My review:
I can honestly say this games core gameplay is exactly what i’ve been looking for in a shooter for a long, long, time. The fast movement, the emphasis on good aim (people are bullet sponges unless you get headshots), the variety offered by all the classes, and the multi-objective, team based gameplay. I could go on and on about the actual gameplay of Dirty Bomb I really do love it.
That being said I have a few grievances with the game as well. I’m not going to sit here and bash the game saying this or that is absolutely terrible, none of these things by themselves is actually that bad, I wanted to explain what frustrated me as a player and maybe other people feel the same way and it might be changed sometime in the future.
#1: First off the competitive matchmaking, or lack there of. Sometimes it feels like you are more likely to get a fair match in a public game then you are in matchmaking. Honestly you shouldn’t allow premades to go up against pick up groups, its never worked well in a ranked system and it never will. I get it that maybe theres not enough players using ranked to warrant a seperate team and solo queue but honestly i think most people would rather wait longer than have every other match be a complete blowout by one team. Many games that ive won i could have jumped around in the back of the map and still won. And many games that ive lost i could have gone full MLG guns blazing 70+ kill, going for objectives, and i still would have lost. There doesnt seem to be any team balancing of any sort. Now ive had close matches in ranked games before and they were friggin awesome, but I would say over 50% of games in ranked are decided before the game even starts, with one team (usually premade) being much much better than the other team.
#2 Another thing I would like to see changed is the really long wave respawn timer. Now before you say anything yes yes I GET IT, its so teammates will respawn together and promote team based gameplay. I GET IT. But honestly its just far too long, and in certain situations it could actually seperate people respawning by long gaps. Say you and another guy die and then 4 second later 2 of your teammates also die. But it just so happens that the respawn was 2 seconds after you died. Now instead of your teammates spawning 4 seconds after you, they are now spawning 20 seconds after you. And with how fast paced this game is, you sure as hell cant wait 20 seconds for your teammates to respawn and get back to the objective, it will already be over by then. It just feels too punishing if you happen to die right after a spawn wave, sitting there waiting 20+ seconds to respawn is not great gameplay. I know people are probably tired of TF2 comparisons by now but the 10 sec spawn wave there has never really frustrated me that much, and seems to achieve the same goal. And honestly people who arent going to work as a team… just arent going to work as a team. Adding in this long wave timer isn’t going to suddenly make casual PUG players start to work together.
#3 Progression. Honestly the rate at which you unlock heroes is reasonably fair (comparable to other games like LoL) as long as you do all your missions… WHICH IS THE THING THAT PISSES ME OFF ABOUT THIS GAME MORE THAN ANYTHING. Seriously? 3 different missions every 3 hours?? I didn’t mind it at first but goddam its starting to feel like im doing chores rather than playing a game. Its just too much sometimes i just want to jump in and play without worrying about completing certain goals or using certain classes. And if you dont do the missions the rate at which you gain coins is hillariously slow. Most games with daily quests have 1 quest per day and allow it to stack up to 3 days before you start “wasting” quests. Thats 72 hours before you start losing yourself potential currency, in dirty bomb its… 3 hours. And dont even get me started on these missions effect on gameplay. Im assuming the thought was oh these support and objective xp missions will incentivise players to use different heroes and support their teammates and take objectives, and this will enhance the gameplay!! WRONG! I’ve seen everything from people letting their teammates die so they can plant the bomb, to 2 medics sitting in the back of the map running in and out of the toxic gas reviving eachother to farm support xp. Nothing good ever comes of trying to force people to play in ways that they don’t want to play. I would like to see AT MOST 3 Missions PER DAY, and then increase the coins you get from the base fee from games to make up for the less total coins awarded from missions.
#4 FINAL ONE The Loudout system. No it isnt P2W, but it is set up pretty badly. In order to get better cosmetics you have to risk getting a loadout that you dont even like… WHAT? Way to incentivise people to not use your cosmetic system. I personally aint going above bronze until its changed. Sure people like cosmetics but not at the cost of using the weapon or perks that they like… Its been mentioned before that if it just took the exact loudout from one of the cards you were trading up people could actually justify using all those cards and spending all those coins to upgrade all the way to cobalt eventually. As it stand now its like hey! you can spend coins and cards to upgrade the look of your merc! But you probably wont be able to use the weapon you like anymore or the perks that you like! WOW THAT SOUNDS AMAZING!
Thats about it. I know it might not seem like it but i still do love this game. There are just some things about it that piss me off so much.