So thought I'd do a full review on this based on my experiences across the development cycle of this game to this point. I'm going to be brutally honest and pull no punches here just because I want to tell it as it is. I'll try and divide it into sections with pros and cons.

Keep in mind my opinion is that with any Early Access title if you still feel undecided, wishlist it and wait till it releases.

This game is basically a spiritual successor to the early Ghost Recon games as in Ghost Recon 1. Anyone going in expecting something similar to SWAT is in for disappointment, and besides, there are other games that do that. Maps are a mixed bag of open and close quarters. Basically its all about patience and planning along with communication. Its primary focus is small player co-op which is honestly a huge breath of fresh air in the tactical shooter genre. Its also the most developed segment of gameplay. AI is serviceable and not perfect. There's a handful of gamemodes but not a lot to choose from in vanilla, although there are more coming. PvP is getting more features but is not fleshed out as much yet. This game is designed around working well with small player counts and this is what it does well.

So the bad side of this is of course that there is only really co-op and PvP. If you want a Single Player experience I cannot recommend trying it at this stage. AI teammates are coming soon™ but no idea if they will be any good. Speaking of AI, it's an odd bag at the moment. It is getting constant updates but at the moment it will either get stuck or try to surprise flank you. So you get dumb or killbot, nothing really in between, especially on night maps as AI can see perfectly there. Unironically if you reduce the number of AI on some maps they function a lot better cause of less pathfinding issues but good luck communicating that to players. Speaking of communication that is also an issue, not because players won't communicate but some can't because the game doesn't have the best support for mixed sound devices at the moment i.e. those with a separate mic and headset, though from research this is mainly an UE4 engine issue.

Probably the biggest advertisement for this game you'll have noticed is the advanced customisation options available for firearms where you can position all sorts of attachments all over the gun. May have also seen some hilarious videos/images of people making "Scope-A-Rifles" among other weird abominations. This has been toned down in recent updates heavily as apparently it was causing performance issues, though I can sympathise as I was guilty myself of slapping enough flashlights on a gun to make a fully automatic flashbang.

One thing though is the gunplay itself, its actually pretty good. Aside from all the difference stances you also have to factor in the size of the gun as well, meaning on some maps there's a real reason why you want a small carbine or SMG. In fact one of the best things in this game are the handguns in that not only are they really fun to use but it is a perfectly valid strategy to take one as your primary weapon on some of the tighter close quarters maps as they perform much better for things like room clearing and stairwells. Very few other games make handguns this useful.

Here is the big "but" you are looking for and that is the variety of the guns themselves. There is honestly a lack of real variety here because they are trying to show what would be used in real life. Problem is the joke it is an "AR-15" Simulator rings true as there isn't a whole lot of interesting firearms that show up. There are a least a bunch of weapons in development but a lot of it is nothing you don't see in other titles. Guess though it would be hard to add more variety without turning it into "Forgotten Weapons, the Video Game" Suppose will have to mod what would want to see in.

Going to start off with a negative here since I said I would be honest. The game is several years behind schedule. This was due to an animation update that ate up way more resources than anticipated meaning that a lot of features that were meant to come in like prone, new character and damage models etc kept getting pushed back. I can sympathise here cause honestly animations are a complete bugger to get working as intended, and as they tie in with a lot of features, will slow down development if not done right. While things are picking up there is no doubt though this definitely hurt the development of the game.

As for the developer themselves they do something I find exceedingly rare in development these days. They communicate; openly. I don't mean they hide themselves away in a discord, they will actively come out and get involved in Steam discussions, participate in topics and provide information on what is happening where anyone can see what they wrote publicly. This is insanely rare for game development and is an example of true transparency. Never once have I felt they were ever attempting to pull the wool over anyone eyes as they will just tell it as it is, both the bad and the good. Shame nobody reads the FAQ though.

Please do forgive me as I am about to descend into rant territory on this one but one I feel I need to get off my chest.

