Billymcguff's First Impressions | Forums

[billymcguff]

Hi! I've played the beta for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and so I thought I'd post some of my impressions on the game as it is now. I haven't read anybody else's first impressions, so it's likely that there'll be repeated topics here.

I come from a background of F2P games such as Combat Arms (from a very long while ago), and a bit of AVA, and AAA titles such as BFBC2 and BF3.

Also remember that these are my opinions, not necessarily facts.

I'll separate it into various categories because I like categories

Graphics
I think the graphics in this game are relatively good, although there are some issues. In game graphics are pretty good (not BF3 or Crysis, mind you), especially for a F2P game. The specular on the weapons could use a lot of work though.

The animation quality is pretty good, although I noticed a bug with the magazine in the reload animation at times (the mag was offset from the hand).

Also, as a sub-topic of graphics, the HUD is absolutely great. One of the best HUDs I've seen in a shooter, both in and out of game (though the blurring effect when you're customizing your weapon is sort of annoying). It gets the message across very well and isn't intrusive. And the minimap. Excellent. (I'm used to BF3's minimap; ugh)

Sound
The sound in this game seems decent, though I think the gun sounds lack depth and variety. I definitely haven't tried all of the guns, but from what I can tell, they seem similar sound wise. The echo effect in the metro level is pretty cool.

Gameplay
The gameplay seems solid and fluid (that's sort of a contradiction, isn't it? ), though it can get a bit slow when a lot of people are playing recon. Movement works very well, and the guns handle fairly well. Abilities seem to work well, though I have yet to try the specialist abilities. The cooldown seems a bit high for the abilities, but I'm guessing that gets better as you level it up.

I have only tried 2 of the automatic weapons, but it seems to me that they handle very similarly. It could be a problem if the guns don't feel different from each other (this is also tied into the sound topic). Again, it could just be that the two I've tried (M27 and MP5 I think) are similar and the LMGs feel different from the assault rifles and SMGs.

The teamplay described in the videos doesn't seem to be very prevalent in the games that I've played, mostly due to (I think) the amount of people playing sniper. If there was a 4v4 "competitive" mode where people worked together and used the class abilities together, that would probably be good.

Map Design
I can't tell you why, but the maps just seem free-to-play-y. Something about them just says "free-to-play". They seem fairly well designed, although the metro level seems a bit too linear in the middle section. I haven't noticed any areas of the map that are really annoying; there doesn't seem to be any areas that can be exploited unfairly.

Overall
Overall, this game seems quite good, despite a few minor qualms I have and the tendency for most people to snipe. I think it could turn out to be one of the best F2P military combat shooters (as opposed to a more arcadey style shooter like Tribes: Ascend). One major downside is that for now it's only available from 5pm to 12am. I want to play more!

Potential Bugs/Technical Problems?
Only one so far.

• At the start of a round or just after alt tabbing away and back, the framerate drops to about 20, but recovers after a few seconds.

Thanks for giving me a chance to test it out, and thanks for reading!

[UbiLauren]

Hey Billy,

Thanks for the first impressions! We'll make sure this gets to the dev team.

[pknove11]

Hey, there, Billy. How odd, I just got off playing a round with you on my team (I'm Ballistic in-game), and decided to lurk on the CB forums a bit, and here you are. I've noticed you telling the team to push forward a lot. Kind of hard (and gutsy) seeing how life expectancy outside of cover is well near-zero. :P Coordination is always nice, though.

[billymcguff]

Yeah, I get annoyed when my team doesn't move up, even if it's not really possible D:

After playing more today, I've revised my thoughts on the sound. The balance is WAY off. The guns are very quiet and the sound of getting hit by a bullet is deafening, so much so that I jump every time I get hit from the side. Also, the gun sounds don't quite have enough oomph to them and are very clinky; they don't convey that an explosion is sending a projectile at a few hundred feet per second, rather the gun sound seems to be mostly the bullet casing hitting the ground.

Edit/Update: Sorry about the above paragraph. Apparently it was just that one match in which my sound was screwed up. Restarting the game seems to have fixed it. The gun sounds part is still partly true.

Edit/Update 2: the sound balance bug happened again. I had to turn down my sound so much that I could barely hear my own shots.

Also, I've been having a lot of problems with people shooting me through cover (or so it seems), as well as not being able to shoot immediately after leaving cover.

Also, IMO, I think that guns shouldn't take up spots in the inventory. I'm fine with having to buy the weapon, but I don't want to have a limited number of weapons at a time (I want to be able to choose from any weapon in the game by the time I get all of them).

Just now, I played for the first time on Moscow City. It looks like a map I'd like, but it concerns me that it doesn't seem to come up very often. Will there be a way to select which maps/modes we would prefer to play, and will there be some sort of lobby browser so we can see how many people are in a lobby, map, mode, etc. before joining a game?

[chemzero]

Billy,

That's no fun that you've been having sound issues! The gun sounds vary greatly. I know our teams either spent time with the actual weapons or watched a lot of video with these weapons being fired. The sound design should be fairly true to real life, with some of the weapons getting tweaked a little to sound a tad futuristic. It is the near-future, after all

I love Moscow City. It's hands-down my favorite map. I hope you get to play it more. Also, Oil Rig. I get in a serious groove on that map.

[billymcguff]

After playing more, the gun sounds are growing on me, except for the pistols. They sound like the sniper rifle from mass effect (at least the 2 that I've played with).

In terms of maps, I like all of them, but Moscow City is my favorite, and Moscow Metro is my least favorite (it also happens to be the one that comes up the most :P )

[chemzero]

I've got a love/hate with Metro. I love it when I'm coming from the shop side. Coming from maintenance side really messes with my head for some reason :/

[billymcguff]

Yeah, you can get trapped pretty easily coming from maintenance, but the tracks along the left are really annoying coming from shops.

[Roby-Wan]

We have a few tweaks coming to Metro that significantly improve the flow and experience. Opening up part of the train from C to D to relieve some of the pressure in the tunnels. We also moved the C point closer to D by about 10 meters. Keep in mind Moscow was our first map and its gone through tons of large and small changes to get to the state its in today. Takes a bit of time to get the kinks worked out.

I've seen the sound issue as well. I believe its caused from alt tabbing.

[gameshoes]

We have a few tweaks coming to Metro that significantly improve the flow and experience. Opening up part of the train from C to D to relieve some of the pressure in the tunnels. We also moved the C point closer to D by about 10 meters.

Good to know!