I mean that's just standard for any competitive shooter. Overwatch and Valorant do that too
Overwatch is now also free 2 play and getting rid of the loot boxes, times have moved on, I compared it to Halo infinites challenge system which I think is fair, however as the gameplay is essentially an overwatch clone I think its fair especially with OW2's new monetisation which this will directly compete against.
Would love to hear your gameplay impression more than what skin can free player get. This game is free to play, no? If it is, Overwatch is a $40 game, that kinda make it unfair comparison
The issue is it feels like a cheap Overwatch, map design, like the actual map layouts feel almost random at time, like someone was just plonking assets down without any thought at all. The look of the maps themselves are... well they look very basic too, this causes issues when there is often only one main aproach on some maps resulting spawn camping for long periods because one team gets cover to hide behind and hold while the other team only has strait open ground. Gameplay wise in how the suits (heros) function is that its probably best to not know anything about Gundam so you have no preconceptions, they don't really base the suits on any in universe role and instead just force them into something Overwatch did.
For example let's take the Zaku II, it's tracer... it's 100 round in universe MG is downed to 30, its horrifically inaccurate meaning you need to get up close like tracers pistols, but it's boost is also the strongest in the game essentially acting like tracers little time blips allowing it close distance or get out fast, rather than a time rewind it gets a smoke screen which makes its invulnerable while up enhancing this ability and a basic frag grenade. It's ultimate is a shoulder bash that stuns everyone hit by it in a line and does solid damage allowing you to easily finish off anyone locked in it before they recover. However it's a Zaku II the workhorse of mobile suits... its not the high mobility type either but the designers wanted tracer so it works like tracer. Its OW with a Gundam skin, the issue here is that again this directly translates like the bad maps in feeling like a cheap clone.
As to how the game feels to play... it feels like... Overwatch with cheap animations, in terms of kits like I said they feel like the OW kits but then with one ability changed to someone random that does not aid the role they are copying from to avoid a direct clone. For example Pale Rider (Soldier 76) gets an impact grenade and heal beacon but also gets an emp grenade that's impact as well but does no damage and in the time you use it would have been better shooting the guy, like the maps many suits have one ability that makes you think "did anyone even consider how this would work into its role? What the hell was the design intent here?"
The issue is its just not good enough really, not even in the F2P space which is harder to break into these days with some solid entries. Mix into this some of the worst progression and none rewarding in F2P history and once they stop paying the streamers off its going to disappear. If its not good enough that even Gundam fans like me to stick around then its not going to be good enough for the generic twitch trenders once their streamer has moved on.
Saying this after one day might sound ridiculous but I know what the game is already, I have seen it so many times before with better reward systems and I didn't stick around for them because the game just was not worth it. Some people will want this game to succeed because what they really want is pressure on Blizzard with a direct competitor so they are "forced" to make OW2 better. This will never be that competitor, Bandai Namco will never shift on the unreward system, they would rather have the game die so there is no saving it, if anything it's made me appreciate what Blizzard delivered with Overwatch finally.
I don't agree comparing to Overwatch for 40$ is unfair, Overwatch was always a free 2 play game, blizzard just wanted money at the door because of there reputation and people paid for it. That issue goes away too on the 02/10/22 anyway when OW2 becomes free and directly competes with this games terrible monetisation model.