2c review from an old school FPS player

[76561198020896223]

Hello Everyone,

I will get right into it, but before I would like to let you know that I did not purchase this game - for obvious reasons which I will reiterate herein. Said that, I have been FPS gaming since Quake/RtCW:ET/CS days, therefore, I believe I have adequate knowledge and enough experience in the matter of this review.

The COD franchise (on PC) has been going downhill in the last few years and it does not surprise me. Same or amateur mistakes in terms of FPS gaming, lack of support due to resources being diverted to other platforms and greed are all of the core issues with this franchise and the latest COD instalment.

Many reviews praise this iteration of the COD to be one of the best and a "breath of fresh air", but, I beg to differ. Sure graphics have been improved and gameplay is fast-paced, however, the core gameplay mechanics of a "proper" FPS game are missing. Read on below:

1) The addition of exo suits is a mere omition of the "patented" quake rocket jump or mods of older FPS where double-jump was incorporated. Sure it works well in COD:AW, however, it does not provide innovative gameplay, but rather, a re-hashed, re-imaged "borrowing" of a gameplay mechanics used for a long time. This to me is sad because it just shows that the developers are or have run out of ideas for this franchise.

2) With regards to movement and incorporation of the exo abilities (i.e. double jump). By adding this the game is meant to become more hectic and faster-paced. I have always been annoyed at how fast you die in the many recent COD games. To me instead of allowing for players to take more damage (which promotes aiming/shooting skill), it seems that to prolong the players life the developers decided to make the game more "vertical". This, in my opinion, is not the right way to go. Primarily because of the issue with ping/latency, which is due to P2P gaming, but also because the game becomes a twitch shooter that has further deter from the core FPS shooter mechanics.

3) This brings me to the final point. FPS games are all about aiming skill and reaction to the surrounding. This means the player needs to have a stable and low ping in order for him/her to be able to learn properly how to play an FPS game. What the recent COD games have done is gone in the opposite direction with this true and valid point. Why promote skill when you can fragg more often by reducing life of the enemy? This simple mistake has not been addressed and is the root cause of why this franchise is losing so many players on the PC platform.

And here is an interesting thing. How many times have you seen or even yourself strafe while shooting. This is one core gameplay mechanic that has not been forgotten by the player and yet is has been overlooked by game developers. Overall the core gameplay mechanics have been long lost in translation because COD FPS games have become console ports. Sadly games have become a multibillion dollar investment and business, therefore, most resources will go to where the majority of money comes from - in this case console gaming. FPS gaming on the PC is fast becoming an ancient art and only true fans of hard-core players will stick around - as a minority.

As a FPS PC gamer I see gloomy times ahead. Unless the FPS core gameplay mechanics are reinvented or reshaped properly then we can say good bye to FPS gaming on the PC in the (near) future. My only hope at the moment is Dirty Bomb by Splash Damage, however, I have lost most of my interest in FPS gaming and mostly due to the milked COD/BF4 franchises.

Oh well such are times, although these are not as good as they used to be years ago.

Take Care All.

D_R

[®NapalmSunrise®]

Great review but I will say this, COD always has been an arcade shooter and it seems you are looking for more out of them ? I dont ever see that happening but I do agree with kills coming down to pure skill. as for the p2p system I think the only ones getting stuck with the p2p matchmaking, and or hosted matches are those who have either very bad net or live in the middle of nowhere. I've played over 500 matches and not a single host migration which happens way to much in p2p and 9/10 matches have been great. Now ganted I edited my .cfg file and if you are familar with the Quake engine im sure you know there are many performance tweaks to be had. Now I will agree with the reviews that are happy with the game as it is very enjoyable, very fast paced and I will say as being a player who prefers playing Hardcore mode Domination and S&D most of the kills come down to speed and accuracy ( at least on my end ) I love the good ol iron sights and I only use hip fire at very close range, from a distance in AW is not the best idea mainly due to the game actually having bullet spread which im very happy with unlike the last bunch of COD's where there was little to none.. Well just my thoughts and good read man..

[GamePad Player]

yep even if its focus is on consoles the franchise has done nothing to push the limit of skill. i see blizzerd trying to make things more challenging showing the skill of a player more with LOTV but even CoD does nothing on this matter, still the same terrible aiming with aim assist and hitmarkers and not one note taken from promods which has been around for many years.

csgo has grab a fair amount of attention from the console community as a true fps pc game though. tbh i play bo2 with a controller (AW aiming still isnt built well enough) im not going to explain but aiming is about 30% better as on consoles its dumb down and aim assist is added, using a controller (with good aiming like on PC) without aim assist is perfect skill level for controller users, but no ones sees that. the skill level of CoD on consoles is pathetic, and almost disrespectful to Esports. i kinda hope CoD hurry up and dies. i think people are starting to see that its a franchise of money. lets hope CoD dies first.

Also an fps vet ( i miss avp2)

[valgua]

I have played every major shooter since Wolfenstein 3d and I love AW. I see your points, but I also think you want something different than COD is supposed to be.