think much of Ghosts, but I certainly don't remember raging anywhere near as much with it on day one (oh, sorry, "zero"), or with any other game, for that matter. Ghosts had its share of issues, it was formulaic but it was fun at least. This is just not a good multiplayer experience to me, and I doubt I will be giving Sledgehammer another chance. I already said to myself that I would never buy another Treyarch game again, and while I'm more open about what Ghosts 2 can be, I'm not particularly looking forward to buying another game from the current Infinity Ward either. So I guess that after 9 years of buying COD games yearly, without exception, I will finally be moving on from the series, since none of the current three developers really appeals to me. It's been a good run, but I'm sick and tired of this franchise's bullshit at this point.
now i have to download it again. my download speed is 50Mbps
