Ok so this is what I said originally after playing it at i42:
However:
- When we were playing, the graphics looked absolutely awful. Not just because it was on the 360, but it looked awful even for that. I'm not sure if it was because it was a pre-release version or what, but it definitely didn't look like the graphics were finished.
- A couple of people also said that most of the guns felt the same, you usually have to shoot someone a fair amount before they die, it's not like 1/2 hit kills
- Some people also didn't really have a clue what they were doing, but considering we got thrown into the game without any kind of introduction and trying to figure out what the controls were.
First of all...most of the issues I found from my first impressions have been resolved. The graphics look really good on the PC, not as severely crippled and awful as they looked at i42. The menu system is very pretty - if perhaps not that intuitive.
The guns are different...mostly because there is a pistol that is ridiculously powerful, shotguns seem to 1 hit kill all the time and most of the guns have ridiculous drop-off damage. You can kill 4/5 people in a row at close range, but as soon as they get further away you do hardly any damage to them. One thing that doesn't feel right is the recoil - seems like there is too much of it and it's in the wrong direction. It zig-zags left and right too much to feel realistic I think. The 1 hit kills from nowhere would probably make Junta angry. He's used to being shot at for a good 30 seconds before dying
The grenades seem to be pretty useless - unless someone is standing on it, and even then it doesn't feel like it's doing any damage other than to knock someone over.
As for the objectives and knowing what you're doing - didn't really see any problems with that at all. Middle mouse click and you get an objective wheel to select your objective and it highlights it on the map for you. Sometimes it doesn't feel like you know what you're doing when 'defending' - there is a % counter so you stand by it and it doesn't move. The objectives are also linked to the classes - so only certain classes can perform certain tasks (i.e. soldiers set charges to blow stuff up - so the objective for other people can be to protect you).
The gameplay is interesting - different to anything I have played in a while and I'd say that it's probably pretty good. The maps seem to be quite corridoory/chokepointy/tunnelly which I'd imagine would get Junta frustrated. I would say it's a bit like TF2 in regards to the gameplay - but with a much wider variety of objectives to complete (and multiple options all the time). Some of the objectives open up new paths so you have shortcuts etc. You definitely feel like you should be completing objectives rather than running around and shooting the mans.
The levels are very pretty looking and they fit in well within the design of the world. Apart from the chokepointy ness of them etc. There are a couple of levels where it seems like you pretty much have to go past the enemy's spawn point - which I'd imagine would be pretty frustrating being spawnkilled for a while until the objective moves past it.
The freerunning I think is quite good and reasonably smooth. Run at a wall with a box in front of it and you can seamlessly jump onto the box and over the wall. What's really cool is when you do that to get up to a high ledge and find someone up there and take them down. You feel like a badass. Sliding around behind cover also makes you feel like a badass (similar to bulletstorm in that respect).
One thing I definitely noticed was that the game was sold to me as a seamless transition between singleplayer and multiplayer. It isn't. The single and multiplayer is the same levels, just with bots being replaced by humans - and the bots are stupid. Like TF2 - I wouldn't bother with the single player at all except for the challenges. Jump straight into the multiplayer (co-op or vs - same thing but against bots or humans).
As for release bugs....well when I first loaded it up I was getting what felt like 5-10 FPS which is pretty shocking and it wasn't running very smooth at all. I installed the ATI hotfix that is supposed to help with that and it did make things better, in return for the mumble overlay having a spaz and text in the game becoming massively corrupted. There are also a few weird things like your FOV changing when you stand/crouch which feels very odd indeed. It hangs a bit when alt+tab back into the game and if you alt+tab for too long it crashes.
The game definitely doesn't live up to it's trailers/adverts - but I think once they've ironed out the bugs and done some tweaking etc. I think it would be a fairly solid team shooter.
Another thing that did annoy me, and this is completely irrelevant to the game itself is the initial choice it asks you to make. The intro video plays when you start up the game to provide a bit of a background to the world and story etc. Once that is finished you are presented with a black screen that just says 'Save the Ark' or 'Escape the Ark' and you are expected to choose between them without any indication or information about those choices. It's minor - but it annoyed me enough to write a paragraph about it
As for Junta - considering how much you don't get along with BC2 I probably wouldn't recommend it to you. But that doesn't mean I don't think you should give it a try as it's a fairly decent team shooter.
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