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Note: this post is my opinion, it's fine if you don't agree. Just don't rage to others if you don't have the same opinion, but instead engage a discussion.
Game-play and weapons
After playing the beta for the last two days, I am starting to feel like I'm playing a slightly updated version of Just Cause 2. The overal story seems somewhat familiar, eg the UNIDAD (factions) etc.The graphics are a lot better but the general feeling I get while playing this game isn't really exciting.
Don't get me wrong, I know it's just a tiny bit that we're able to see right now and that the full game will have 21 districts in total, but there isn't a lot of variation. All missions are somewhat the same and I really hope the other districts will have different types of missions than the ones available in the closed beta.
The first couple hours were amazing, I really loved the game and the graphics. Even though the game is poorly optimized, which you can't blame Ubisoft for since it's a closed BETA after all, I really enjoyed it. But after a couple hours and almost all missions completed, things just became repetitive.
The story is alright, but it doesn't really get you excited after a while. Which means you'll easily get bored and switch to another game. Which is really sad since this looked like such a cool game in all the trailers and teasers.
What I really love about the game so far is the weapons system, a lot of games make it very complicated by giving you a **** ton of add-ons for your weapons and then don't explain what each add-on actually benefits you. The Gunsmith system works really well and the UI looks really good.
The loading times are really fast and you're instantly back in the action as soon as you back out of the menu.
Which is something that's missing in a lot of other popular games. The fact that almost all menus are within seconds of reach and that you don't have to back out of your current mission is really great.
The HUD and UI are really nice in general and are very easy to understand, any popups or info/tool-tip messages stay for a good time so you have enough time to read them, even if you are in a fight/stressful situation. The controls in the menu are very natural and the game is very user friendly which is great for newbies to the game.
The gadgets (such as drones and binoculars) are really nice, they work well and it gives a big tactical feel to the game, which I personally really like. You don't need to drone out all situations but if you do, you'll get lots of intel which helps a lot when you start an attack.
But because it's not required you can always choose how you want to play, the more you know about a situation the less difficult the challenge becomes, but it will also take more time. Finding the perfect balance is a nice aspect of this game.
Vehicles
If there's one worst part about the game, it's the vehicles. Whether you are driving a jeep, super car, van or a bike, it is terrible. It seems like they added the vehicles the day before the closed beta release. There are almost no (realistic) physics, the car jumps all over the place and it's sometimes really hard to keep it on the road. Corners and braking are really weird and you just can't help but wonder if Ubisoft has hired a 3 year old to program these physics.
Normally in a shooting game, unrealistic vehicles isn't that big of a deal. But considering this game has a HUGE play area, you will NEED to use them if you want to get anywhere relatively fast. Which means that transportation is a big part of this game and you'd expect to at least be half decent.
I really hope Ubisoft will change the way the vehicles handle right now because it's just really frustrating.
Performance
A lot of people are complaining about performance issues and game crashes. I always wonder why. Has everyone suddenly forgotten that the game is still in CLOSED BETA? If the game was released and there were still massive performance issues, I'd get why people are complaining.
But since that isn't the case, let's not rage about your 59 FPS instead of 60, and just enjoy the game! Don't get me wrong, I really don't like it when I get lag spikes or my game crashes, or my CPU or GPU are almost at melting temperatures because a game isn't optimized (yet), but this is a beta and you should expect such performance.
Just lower your graphics settings and everything will be fine. I enjoyed playing the game even on lower settings and even with the lag spikes. The performance will most likely be a lot better when the full game comes out so don't worry about that. Personally I don't really care if the performance isn't that great yet (which it really isn't at the moment). As long as I can play the game and I'm having fun, I'm happy.
Conclusion
In short: I like the game, but it still needs a lot of polishing before I'd spend the full 60$ on this game.
The main topics that need to be addressed before release are: the vehicle handling and more variety in missions.
I feel like this game has the potential to be a great game, and Ubisoft really did a good job designing the game.
It's not a game for everyone, it's very different than a lot of other games and you really need to like this type of game-play in order to enjoy this game.
I'd not recommend this game if you're not a fan of the Just Cause series or the recent GTA V (online) updates. Since parts of those types of games are in here as well.
But if you do like those types of games then this game is probably well suited for you.
What about you?
Finally I'd like to ask for your opinions (the community's opinions). Do you agree or disagree with me? Let me know what you think of the closed beta so far and if you're going to buy the game when it comes out. Thank you for reading this very long post and have a nice day.
