Recent reviews by Jonesy974

Unfortunately I can't in good faith recommend the game right now. I'm sure I'm in the vocal minority, and I'm just some random dude on steam who has one opinion out of a million; but I have a plethora of criticisms about the state of the game which I'll go into detail about. Also my experience with the game so far has been strictly ranked, of which I have about 40 matches or so played, so bear that in mind.

1. The map/game type "algorithm" on 343's end is absolutely abysmal. So to break down some analytics here to explain:
- Out of my 40ish matches played. 60+% were Oddball. Followed by Strongholds at about 30%, CTF 8%, and slayer 2%.
- Of those games, the bulk of every match took place on Recharge and Streets. I had a handful of matches on Livefire, a few on Bazaar, two matches (out of over 40 matches) on Behemoth, and I haven't even played on Aquarius.

This is all made worse by the fact that 343 will not let you select/de-select which maps and game modes you would like to play. It's actually nauseating to know that when I queue up for a ranked game I know I have a greater than 50% chance of playing Oddball. I know I'm not the only one either. Had multiple matches were my teammates on mic would immediately sigh and complain about more Oddball at the start of a match.

2. The maps are way too small and don't feel great to play on:
- I'm going to immediately circle back to my first point as an extension of this. The objective game types feel AWFUL on these small arena maps. The maps are already too tiny. But throwing objective game-play into the mix makes it feel worse. You're already practically spawning on top of each other and throwing grenades across the map; now throw in 3 strong hold points on a map that's so small you can almost see all 3 at the same time. It's discourages strategy and tactics and more often just favors death-balling as a pre-made.
- Despite how small all of the maps are, some game modes are only available on certain maps? Why? I don't understand why 343 thought to lock game modes to certain maps when every map is essentially the same size. For example no other game modes other than CTF on Behemoth, and only Slayer and CTF on Aquarius (not that I've even played the map).
- Doubling down on my first bullet point but excluding objectives, the maps are just too damn small. With every new Halo game 343 has put out, the arena style maps get smaller and smaller. I don't know who is telling him this is a good idea, but this isn't something anyone asked for. Comparing the map sizes from Halo 4 to Infinite, its baffling how hard 343 is is trying to be CQC space CoD. It affects everything from spawning to the general flow of a match in a negative way.

3. This is a two-sided criticism: the BR is way too strong, and map weapons are way too under-powered.
- The only map weapons that actually feel powerful are the big ones - the rockets, sniper and situationally the energy sword. If you dont have one of those, there is no point in using any gun other than your BR. They don't feel good to use, and they dont do nearly as much damage as the BR. The DMR (Commando) was a bit too strong in the alpha, and their response was to nerf it to the point where I dont even understand why they kept it in the game. What is a 4 tap with the BR is a full, accurate mag dump with the DMR. The AR is under-powered in anything that's not the closest of close range. Anything with tracking, the pulse rifle needler and plasma pistol, are incredibly underwhelming. The shotgun doesn't one-shot at close range period (which is a first for Halo I think), and the heatwave feels even weaker. I wont rant about every gun, but the others all feel subpar as well. The only exceptions being the pistol (which isn't available on every map), and the mangler which is a decent close range 1-shot/melee gun.
- Ability pickups also feel underwhelming outside of the grappling hook. The grappling hook works well, mixes up game-play, and overall just feels really really damn good to use. Everything else is meh. Thrusters boost you like 3 feet horizontally. That's it. Barely moves you. Repulsor can be ok in some places. Could see it being more useful in Big Team, but in the small ranked arenas knocking things slightly backwards wont do much unless you're in a position to knock them off the map. Drop wall just sucks. Get's destroyed in 2 seconds. 343 basically went "how can we take the bubble shield, but make it as bad as it can possibly be?" and that's what they came up with. Threat sensor isn't really even needed with how small the maps are. At the end of the day, nothing matters except the BR, sniper, rockets, and grenades. Anything else is more of a detriment than benefit.

Those are all my biggest gripes with the game, not including all of the customization and battle pass stuff most others have talked about. I think the majority of things are easily fixable. But I also know 343 well, and already know nothing about anything I mentioned will ever change. Ever. The biggest positive is at the least the multiplayer is free. So at best you can try it for yourself, disagree with me and enjoy playing. Worst case is you play it, dont like it, and dont play it anymore.

One of the best JARPGs out there. You're doing yourself a disservice by not playing this game. Buy it.

It's actually kind of mind blowing that this game has been out for years, and has made a disgusting amount of money, yet has taken zero steps to improve itself. Devs are basically walking away with a fat paycheck. If you take two seconds to stop and realize - every current BR game out now that's newer than PUBG and still in early access already performs better and has better optimization that PUBG has after years of development.

Better than PUBG in every regard.

