Opening words: 256 players online in one game that is a first person shooter? On a console? Really? YES REALLY! They pull it off in a great way. This is an online only game like socom and warhawk. There is no single player missions.
Presentation: 9.2
I really like how the menus in this are laid out, probably my favorite for this type of game so far. I love the look of the factions, Sver: the rag tag rebels, Raven: spoiled brat techno euro military, Valor: yankee yahoo army look. Customizing is limited but good enough when it comes to the look and feel of your characters. I love the load out screens, the barracks where you upgrade and see stats. There is a shadow war, 3 Private Military firms are fighting for contracts. You join one to try and gain control of mission types etc. This is a pretty cool premise for a game. They did a good job on this. There are a lot of ribbons to be won, a lot of trophies as well!
Multiplayer: 9.7
What can I say, I played the beta since it started, and I loved it then. The final beta was really close to what the release is. They did improve the graphics a bit and polished it and made the frame rate a little better. Seriously, I thought I was over First Person Shooters and was die hard socom dlc. Now that this has come out, I have not touched socom. This game has the same team play, sucks because when people don’t have a mic its hard to get the team stuff working, communication is key. I love all the different factions and guns. I love the different game modes. This is the first game I have played that actually made me feel like I was in a war. There is a lot to this game and that is what made me really latch on to it. It’s not mindless arcade BS like Call of Duty. There is a point, there are objectives, and when you lose you really feel like you lose. When you win, you feel really good from it. It’s hard. It requires team work. With out team work, you will get your ass kicked. Good games come from two good teams fighting to the end. This game is like battle field bad company meets socom on steroids. The socom influence is the team work aspect. You must blow up structures so your enemies cannot spawn from them. This creats ebb and flow. You can push forces back, and this is really cool. The maps are huge(don’t worry, learn to use vehicles and spawn points correctly and traveling is not such a problem). I really love when you take out the AAA you get to parachute in when you respawn. This is the first time in a game where I have experienced this!
Visuals: 8.5
The world is detailed well, trees and plants look good, the ground looks good, characters look good. Just about everything looks good, but nothing is jaw dropping or breath taking. The water is kind of lackluster, as are the splash mechanics(cant have it all in a game like this, this is no killzone). That being said, it still looks nextgen, and with 256 players at once it does a great job. My one complaint is the POP up, there is a lot of that in the draw distance. When you play in domination, when everyone bottle necks in some parts of the map, when you get a lot of players in one place, the frame rate can get pretty bad. I didn’t mind this to much, the game mechanics still seems to work fine in the slow down. For the most part, in the other game modes, the frame rate is really solid.
Audio: 9.0
Sounds in this game are great. The music that comes in when you get kill streaks going is pretty funny and it’s different for every faction, its way to country and lame on VALOR so i never would want to play on that faction just for that reason alone. The mics work really well, and they are open, very surprising. There is also proximity chat as well.
Game Mechanics: 9.5:
The aiming in this is perfect. It takes skill and the default controls are set up just right. Shooting mechanics are right on, way better than call of duty’s. Game Modes: Suppression(32v32team death match), Sabotage(32v32 invade, defend key points on the map, prevent or commence demolition), Acquisition(64v64 player, invade, steal vehicles and break down a path for this to happen, or prevent that from happening), Domination(128v128, Invade and take over huge structure with 256 players total). The command structures are really cool, you can be a squad leader, platoon leader, or the OIC. Squads are 8 players, platoons are 4 squads, OIC is the lead of all platoons. You can apply to be a squad leader, a platoon leader, or the OIC once you level up enough. as a squad leader, you can set objectives, when people follow the objectives they get double points which helps them climb through the ranking system faster and unlock guns, and abilities. As squad leaders you will have access to Recon and Cluster bomb attacks. As a platoon leader you have access to Sensor Sweeps, Poison Gas bombardment, Precision Strikes, and Strafing Run. As the OIC you have access to Satellite Sweep, Coms Jamming, Signals Jamming, Rapid Redeploy/Barricade, Tactical Strike refresh for all leaders. You can call in air strikes but only if your team as taken out the AAA unless you are defending, then you can call in mortar strikes any time, but you have to wait a while after you use them. This adds an element of strategy to the game that really sets it above the others. Also as leaders you also give out buffs aka perks. These usually only work for people if they stay around the squad leaders. You get more points and perks for doing that. This game is deeper than all the other first person shooters. the armor and weapons are cool. I prefer the guns on SVER: the AK74u, AG94, AK103, IZ-443, Kurtis 45, RTK-74, PSK MG, Vipera-2, T-195, SASR, S-98, AGVK. VALOR: m4a1, SFCR-LW, SFCR-HW, M9, Hollis MP, Mk 46, Mk 43, KP5, 12 Gauge, MK 14, L96AW, Rollins. RAVEN: ATAC 2000, Hollis A3, R-553, Pistol, KP7, Apex 100, KP45 MG, F90, Boudini, H M 90, Janas, AM50. You spawn in WAVES, sometimes you are waiting for 18 seconds to respawn but when you do, you will respawn with other players, the game encourages you to move in packs. LAG is not really a problem in this game. Seriously, I see it now and then, and it is super rare. I have never been kicked out of a game or anything like that. Even thought there is 256 players, the frame rate takes a hit when there are a ton of people on the screen firing, but not LAG. There are many ways you can upgrade your character, Medic, Heavy Weapons, Electronics, Mines, Sniper, Assault. I find the best thing to do is to pick two, I am heavy gunner and medic and it works out great for me, and raising your fallen teammates gets you more points than kills and encourages team work!
Replay: 10
I have not had this much fun in a first person shooter ever. The leveling system, the perks are all balanced, and it gets hard to advance once you get to about level 40, getting to 60 will take a while, you will want to unlock more and more stuff. Then you will want to try to play with all the different PMCs. If they have DLC, more weapons, more maps, this will be something I will play probably the whole lifetime of the PS3. No kidding, this made me SELL, yes SELL Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. As far as first person shooters, this one beats them all. Mechanics, action, strategy, vehicles, the weapons, the player types. Wow it is deep. Deep enough to keep you coming back for more.
Total Score: 9.6 out of 10:
They pulled it off. I am impressed. This is the first game I have played that made me feel like I was in an actual war type situation. The maps are massive, tons of action. Magical when you have a cool klan or a team with players who have mics and work together well. The sad thing is that so many people don’t have mics, and that can ruin the game, we will usually try to kick out a platoon or squad leader who does not have a mic, we will try to vote them out every time. I think it is so lame that Sony did not include a mandatory blue tooth head set in every copy of this game. It is a absolute must if you are going to play this.
