Games

If you're playing it for the extraction PvP experience it fills a 3rd person hole that exists in the space.

It's a pretty impressive technical marvel that has pretty great sound design and really fun PvE encounters.

The progression mechanics are long and somewhat mediocre in my opinion, but I don't generally care for extraction shooters and am here largely because my friends are.

It has a disproportionate amount of people actually communicating over proximity voice relative to the genre which is the games main differentiator outside of the camera view. Interactions are very frequently fun/dynamic in a way that most extraction games I've played aren't. This likely diminishes over time as a meta is settled and more casual users drop/are pushed out of the game.

If you're looking to play it and the finances aren't problematic I'd say now is the time to maximally enjoy the community interactions if that's your primary interest as I don't think it will ever be in a more enjoyable state than now. If just the pvp component is driving your interest that should be solid throughout.

I played a bit during Server Slam and it was alright. It kind of sucked playing solo because if you got downed there was nothing you could do, but otherwise the game feels very good.

The sound design is amazing. Sounds carry from across the map with the right sort of low-pass filtering for how far away the sound happened, complete with the right amount of reverb and echo. Breaching locked compartments for loot also makes noise which you become very mindful of. It's kind of like a stealth game with normal 3rd person mechanics.

I think you can do up to 3 person squads so I'd only actually buy it if a friend or two picked it up. Everything about the game works well but it is meant to be played in co-op.

I think it's a lot of fun to just do weird roleplaying stuff in the solo runs, you can usually talk your way out of fighting and help out people getting owned by drones. Or do sneaky goblin tactics and lure npcs to players or set traps. It's very immersive at times, but there are some times you just get shotgunned in the back within 2 minutes because the call of duty squeaker behind you had a 0.0001% drop in dopamine

Been on the fence about picking it up. Holding off for now based on the coverage I've been hearing from Jeff Gerstmann.

Basically he says the action is alright, and the aesthetic is cool, but it never feels like the stakes really matter and the progression takes a really long time to get anywhere. As a without much gaming time these days, and especially without a dedicated squad to play with, I'm not sure I can justify getting started.

I figure maybe with a season 2 or something they'll speed up a lot of the early game stuff or something, so I'm gonna keep an eye on it.

funny enough two of my buddies picked it up and have been playing it. Looks ok but I dont think im in the mood for a multi game atm.

I would not have cared at all for this game if it wasn't made by the studio that made it. This is not a game that sounds, or looks, fun, at all, to me. But I did decide to play it for the Server Slam play test weekend. It was free, after all. And boy have I ever been hooked. I was immediately addicted, with no way of indulging in it for two weeks after the test weekend, until launch. It has no right being fun, but somehow, it is. To me, at least. Other people say its EFT, but without the frustration, and less gritty. I can't judge that, because I have not played EFT, precisely because of that. Since launch, I have basically been unable to do much else than playing this game. It's not often this happens with a multi player game, for me. The only multiplayer game that possibly came close to that level of addiction was Overwatch when it launched. About the time requirement: yes progression can take long, if you do it at the same time everyone else does, and don't get help online or from more experienced players. But on the flip side, there is always something to do. I'm not into sandbox games, and I would probably get bored fast without this. Plus in my book its a win to have a long story, rather than a short one. But only if its not grindy. And it somehow isn't. Btw. the developers say there will be no mandatory wipes, so you can progress in you own time if you wish to. About the world building: astonishing. About the NPC enemies: I would go as far as say groundbreaking. If I understood that right, their behavior is not scripted, but trained via reinforcement learning. And it shows. They look, behave and feel extremely natural and believable. Dare I say smart, even. And no matter how far you progress, they will always pose a significant threat, and that's not because they get stronger as you do. (They don't.) And yet at the same time it is a viable strategy to go in with absolutely no gear or upgrades.

Long story short: I like it even though it doesn't appear like my type of game. As for you: If you buy it in steam, you can always try it for two hours and return it if you don't like it.