When I first got this game it was cause I had a few friends in the Tactical Shooter Community who recommended it to me. I was sceptical at first but I got in, found a rather chill and laid back community that knew how to play and have fun while accomplishing the mission. Things were not too super serious. Since then the MilSim Community has been like a gradual infestation slowly pushing out the Tactical Shooter enthusiast; resulting in a lot of tryhard play, terrible communication and a sharp increase in friendly fire incidents.

If you are wondering what the difference between these communities are then let me explain. The MilSim Community is often an overly loud segment who were at least until recently, a minority catered to in the tactical shooter genre, who play more for the experience and insist everything be super duper serious at all times. You must play and behave exactly how they expect you to at all times. You can spot your average MilSimmer in game as they tend to be guilty of stacking (bad spacing), spouting nonsense callouts on comms, having the spatial awareness of a mole, and generally causing a lot of teamkills cause they fail to positively identify a target (PID) before shooting. Generally you can picture your average MilSimmer as that 400lb middle aged manchild playing airsoft who can't hit anything 10ft in front of him unless he's got an ACOG and gets his jollies screaming at 12 year olds pretending he's a special tactical forces of special forces sergeant.

Now the Tactical Shooter enthusiast is generally a person who just likes Tactical Shooters because they enjoy the gameplay. They aren't in it for the whole experience aspect and just want to relax. They will like to have a laugh while shooting and don't mind what you do or bring as long as the job gets done and the mission was fun. You can generally spot the enthusiast as they will often use spacing extremely well, minimise teamkills as they can perform PID, only use comms when needed as a lot is nonverbal such as one person knows instinctively to automatically covers the six. MilSimmers hate these types of people as they'll show them up and it disturbs their larp. Problem is that your average MilSim player fails to realise that your average enthusiast player is a proper veteran who is fed up of "yes sir, no sir, can I dig you a latrine sir?" nonsense that sure as hell knows what he is doing better than they ever will.

I have no issues with MilSim players wanting their own experience but as soon as you start talking down to others then don't be surprised when you are rightfully called a "Walt"

