What A Fantastic Experience (Full Game)
So many of you know about the event that Eurogamer held with IGN, and you will know those who went got the game early. Well i was one of those people.
But this isnt about that event, this is about playing the full game last night with my friend from about 7:20pm-12:00am and mine and his impressions.
First up WOW what an experience! we joined team Raven! which is a fantastic team with a varied variety of weapons and probably the best looking armour out of the whole lot. There is so much to cover that ill break it down a bit simpler in headings.
Interactivity/ Community: So first up we obviously wanted to be joining games together and spend our time in the same lobbies so we can chat. And it was as simple as 1,2,3. Your friends have to be in the in-game menu and you can invite them to your "group" once they accept the group invite they are part of your party, however this differs from that of COD as once in the group you can fully access your Barracks, and Armoury. Your friends will be in a small pop-up box that you can access by pressing Triangle and see thier status, in this box you can also decide if you want to allow them to apply for leadership roles- useful for clans i guess.
The community is surprisingly helpful and really do communicate if they had a microphone, me and my mate in every single match were talking to other players and actually forming tactics and honestly i cant stress enough this game NEEDS tactics, run and gun goes for nothing. Voice comms are very good and you will hear your friends and allies in your squad through your headset, other squad members and the enmy will be heard through your sound system or TV.
I have to be fair, i thought the yanks would be screaming and being complete a-holes, incredibly they were really friendly and people were actually helping you out and forming tactics, something i mentioned earlier.
Gameplay and general loadout: The gameplay is absolutely nothing like COD, if you are expecting anything similar just expire all thoughts of it, this game plays more similarly to Battlefield and Killzone. The weightyness is more akin to Battlefield where as the accuracy and method of fire is more close to killzone. As in the way you cant spray and prey you have to take your shots carefully and do short burst for better accuracy.
Now i also have a huge gripe with this game and its nothing to do with the design of the game so much and is more towards the players use of what they are given. so here we go......... ROCKET-LAUNCHERS AKA RPG's these are the single worst thing about MAG, for some reason you start with them, no unlock, no gradual progress towards it, simply there. It potentially can ruin games, you run in, tactics formed, a single efficiant unit working for the objective, some bloke runs in firing rockets into a tiny crevice and destroys the entire complex- disgusting, needs removing. The tactical element of this game is kind of ruined by it, it just seems like COD deathmatch when the rockets fly in.
The same almost applies to grenade spam, theres something annoying about holding off a position and the little red grenade indicators fly up about 7 of them surround you, you hop around like a looney trying to avoid them, only to respawn and get spammed again. Unfortunate and 99% of the time it doesnt happen, its just the initial rush into a game where the fireworks start. On thelarger games like aquisition and domination it doesnt seem to happen as much because of scale, the same applies to rocket spam.
Its basically the COD nuts doing it, and most people can see that, and theyre all on b-loody S.V.E.R, more on the factions on the next section.
Factions and Balancing: EVERYONE and i mean 60% of all players are on S.V.E.R and they are raking in the points! Valor and Reaven seem equally porportioned. Im hoping today (European release) that more people will join Raven and it balances out abit, due to this we played only two matches where we were attacking and most of the time defending, but it makes the players come together and creates a sort of exclusivity to joining a faction.
The game modes are fun and really have a sense of despiration, classic, fun and engaging!
All in all this is a long term game, imagine MMO but FPS! its incredible, the GFX are incredibly improved over the BETA which looked like ass. Most problems are player based and will fizzle out as people return to Modern Borefare 2.
But seriously if you are in two minds about this game, do yourself a favour, get it, experience a revolution in FPS and have a blast.
ReadingAid signing off for Raven!
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OOOOOPS forgot one bit. Connection and servers: Rock solid, not one single hiccup. Even on domination 128 vs 128 makes COD look shameful with its twitchy connection and controls. Again we were playing against the US and it was silky smooth. Entire the whole night not one disconnect with me and my friend and not one "Failed to join server" messege, brilliant!