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Junior Member
Played the beta on and off for a few days on xb1. Took 4-5 hours to finish main story and side missions in the beta. Vehicle control is the worst part of this game. AI from squad and the bad guys is just sad. I went in to a small town that had a attack chopper on the roof. Killed all the bad guys with frag launcher then took the chopper and started shooting everything i could find, couldn't get above a rank 2 with the wanted lvl. If i played with a full human controlled squad there would be no challenge at all. As it stands in the beta its nothing more than a GTA type game, with some military elements. I was looking for something me and my wife could play as we got tired of the division. This was not it. I put maybe 10hrs into this game and im tired of it. I know its only a beta some 5% of the game but I think they gave us all there was to do in this zone. The missions can be broken down in to 3 types: Steal Kill or Interrogate. The story that we have been able to see is something I would expect from PS1 or the Original Xbox system time frames. Now there is some good to this game Open world is great Gun play seems good. but the lack of a cover system seems very strange and even lazy on the game makers part. I think it says this game has been in the making for 4 year..... Makes me wonder if they have ever played a video game in there lives. PVP in this day and age is in just about ever game now days, from what I have found PvP will not be part of the game till after it launches. Again Scary for a game thats been in the works for 4 years almost like pvp was an O MY GOD we didnt have anyone work on pvp. I hope that things get fixed and make the game something more than what has been shown in the beta but I dont see that happening.
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Thanks for your reply, fixer7267. I guess I should've rephrased that a bit better. What I meant was that a lot of betas have (major) performance issues. And I think that's fine, because it's only a beta. I don't necessarily want it to be poorly optimized, but that's often what we see in beta phases of a game. So yeah, I agree with you; just because it's a beta it shouldn't be poorly optimized.
Junior Member
Originally Posted by fixer7267 Go to original post
Because, PCs unlike consoles drastically range from one another, there is no set hardware like consoles. Just because I have a GTX 1080 and a OC'd i7-6700k doesn't mean everyone does.
While they can guess how the game will perform on varying computers via alphas and in-house testing (probably using high-end PCs). They can't really fine tune it until a closed beta occurs where a lot more people get their hands on it. In fact, one of the community managers already stated that they'll be using the information from closed beta to further optimize the game. Now, where you believe them or not is up to you, but yeah that's why a game usually isn't fully optimized until a closed beta/open beta leading into launch.
My question is since when did people treat betas like a full release? I understand they're a few weeks out and while they can't change actual gameplay designs, they can still at least optimize it.
Junior Member
Think the title says it all. It does seem that the ghost recon franchise has taken a step into the hitherto unseen "sand box" market for the sake of it. And, as expected, there is plenty of UBI ness in the form of almost telepathic AI that can apparently detect your position from, I dunno, your aura. Gun play is, as commented upon, light and airy almost NERF like, but with pretty pink arterial sprays. And the misleadingly named distraction grenades, fail in any way to distract enemy. Unless alerting them to your presence and then having them shoot you in the face is the sort of distraction youre after. But, is that really that bad?
Ok It's not perfect, and I do agree that the franchise doesn't need it, and yes a really good story is required to drive open world games like this. I think the vehicles are a little too indestructible. I don't like the HUD, it's clunky and indefinable. It's like trying to decipher a magic eye tube map. The weapon creation looks amazing but is ultimately academic, aside from sights and silencers everything stays the same. And did I mention the psychic Bolivian guards?
But I actually quite like it. I like what it's trying to do. The story isn't that great-see just cause or mercernaries2- but the story that my mates and I are developing ourselves is brilliant and it allows you to do just that, develop your own story. It's bordering on a role-playing game in the same way the division did, but with less focus on skills and individual kit matching, that can get tired, and more focus on, well, fun. Cinematic fun that is, just like steep is cinematic I guess. It's along way from being as groundbreaking as Pivotal's conflict desert storm and could learn a lot from its health and kit sharing aspect. But I'm really enjoying it. And they haven't wasted time on the PvP option, which,in mho, is a saving grace. Sure it has some work to do, but given time I think it'll show it's worth. A couple of quick things for the developers
Horses, its Bolivia
Some other country patches for the bags and hats, I know its pedantic but being Bolivian, or god forbid British, might be cool. (royal marines do some work out there from time to time)
I love the character generation, just if you add anymore I will just play dress up and not shoot anything....but add shorts, its hot out there.
ok just my thoughts I have pre ordered.
cheers
Junior Member
Im worried about the missions as well but without the other 20 regions I can't say for sure it'll be varied or not. The only real complaint I have in regards is the Flying. The flying of the Helicopter and Plane were awful, they felt just clunky and very difficult. Land Vehicles and Sea Vehicles felt pretty good and all they really need is some Weight to them.
Senior Member
Mostly agreed, although in the end, I didn't like it, and I personally think it needs a lot more than a polish pass to be something I'd be interested in buying and playing.
On the upside, I thought it looked very good -- I play on console, so yeah, console graphics aren't PC graphics, but it was still impressive. No complaints there.
On the downside, nothing else about it grabbed me. The shine of the game wore off after about 30 minutes, and I only lasted about 90 minutes total before I was simply over it. The controls were too sludgy and mushy to feel like I was a skilled special forces dude, and the pace of the game is too slow even for a "tactical" game. I love stealth games, I love planning the takedown and how exactly to complete the objective like a pro, but GRWL did not deliver the tension or suspense to make it fun.
I've played Just Cause and Far Cry and other open-world goof-off games, and it basically seemed like those games, without the sense of humor.
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That's true, though I assume they won't be a lot different, since some missions have already been leaked and they seem pretty similar from what I can tell.Originally Posted by xTakagi San Go to original post
