> Be me
> Spawn as an american infantry soldier, to make 'murica great again
> Die on the way to the first waypoint
> Spawn again after "Waiting for 3 teammates to fall"
> Die again
> The deathcam shows where the killer is, but I quite frankly see absolutely nobody there
> Dense camouflage is dense
> The match is over, cuz I joined it at the very end
> Join other match
> Spawn as an american recon, cuz 'murica
> Die trying to get into a good sniping / observing position
> Spawn again, wow, this time I spawned after like 5 seconds
> Grab a bike and go to the hot spot riding merrily
> No living soul for a looong distance
> Killed by a Luchs driving down the road I was riding my bike
> Third time's a charm, spawn as a recon
> Let's do this
> Someone's shooting at me, zomg
> Where are the shots coming from?
> Prone to safety
> Someone's horning at me, must be offering me a ride?
> Nah, a Kubelwagen Typ 82 (German jeep) runs over me
> Let's try that infantry soldier again...
> One-shot killed by a shot to the knee from a pistol apparently named "U mad bro?"
> #Germanengineering
> Spawn again
> Flank a Panzer I Ausf A
> No weapon to kill it, now wut?
> Walk away again
> Killed by a Messerschmitt bomb
> 250 kg of BOOM just to kill me
> I cri evrytiem
> Spawn again.........
> Start communicating with the team
> Correction: start writing to mute people
> Someone writes back
> "Wtf r u doing team? ATTACK NOOBS, stop camping"
10/10, would die in every possible way again
Now for the more serious part of the review...
This game is a free-to-play blablabla. The game has two modes: action mode (which is FPS-like) and Strategy / War mode (which plays out as an RTS - kind of like a Risk game, you have a map of europe, with many dots representing cities, and you can move assault teams from one city to another. When two or more opposing assault teams clash, an Action mode match is created and the action mode players can join that match). But 90% of the game is spent on / focused on the Action mode. You can't even participate in Strategy mode until you've leveled up enough anyway.
You start with 3 infantry soldiers, one for the USA, one for the Nazis, and one for the Soviets. As you play in matches, you level up the soldier you're using to play, as well as the weapon skills for the weapons you use on that soldier. You also earn cash for each hit, each kill, each waypoint capture, etc. The cash can then be spent on weapon component upgrades (the upgrades are unlocked through XP using that specific weapon). You also earn badges, which give you different bonuses - you can only equip one badge at a time, though (two, if you buy a veteran account).
The inventory of each of your soldiers is customizable, with 3 slots (4 for veterans) for equipment, from antipersonnel / antitank mines to bazookas / sticky AT grenades / submachine guns / machine guns / rifles.
Each faction has several soldier types to choose from:
- infantry soldier - was the widest range of useable weapons and vehicles
- tank crew - the only one that can buy and spawn with tanks
- Recon - specialized on reconnaisance and long range killing (sniping)
- Paratrooper - the only one that spawns jumping off a plane (you can then direct the parashoot so you land more or less where you want)
- Pilot - the only one that can buy and spawn with planes
- General - only unlocked in the late "end game" (so to speak). You can command assault teams on the war map using this unit (in an RTS fashion)
You start with one infantry soldier of each faction (USA, Germany and Soviets), but you can buy more soldiers, which work as if you create a new character in an RPG - he starts with no XP and no skills. The soldier you buy can be "vanilla" (infantry soldier that then later on can become other type of soldier, for a fee) or a specialist (a soldier of a specific role right from the start, but which can never change to any other branch).
Each soldier has a rank (like a level, in the RPG sense of the term). As the rank goes up, new career opportunities are unlocked for the soldier, if the soldier is a "vanilla" infantry soldier (he can become a different branch, eg, a vanilla infantry soldier can choose to become a tank crew, for a fee). Other options are also unlocked, like commanding assault teams on the war map (at rank 12).
So... there you have it. Now some pros and cons, I guess.
PROS:
+ Definitely NOT PAY TO WIN. The most expensive weapons don't even give much advantage, it's more about how you use your weapon than what weapon you use. So there's a place for nearly each and every weapon in the game
+ A very good game for the price (yep. Free. Nothing to lose.)
+ Frequent updates, with new weapons, new vehicles, optimizations and tweaks
+ Good environment / good graphics (mostly forest maps)
+ A feeling of reward for sticking to your guns and leveling up as you play
+ Sound effects are very immersive (the roaring of cannons in the distance, the plane engines flying above you, the small arm bullets flying near your head)
+ Great potential for Combined Arms Warfare experience, for a full-blown battle experience
+ Good system to make the game more newbie-friendly (3 different tiers to separate players on match making, according to the player rank)
+ Different mission types : "Skirmish", "Assault / Defend", "Battle" (takes place where and when two or more assault teams clash on the Strategy game mode)
+ Good effort with the Squad system: you can invite friends to a squad of ~ 2-6 elements, and on the next match making, you and your friends are placed together on the same match. It somehow makes it easier to play with friends and indirectly to take some teamwork into the equation
CONS:
- Contrast / lighting many times makes landscape and objects indiscernible - you might as well be looking straight on to an enemy soldier, but the trees + foliage + grass all look like a dark-green soup and you can't see the "obvious"
- Absolutely no way to play tactically, to communicate with the team / squad through voicechat / VOIP / whatever you call it. You have to type if you want to say something, or rely on third party voice chat software
- Community: I've only played USA, but I can tell you 90% of the matches I'm playing "alone" - no teamwork, no cooperation, no planning. It feels really frustrating given the potential for awesome fun playing together and working together in some Blitzkrieg / Combined Arms Warfare (tanks could push forward, recons could spot threats, infantry could protect the tanks from other infantry, planes bombing tanks pinpointed by infantry... Instead, everyone is running around getting killed easily, even tanks)
- Takes much grinding for unlocking / affording better equipment / skills / badges
- Some silly pricing logic. I mean, an M4A1 Sherman (with two M1919A4 machine guns amongst many other things) costs 79 000, but an M1919A4 alone (for infantry usage) costs 183 000. Beats me.
- A long time in the Early Access stage
- Apparently there has been some hacking / cheating issues emerging. It sure does feel like an impossible death many times you die, you know...
- (Arguable) some faction unbalance (come on, there must be a reason Germany wins the war most times)
- (Arguable) Each update takes it further and further away from a more realistic gameplay experience, or at the very least from more cooperative and team oriented gameplay
