Recent reviews by Monteryn

If you want to use a starter deck against some guy that has a $1000 meta slave net deck every game, then this is the game for you.

You did this to yourselves.

YES

First impressions of the game were generally good, wonky interface yes but nothing I couldnt handle (You can't change the resolution in game, only fullscreen/windowed meaning it was unplayable till I went on the forums to work out how to edit the program file).

Played a few games vs A.I had fun yes. Jumped into PVP and all hell breaks loose. In "5v5" it's never REALLy 5v5, i'ts 2v3/3v3 with 4/5 bots as fillers, making the game a battle over who has the better A.I. And then I encountered ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ strats. Now im not one to complain about gameplay mechanics normally but this took the cake.

In game, there is a warp function, you select an area on the map, and after a 5 second spool up, you warp there, doesnt sound too bad? Right? Well it wouldnt be, if enemies were visable on the map before someone actually has them on thier screen. So an enemy team would all warp to a specific point, completely unseen, and begin capturing it, then upon seeing an enemy player, immediatly begin the countdown to warp to the next point, by the time the enemy player is in range with his weapons, the point has been capped and they've warped to begin the sequence again.

The only counter to this is to spread out and cover more ground, but you then get destroyed 5v1/2 and the cycle begins again.

Modding is how games evolve. They are the future of gaming.
And do some research before slapping cease and desists on innocent folks.

As a rule of thumb, I don't post reviews of games until I've had a decent length of time playing it. but for this game I'll make an exception. First and foremost, this is a great game. Now you're thinking "Jetcog. Why are you leaving a negative review on a great game?", well it is a great game, but its flaws are so infuriating and glaring that is mars an otherwise great game.

I'll cover the positives first:

-Map aesthetics are beautiful. No denying, a lot of effort went into making these maps aesthetically pleasing.

-Gunplay is crisp, responsive and fun. Its been a while since I've seen a shooter with this much potential in its gunplay.

-Loadout system is unique. Differing from standard loadout customisation, this game provides "Loadout Cards" that have preset loadouts with different abilities and weapons, as well as the option to "trade up" into better and flashier loadouts.

-Charaters actually have personality. Differing from the norm, all the mercs have a different background, voice and personality, this makes most mercs very likable purely on their personality.

Now the negatives:
(I'd like to make myself clear that these are my opinions and others are welcome to their opinions too)

-Map design leaves room for improvement. Some of the maps have glaring design flaws that some players are eager to exploit. For a prime example, some maps require the attacking team to run through buildings immediatly after leaving spawn to reach the very first objectives. Theses buildings are rife for enemy turrets and grenade spam. which leads me onto my next point. Also, a straight line of sight into the enemy spawn area is just ASKING for snipers to use it.

-Weapon inbalance. Most automatic weapons in this game may as well be firing bubbles at the enemy, there is almost no damage unless you catch your enemy off guard, in which case they'll just spin around with a shotgun and give you a fresh new behind. Shotguns are ridiculous, the damage output even at long range defies belief.

-Explosive spam, dear god the explosive spam. When one team either gets bored or starts losing, everyone on the team switches to a class with and explosive ability and goes mental, leaving the match in disarray. since most explosive weapnos instantly kill you and gib your corpse so you cant be revived, explosives are most certainly over powered. Nader is the worst for this since her ability is to pull a grenade launcher out with 5 rounds in it that regenerate 1 round every 10 seconds, and on death can drop and insta-killing grenade. Which leads me onto my next point.

-Class inbalance. This can be a called this games biggest problem. Some classes can feel outright redundant compared to other classes. Some classes have 2 abilities have while others have one and it appears that the only difference is that some can equip a different variety of water pistol. An example that I notice most prominently comeing from a Team Fortress 2 background is that out of the 3 medic classes (yes 3) the only real differance is how they administer healing which is completely outshone by Sparks' ability to revive at range or "Snipe Revive", allowing for suprise ambushes, where as the other 2 need to be at melee range to revive.

And my final Point is a debatable one.
-The cash shop. If you're the kind of gamer that'll happily throw £50 at a game just to unlock all the classes for the game, then this doesnt apply to you, but for the majority of us, this is unreal, £50 to play a fundemantal part of a Free2Play game, this is with the bundle prices included as of today, since theyre on sale. Also, if you want better loadouts, be prepared to grind 3-5 matches to earn enough credits to but a basic case, which has just a 0.1% chance at the highest rarity, with a 80% chance at the lowest, or paying £4 each for an "Elite Case" that only gets you 1 loadout at higher base rarity. Hell if there wasn't a free merc to begin with and a free merc rotation players would have to pay £6 just to play someone other than Skyhammer.

All in all its a fun game with some early beta issues but a horrendous Free2Play model, the model that overcharges for everything and paywalls 90% of the game for beginners.