Pros:
- Start with a weapon and no need to find a backpack
- Character customization is better and the character models don't look like trash
- Can heal while moving and heal to full (no boosters)
- Weapon sounds are much louder and realistic
- Blue is immediate and not a casual closing circle, and is much more punishing
- Wall of the blue is mirrored/textured to make camping it difficult
- Vehicles are loud and hard to control, which on the surface is bad but encourages you to use your class gear which are all fun to use
- Shooting is more "arcady" so bullet drop and spreads aren't as obnoxious
- No idiotic leaning and jiggling peaking - can only lean while on cover
- Game is smooth in general. Haven't experienced and real lag or desync
- Can actually trade when shooting. Dont have the incredibly stupid bullet negation in PUBG when you get knocked
- Helicopter makes it possible for multiple teams to win

Cons:
- Sun shafts in this game are obnoxiously large and super bright. They've cost me more than one fight because I'm essentially being flash-banged by the sky and cannot see while the guy not facing the sun can see me perfectly.
- Doors are very buggy. Every time I open a door theres a 50/50 chance the door will open and let me through or immediately close again
- Sound can be a bit buggy at times. Sometimes you can hear a guy 100 feet away no problem, but a guy outside a window 10 feet away makes no noise on occaision
- The map terrain was designed with the class movement in mind, but often times is counter-productive. Every class gear is pretty much designed around helping you move down faster, not up. This is an issue sometimes because there are multiple insanely large mountains in the game. You can climb them without sliding down, unlike PUBG/Realm/etc. It's just very slow, and more often than not the mountain is a very large obstacle stopping you from getting out of the storm zone. It's great if you're already at the top; you can get down quite easily. It seems like the devs basically designed the map and mountains with the gear in mind, like "woah cool our players can hanglide and snowboard down this mountain crazy fast". They didn't really stop and realize there's no way for players to climb UP the mountain at a decent speed.
- On occaision the way the end game objective works causes players to camp the helicopter fom a distance or just keep killing people rather than play the objective. Some people make it a mission to just keep killing everyone and not go for the objective, and would rather get themselves killed to keep anyone from winning rather than getting a win themselves. I can only think of one time where they actually succeded in stopping me, but it's been attempted multiple times. I do like the helicopter mechanic, but there are people who enjoy griefing rather than playing the objective.
- They recently removed the free loot boxes from the game for no real reason. They decided to implement a battle pass instead. That isn't the problem, since the battle pass was to be expected. The problem was they removed free loot crates and in-game currency entirely in favor of the battle pass. I find this extremely bizarre seeing as how all of the bigger BR games they're trying to compete with here offer both free crates and a free/paid battle pass. Seems like a weird cash grab move. Quite frankly it kind of removes any incentive for you to win and do well in games because you'll level your battle pass rank just by completing daily & weekly challenges. And with the free battle pass rewards being as sparce as they are in most BR games, there's no real reward to work towards. In PUBG the better you place and the more kills you get the more BP you get for crates in addition to the battle pass. In Realm Royale placement + kills = more of the free chicken nugget currency. In RoE the incentive to win and the satisfaction of winning is damped a bit by not being rewarded from it. For 99% of the challenges to complete you dont even need to win games; they're things such as traversal with gear, vehicles, kills, top 20/10 placements, kills with weapons, etc. This is something I sincerely hope they bring back otherwise what's otherwise a very good BR game will eventually die simply because winning isn't fulfilling.

Overall I absolutely recommend the game. It's free to play and still in early access yet it always performs and is better optimized than PUBG and frankly just does everything right. If you're looking for something that functions similar to PUBG (but better), that's a bit more forgiving, but dont want anything cartoon-ish like Fortnite or Realm, this is the game to play.

The wait timers for matches are probably the most cancerous thing I've seen in any game ever. If none of the BR games you're competing with do it, why on earth would you think it's a good idea? With a 4-8 minute wait, you're basically incentivising your already dwindling player base to just...not play.

They also need to bring back the feature where you auto-queue as the last class you played if you dont select as class in the pre-game lobby. Being defaulted to warrior is stupid, period; especially when it takes so damn long to load into the zepplin you only actually have like 20 seconds to even pick a class. AND the devs refuse to implement sounds being on when the game is alt-tabbed so you dont even know when you're in the lobby and its about to start. Yet again another feature EVERY other battle royale game has had since their respectives ALPHAs.

It's a shame because although the gameplay isn't "too terrible" (and I say that generously), they add/remove QoL features out of the blue and and basically giving the middle finger to their players constantly. Though I dont encounter it every game, there is a decent chunk of cheaters playing that also recieve no punishment either, some pretty blatant crap but of course the devs turn a blind eye which again doesn't benefit the community at all.

DBFZ multiplayer in a nutshell:

- Block attacks
- Go to counterattack
- Your attack out of block is slow and enemy takes priority
- Get bodied
- Go to attack the enemy
- He blocks everything
- His attack out of blocking somehow takes priority over yours
- Get bodied to death

*Just alt-tab out and close the game before the match is over and you'll be fine though. Won't even get the purple name penalty.

Nominated this gem for the "Defies Description" award. I think the reasoning is pretty self explanatory, and maybe it'll get some more attention, since it's actually a decent game for being what it is.

How to do well in CoD WWII:

1. Have the better end of the P2P connection
2. Use shotgun with 3 mile range fire ammo
3. Win game

Also saw quite a bit of sketchy gameplay with people doing magical turns and seeing their reticle magnet lock onto peoples heads...but this CoD so nothing surprises me at this point.

Garry's mod is Garry's mod. Enough said.

It's such a simple and fun game. When you get to play it, it's really enjoyable.

Unfortunately...your chances of actually getting to play are slim. Nobody...NOBODY ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ plays this game. It went downhill day by day. Less and less people since launch. Now there's no one left.

I blame Gamestop entirely for this. The game was being published through them, yet they gave the game zero marketing or exposure. Only way people knew about this was by walking into the store for someone and by chance seeing the ad for it on Gamestops cycle of promo stuff on their TVs. Maybe got one email about it as well. So a game that got zero attention that no one knew about, plus a $30 price tag...who would want to buy it? Hell, I only bought it because I had a gift card and only ended up spending like $7 of my own money.

Who knows? Maybe they'll be able to salvage this, but for now your money and time is better spend on something else.