/rant

So thought I'd do a full review on this based on my experiences across the development cycle of this game to this point. I'm going to be brutally honest and pull no punches here just because I want to tell it as it is. I'll try and divide it into sections with pros and cons. Keep in mind my opinion is that with any Early Access title if you still feel undecided, wishlist it and wait till it releases. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] This game is basically a spiritual successor to the early Ghost Recon games as in Ghost Recon 1. Anyone going in expecting something similar to SWAT is in for disappointment, and besides, there are other games that do that. Maps are a mixed bag of open and close quarters. Basically its all about patience and planning along with communication. Its primary focus is small player co-op which is honestly a huge breath of fresh air in the tactical shooter genre. Its also the most developed segment of gameplay. AI is serviceable and not perfect. There's a handful of gamemodes but not a lot to choose from in vanilla, although there are more coming. PvP is getting more features but is not fleshed out as much yet. This game is designed around working well with small player counts and this is what it does well. So the bad side of this is of course that there is only really co-op and PvP. If you want a Single Player experience I cannot recommend trying it at this stage. AI teammates are coming soon™ but no idea if they will be any good. Speaking of AI, it's an odd bag at the moment. It is getting constant updates but at the moment it will either get stuck or try to surprise flank you. So you get dumb or killbot, nothing really in between, especially on night maps as AI can see perfectly there. Unironically if you reduce the number of AI on some maps they function a lot better cause of less pathfinding issues but good luck communicating that to players. Speaking of communication that is also an issue, not because players won't communicate but some can't because the game doesn't have the best support for mixed sound devices at the moment i.e. those with a separate mic and headset, though from research this is mainly an UE4 engine issue. [h1]Guns[/h1] Probably the biggest advertisement for this game you'll have noticed is the advanced customisation options available for firearms where you can position all sorts of attachments all over the gun. May have also seen some hilarious videos/images of people making "Scope-A-Rifles" among other weird abominations. This has been toned down in recent updates heavily as apparently it was causing performance issues, though I can sympathise as I was guilty myself of slapping enough flashlights on a gun to make a fully automatic flashbang. One thing though is the gunplay itself, its actually pretty good. Aside from all the difference stances you also have to factor in the size of the gun as well, meaning on some maps there's a real reason why you want a small carbine or SMG. In fact one of the best things in this game are the handguns in that not only are they really fun to use but it is a perfectly valid strategy to take one as your primary weapon on some of the tighter close quarters maps as they perform much better for things like room clearing and stairwells. Very few other games make handguns this useful. Here is the big "but" you are looking for and that is the variety of the guns themselves. There is honestly a lack of real variety here because they are trying to show what would be used in real life. Problem is the joke it is an "AR-15" Simulator rings true as there isn't a whole lot of interesting firearms that show up. There are a least a bunch of weapons in development but a lot of it is nothing you don't see in other titles. Guess though it would be hard to add more variety without turning it into "Forgotten Weapons, the Video Game" Suppose will have to mod what would want to see in. [h1]Development[/h1] Going to start off with a negative here since I said I would be honest. The game is several years behind schedule. This was due to an animation update that ate up way more resources than anticipated meaning that a lot of features that were meant to come in like prone, new character and damage models etc kept getting pushed back. I can sympathise here cause honestly animations are a complete bugger to get working as intended, and as they tie in with a lot of features, will slow down development if not done right. While things are picking up there is no doubt though this definitely hurt the development of the game. As for the developer themselves they do something I find exceedingly rare in development these days. They communicate; openly. I don't mean they hide themselves away in a discord, they will actively come out and get involved in Steam discussions, participate in topics and provide information on what is happening where anyone can see what they wrote publicly. This is insanely rare for game development and is an example of true transparency. Never once have I felt they were ever attempting to pull the wool over anyone eyes as they will just tell it as it is, both the bad and the good. Shame nobody reads the FAQ though. [h1]Community[/h1] Please do forgive me as I am about to descend into rant territory on this one but one I feel I need to get off my chest. When I first got this game it was cause I had a few friends in the Tactical Shooter Community who recommended it to me. I was sceptical at first but I got in, found a rather chill and laid back community that knew how to play and have fun while accomplishing the mission. Things were not too super serious. Since then the MilSim Community has been like a gradual infestation slowly pushing out the Tactical Shooter enthusiast; resulting in a lot of tryhard play, terrible communication and a sharp increase in friendly fire incidents. If you are wondering what the difference between these communities are then let me explain. The MilSim Community is often an overly loud segment who were at least until recently, a minority catered to in the tactical shooter genre, who play more for the experience and insist everything be super duper serious at all times. You must play and behave exactly how they expect you to at all times. You can spot your average MilSimmer in game as they tend to be guilty of stacking (bad spacing), spouting nonsense callouts on comms, having the spatial awareness of a mole, and generally causing a lot of teamkills cause they fail to positively identify a target (PID) before shooting. Generally you can picture your average MilSimmer as that 400lb middle aged manchild playing airsoft who can't hit anything 10ft in front of him unless he's got an ACOG and gets his jollies screaming at 12 year olds pretending he's a special tactical forces of special forces sergeant. Now the Tactical Shooter enthusiast is generally a person who just likes Tactical Shooters because they enjoy the gameplay. They aren't in it for the whole experience aspect and just want to relax. They will like to have a laugh while shooting and don't mind what you do or bring as long as the job gets done and the mission was fun. You can generally spot the enthusiast as they will often use spacing extremely well, minimise teamkills as they can perform PID, only use comms when needed as a lot is nonverbal such as one person knows instinctively to automatically covers the six. MilSimmers hate these types of people as they'll show them up and it disturbs their larp. Problem is that your average MilSim player fails to realise that your average enthusiast player is a proper veteran who is fed up of "yes sir, no sir, can I dig you a latrine sir?" nonsense that sure as hell knows what he is doing better than they ever will. I have no issues with MilSim players wanting their own experience but as soon as you start talking down to others then don't be surprised when you are rightfully called a "Walt" /rant