Recent reviews by PHoG

Been waiting over a decade for this. The last time I had this feeling was Bad Company II. Period. Plays, feels, looks, and runs JUST like the old school BF2, it's hard to even....tell them apart?

Graphics - yeah. Clearly not a focus here but an odd thing happens about 10 minutes in - you DO NOT SEE BLOCKS. No kidding. Somehow my brain fills in the details for me and I'm 100% focused on gunplay. It's amazing. I've never felt anything like it. Now, that said - run a night map and get a flare thrown in your direction - the lensflare, the NVG washout, it's all VERY accurate to what you'd see in NVGs, depending on the types of tubes. At about 1400ish meters out, it stops rendering. I'm SURE that's by design - I have a 3080ti and plenty of CPU, it WILL not render out further, likely to stop people from map sniping, which I appreciate.

Squad Play - It. Is. Fantastic. Seriously. The fact that you can roll pacifist medic and still be in the top 10 is nothing short of amazing. Thank you for making medics great again. The direction audio is amazing and it's a blessing AND a curse - bc you can be assured - they can HEAR you, even when you're not queuing up your mic. Running a couple of full squads (16) is enough to make a serious dent in the opposite team, unless they're as coordinated. Wish medic boxes would actively heal when tossed, but I suppose that would be too easy. Same with Support.

Audio - Next level audio. As a 2nd amendment fan, I've fired or owned many of the guns in this game and they're PRETTY damn close in audio, especially the Honey Badger. It sounds exactly like my suppressed 300 blackout. The ambient sound is equally impressive - if you're smart and LISTEN for the enemy, you WILL hear them, unless they're creeping - but they're usually just running pell mell towards objective is open, or to hunt for folks to kill. You can also hear the enemy. You can hear them talking, their radios, you name it. If you have a GOOD pair of headphones - use them, it's a diff experience.

Level Design - The levels are VERY well designed, for the most part. There are a few things I would change up a bit, but really - they're mostly balanced and there are some callbacks to familiar maps from other games we've all played in the past, it's so much fun to revisit. I don't have the maps memorized by name, but specifically the multi-checkpoint bridge with the abandoned vehicles on it.....lol - it's WILD pushing up that street. I wish for a BIT MORE destructibility but hey, it's in early access. It's not THAT important, yet.

Overall - It's F****NG 15 dollars man. Just buy it. Seriously. EA, Ubisoft, Bungie, etc, yall take note. You have been PUT ON NOTICE. THIS is what a AAA title should be like. Stop testing your garbage, incomplete games on us. Stop launching with known bugs and exploits - and more than anything ...... NOTE that they're handling cheaters on here VERY well. Doesn't take long or much, just report and move along.

I love this game. It's still a bit rough, we're missing something like a C-130 parachute drop mission, or just parachutes in general, but everything feels like it should. I've found that there are a few QOL changes that could be made - like STOP making the objectives disappear when you're looking around. I like that they do pop up when you're closer, but if I'm running a squad and we're separated, I should be able to call out that objective easily, I've had problems getting orders on a point, more than once. The delay between healing and pulling out the primary weapon - that's gotta be by design because it IS quite a delay - long enough to get hosed. There are definitely some QOL things I can wish for - but it appears the Devs are VERY active and VERY motivated.

I couldn't be happier with the game, it's a big bite of nostalgia. The guns you unlock are REAL GUNS. GO to your LGS and rent a fully auto MP5, you'll find they shot similarly.

Score 9.1/10

Possible improvements - UI while in game playing - not the best. Disappearing points so I can't mark them, it's a bummer. The tutorial leaves a LOT to be desired. Seriously. Other than that - it's GTG and it's a blast. Can't wait to put another 1200 hours into this, the depth is there.