I don't understand why everybody is so obsessed with this game. It is mediocre at best. This game not only limps in terms of optimization but also gameplay-wise. After 10-15 hours, there's nothing much to do in it. The whole essence of the game revolves around repeating the same generated missions. And it would have been interesting if the game had decent progression. Currently, you earn medals (currency) for completing missions, which you then use in the local battle pass to purchase weapons, cosmetics, armor, and premium currency.

The problem is that most of the loot from the battle pass is garbage, hardly affecting gameplay. Cosmetics include various emotions, character cards, etc., which obviously don't affect anything.

Then there's the armor, which is just dismal. Armor consists of three elements: Armor, Helmet, and Cape. However, Helmets and Capes don't affect anything at all. They're just cosmetics with no functionality. Only armor has perks, but they're not unique to each armor; they're repetitive. There are only 7 perks in the game. And that's it.

The same goes for stratagems. You can only bring 4 stratagems with you, and you can't change or upgrade them during the run. So you'll only pick the meta stratagems, while the rest are useless due to poor balance and inability to contribute meaningfully. Until recently, on higher difficulties, players ran with the same loadout every time because everything else is just trash.

Ship upgrades are also a nightmare. You need to grind currency to reduce the cooldown of stratagems by 10%. When I see that some upgrade gives +x% to a certain characteristic, I understand how little the developers cared about the game. Progression couldn't be more boring. It's all about increasing numbers: faster cooldown, more charges, etc. And it's such a dull affair. I don't want to grind because I know this upgrade won't affect gameplay. It won't introduce any new mechanics; it will just give a damn plus to stats. I could understand if these were minor stat upgrades among major mechanic upgrades, but in HD2, only such upgrades exist.

And the cherry on top of this lovely pile of crap - the servers. They're like Destiny's servers at the beginning of seasons. They constantly kick you or your teammates out of matches, won't let you connect to random's runs, won't let you connect to players from your friends list, won't let you start a match. When you lose connection, you have to watch the damn animation of your character returning to your ship every time. And in a cooperative game where a random player can join you and your squad, you have no way to kick them out, or I couldn't find it.

And a bunch of other smaller problems. And looking at the patches, I realize that either the developers don't care about the game's issues, as they've started adding new content without fixing problems, or they had it ready at release and just didn't add it immediately to throw it at the players a month later. Damn games as a service. I absolutely don't understand why this game is "better" to modern AAA games. It literally doesn't differ from them in any way. Same problems.

If you doubt my words because of the numerous positive reviews, you can buy and try it yourself if you want.

I had the lowest expectations from the game; I wanted just a little bit from it, but it couldn't even provide that. And what frustrates me the most is that the game has the potential to be great, but it's squandered by stupid gameplay decisions.

And let's talk about optimization. On my friend's 3080 and 12400, HD2 runs at unstable 60 fps. Damn, on a 3080. A game with graphics from 2017. Battlefront 2 had graphics no worse and didn't lag like this crap.

I don't understand why everybody is so obsessed with this game. It is mediocre at best. This game not only limps in terms of optimization but also gameplay-wise. After 10-15 hours, there's nothing much to do in it. The whole essence of the game revolves around repeating the same generated missions. And it would have been interesting if the game had decent progression. Currently, you earn medals (currency) for completing missions, which you then use in the local battle pass to purchase weapons, cosmetics, armor, and premium currency. The problem is that most of the loot from the battle pass is garbage, hardly affecting gameplay. Cosmetics include various emotions, character cards, etc., which obviously don't affect anything. Then there's the armor, which is just dismal. Armor consists of three elements: Armor, Helmet, and Cape. However, Helmets and Capes don't affect anything at all. They're just cosmetics with no functionality. Only armor has perks, but they're not unique to each armor; they're repetitive. There are only 7 perks in the game. And that's it. The same goes for stratagems. You can only bring 4 stratagems with you, and you can't change or upgrade them during the run. So you'll only pick the meta stratagems, while the rest are useless due to poor balance and inability to contribute meaningfully. Until recently, on higher difficulties, players ran with the same loadout every time because everything else is just trash. Ship upgrades are also a nightmare. You need to grind currency to reduce the cooldown of stratagems by 10%. When I see that some upgrade gives +x% to a certain characteristic, I understand how little the developers cared about the game. Progression couldn't be more boring. It's all about increasing numbers: faster cooldown, more charges, etc. And it's such a dull affair. I don't want to grind because I know this upgrade won't affect gameplay. It won't introduce any new mechanics; it will just give a damn plus to stats. I could understand if these were minor stat upgrades among major mechanic upgrades, but in HD2, only such upgrades exist. And the cherry on top of this lovely pile of crap - the servers. They're like Destiny's servers at the beginning of seasons. They constantly kick you or your teammates out of matches, won't let you connect to random's runs, won't let you connect to players from your friends list, won't let you start a match. When you lose connection, you have to watch the damn animation of your character returning to your ship every time. And in a cooperative game where a random player can join you and your squad, you have no way to kick them out, or I couldn't find it. And a bunch of other smaller problems. And looking at the patches, I realize that either the developers don't care about the game's issues, as they've started adding new content without fixing problems, or they had it ready at release and just didn't add it immediately to throw it at the players a month later. Damn games as a service. I absolutely don't understand why this game is "better" to modern AAA games. It literally doesn't differ from them in any way. Same problems. If you doubt my words because of the numerous positive reviews, you can buy and try it yourself if you want. I had the lowest expectations from the game; I wanted just a little bit from it, but it couldn't even provide that. And what frustrates me the most is that the game has the potential to be great, but it's squandered by stupid gameplay decisions. And let's talk about optimization. On my friend's 3080 and 12400, HD2 runs at unstable 60 fps. Damn, on a 3080. A game with graphics from 2017. Battlefront 2 had graphics no worse and didn't lag like this crap.