Finally got to play some matches today.
PROS:
- Totally nails what it's going for which is basically ARMA meets Counter Strike. Very tactical with low TTK and 1 life per round. Communication is vital to winning.
- Lots of guns and attachments for different styles. All feel pretty great.
- Maps are good, there are a good amount of them (for early access) and good variety between each.
- Locomotion feels good. Didn't make me sick at all (though I mostly don't get VR sickness outside of really bad implementations).
NEUTRAL:
- Visuals like the model animations can be glitchy but it's kind of funny.
- Needs some in game tutorial stuff, but there is a youtube video out there explaining how to play and the game has a shooting range where you can go in solo and test and play around with everything without any pressure.
- Big learning curve control wise. Between getting used to the traditional locomotion, the run speed being sort of contextual, a lot of the guns having different ways to reload, and the various controls for various secondary items (like grenades, syringes, and the knife), there is a LOT to get used to. I put this all in neutral because it's fine once you get used to it.
- Win conditions are either kill all of the enemy team, or complete the objective. The objective is a spot on the map that you have to reach and enter a code. Almost no one does this right now and it's probably a combination of low in game player count (4v4) which makes it easier to just kill everyone instead, the fact that it's kind of hard to actually pinpoint the spot with the ipad in game, and the fact that because there's no in game tutorial a lot of people don't know it even exists. That said, people not usually trying to go for it hasn't affected my enjoyment of the game.
CONS:
- That said, even when you get used to it, controls can be awkward and it can be hard grabbing specifically what you want on your person. Sometimes they're totally out of reach at times you really need them. For example grabbing a new clip from your vest while prone is kind of impossible right now which means you might have to stand up or at least crouch and expose yourself just to reload. You have a lot of items on your vest (handgun, grenade, secondary item, clip) and it's easy to grab the wrong item.
- You spend a LOT of time in lobby. That's kind of the nature of the game when we're talking about a low TTK 1 life a round game, but it's a little worse here since games can go as long as 15 minutes or so on the larger maps. You can imagine that becomes a little annoying if you die 5 minutes in. Plus since the game favors realistic tactics (ie a decent amount of camping and waiting), it's not super interesting to spectate though the ability to do so after death is welcome. It's not as bad on smaller maps though since players find and kill each other real quick there.
Overall, I really like it and I'm not even in to ARMA or CS. It's a unique VR game right now*, more content rich than most other EA releases, and totally worth the price. There's nothing quite as satisfying as setting a plan to flank the enemy, actually managing to sneak behind them, and gunning a whole team down. Getting any kill is really satisfying actually lol. It could use a bit more polish and adjusting to alleviate the time spent NOT playing but it's still a great experience.
*Virtual Warfighter just came out today as well which is pretty similar but doesn't have nearly as much content right now (1 map, only death match mode, 2 weapons, no VOIP). Plus the experience it's going for is closer to CoD than Counter Strike so once it does have more content it will be pretty different.
