So what's the good word? Overall, this game a keeper or what?
+ Controls well. Running, diving, taking cover feels pretty good
+ Decent competitive game modes. Conflict is a nice twist and pretty fun. Sabo is pretty standard.
+ Nice gun modifications. It really makes a big difference
+ Excellent core gameplay. The bare bones of this game is great; it's team oriented and a lot of fun.
+ Gun range is awesome. It's nice to be able to see how your mods affect a gun with no loading (similar to how NHL has their instant skating) Wish it was fleshed out a bit more but it is good as is.
= OK matchmaking. It's hard to judge this because (hopefully) the code here isn't completely final. I hit laggy matches about 1 in 8 so overall the experience was decent. One of the problems is squads can hold 4 players which means sometimes you'll match into a game and your team will have a squad of 4 and a squad of 6. On one hand, I can see the rationale behind this because if you start the match with 4 players on one team it wouldn't be fun to be 3+1 but I'd rather have it split 2+2 and have incoming players fill the squad rather than get fucked over.
= Host migration. On that note, host migration is TERRIBLE. It's nice that it exists at all but host migration essentially picks a new host, then restarts the match with the current time remaining and score. It doesn't matter what the objective was, everything just resets. It's not good.
= Graphics. They're decent enough. I didn't experience the framerate problems that other people had (360). There were some occasional slowdowns but nothing major.
- Terrible map design. Not just the layout itself although most of the maps seem like they're going to be small very small. The objective placement is not very good and some sides have major advantages.
- Very easy to spawn camp. Even against an opponent that almost seems evenly matched, it's easy to push their shit in.
- Class balance. It's just not very good.
- Unlock system. It's one of the most unbalanced I've ever encountered. Pouring time into this game gives you a huge advantage. Not just the class EQUIPMENT but putting a ton of mods on your weapons gives you a distinct advantage over someone who doesn't.
- Decision points. This is part of the unlock system but it basically has an RPG element to it. At the end of the day what it means is artificially lengthening the game, unbalancing it, and reducing your choice DURING matches. I hate it.
- Melee. It's on the X button, contextual, and extremely clunky. In general once you get within 3 ft of someone the gameplay does not feel great IMO
- I don't really care for some of the weird mechanics like instantly snapping to ADS. Movement speed doesn't make a big enough difference.
- Gun balance between factions. Needs major, major, major retooling. Guns are different on both sides and some factions (especially early on) have a distinct advantage.. not good.
- UI. In game HUD doesn't look that good IMO. Outside the UI is very inefficient. You have 60s between matches to allocate your points and it just isn't enough time to work your way through the carousel menus. It doesn't help that your unlocks are different between factions.
- There isn't a lot of hand holding as far as explaining the game. After a lot of hours of playing I still don't completely understand some of the objectives which is not good. These things should be spelled out and clear. I'd consider myself a pretty decent gamer so casuals are probably going to be completely lost on objectives like HVT.
- Lag. I know I said that it was a rare thing for me but holy shit when it happens the game is COMPLETELY unplayable. It's really bad. Some people have complained about it happening more frequently to them as well. I don't know if matchmaking in final will end up being local but anything would help.
- Lack of customization options for game modes. I thought this was GRAW. From what I've read it's going to be standard fanfare which is disappointing because customizing modes into a barebones type of game would've been a LOT of fun.
) and have fun with it.
