After playing this game on all the available game modes, I figured it would be time to write a little first impressions review of the game. Mind you, its only the multiplayer experience wich I will be reviewing. Like most of you know I hardly ever touch the single player of a game, maybe one of our members (looks at Fing3r) could do a little review of that though.
First of all my review might be a bit tainted though, since I played BFBC2 a lot as well, and since its both on the same engine build by the same company (DICE actually did the MP part) its hard not to compare the two games.
After installing this game you get prompted to install the single player version as well and start that first. For people like me who dont like SP games that is kind off annoying and actually pointless. Both games installed adds an extra 2 gigs of redundant HD space.
After entering the game the whole menu lay-out seemed intuitive and the server browser is easy enough to understand. One issue, wich I've seen on this engine before, is the ping not showing up in the serverbrowser. Looking at the locations of the servers its seems to be displaying them in order of ping though, so its not a too big worry. The friends list is working as well as is adding favorite servers and soforth. Only thing I miss is the option to queue for a server, but since they added that later too on BFBC2 we propably still might see this in a future patch.
In total there are 4 different multiplayer modes, of wich one is basically a team death match and the other 3 more objective minded like destroying certain points on the map or defending/capping areas. The gameplay is suprisingly fast. More up to pair with games like Counter Strike and older shooters then with the more innovative war shooters we are seeing nowadays. This also reflects in the classes you can select (no specials skills like healing, repairing or providing ammo per class) and the lack of lots of vehicles. You might wander into a tank here and there, but no chance for tank battles on this game. This doesn't pose for a bad thing though, its kind of refreshing to play a straight forward MP. And the short round times on some game modes, like Objective Raid, make it a game wich allows for a "quick game" in between activities.
The weapon handling is easy to adjust to, even more when you are used to BFBC2 (sorry to compare em again) you will be happilly fragging right away. This also brings us to some downsides of the game. The destructability of the enviroment is very low, rolling in with a tank might result in getting stuck on a small wall with no way around it or blowin it up, this makes the gameplay feel a bit scripted. Although the engine seems to run very smooth, the reason for this seems to the toning down of dynamics, destructability and textures compared to other games on this engine. This leaves me with an unsatisfied feeling when playing the game. Due to the strong resemblance with BFBC2 in gameplay it feels like an add-on for that game with the good stuff left out. Instead of being a step up on what can be achieved on this engine its a step down. Also the lack of a kill-cam ads to this, after being spawn killed by the same sniper over and over without a clue where he is, the realism of this tends to wear off a bit.....
For people not infected with the BFBC2 feel, this game is a solid multiplayer but not very renewing to the scene. For the ones who like BFBC2; you might rethink spending money on this game unless you are into Single Player as well, of wich I lack the experience.
We might see a strong player base at this moment, but I am afraid as soon as Battlefield 3 and BFBC2 Vietnam get released, this game will quickly fade away in most people memories fast. But hey, I've been wrong before
Engine usage: 7
Gameplay: 6
Graphics: 7
Re-playability: 6
Overall: 6.5
Crysis 2 PC 1.2.0 Patch Notes
