I just wanted to post my two cents, seeing as how this is the most polarizing love/hate game in recent memory. I’m an avid fan of the FPS genre… my first online FPS experience was the original Quake TeamFortress. No, no, I take that back… freaking MARATHON on a school LAN back in the mid-90s, haha. I’ve played pretty much everything in between and consider myself pretty discerning when it comes to FPS quality.
My taste: I love the Battlefield series, love Modern Warfare, but couldn’t stand Black Ops (played online for all of five matches). I loved CounterStrike and Tribes, went a little nuts over Unreal Torunament 2004, but never really could take Halo multiplayer seriously. In short, I’m all about the team-based play, but the MECHANICS of the game need to be fun in order for me to like playing a game. It needs to be fast, responsive, and fluid.
So, over the course of the last few days, these were my reactions (PC version):
- “1000 points for a video? Sure. Rock on.”
- “Cool customization options. These models look great. Wait, I can’t customize my face? How do I undo these tattoos. Crap.”
- “Hmmm, the mechanics are a liiiiiittle clunky. But this SMART system is pretty neat.”
- “OMFG I remember playing with these bots. These are QUAKE bots! I haven’t played with you guys since 1996! Where the f*** have you been? Really? Sniffing paint and eating Vagisil? You haven’t gotten ANY better at this? Ugh, okay… sit back and I’ll do the work.”
- “Maybe I made a mistake buying this game… Kind of disappointing.”
- “Oh, THIS is how you connect to matches full of players and not bots.”
:: One day later, after unlocking all weapons upgrades and finally learning the game :: - “Holy s***, this is fun. Just spent 15 minutes holding the fallen escort dude at the gate.”
- “Oh F*** ME. Just unlocked the light body type. THIS is what SMART is supposed to be. Jesus.”
- “This feels like TF on crack.”
- “I really want those twenty minutes back that I spent on the video. I should have just been playing. 1000 exp points is nothing.”
- “Just… need… 3000 more exp… before bed. Need to see the unlock… BEARDS!”
In all, this game has grown on me tremendously over the last few days. I was initially disappointed, then learned more of the game mechanics, figured out how to play with real people, and found a weapon/class/body combination that really fits my playstyle (a light engineer who uses sniper rifles – hit and run from a distance, and the self-buffed rifle damage is insane). If you know what the object of the map is, know the chokepoints, etc., it really is a lot of fun. The game mechanics don’t feel as realistic as games like Modern Warfare, but there is a mania to it that is really fun.
It reminds me of a combination of TeamFortress, Tribes, and Left4Dead. It takes a while to understand the mechanics and really figure out how to play it in a fun way, but when you do, it becomes rather addicting. I’d give this game a solid 8.5/10 if I were a reviewer. I really can’t wait to see the direction SD takes with this game. With more content and more polish, this experience will just keep improving.