My review so far..

Dear readers,

As a long time insurgency fan (played original for years), I can't help but be worried about the future of sandstorm. The game is poorly refined and will require serious fixes to avoid a poor launch. And as we all know, launch means everything. From helicopters floating dead and frozen in the sky to completely illogical hit boxes, and bots that have X-ray vision one second to headshot you through walls, to being completely brainless and wandering into gunfire, the game certainly has it's issues. In my completely honest opinion, I feel this game released for beta too soon and should be released at a later date (maybe 6 months).

Additionally, bugs aside, I feel the game has lost touch with it's roots. Cosmetics are very grindy and appear to completely pull players away from the general reason to play. Cosmetics should be completely free. All of it available to the players.. no stupid currencies! It makes the games feel like effort rather than fun. The voice communication options (hold C) are poor. they should mimic original insurgency 100% as they were actually useful! A lot of information cannot be passed to teammates as a result of this.

Overall, the game needs brought back in line with its more tactical and raw ancestor. The pieces are there, but the game feels developed by completely different people with totally alterior goals. I have spoken with a lot of people in-game and 99% agree that the game has lost it's touch.

currently - I think this game is around a 4 or 6 out of10
the game has the potential to reach 9+/10

Thank you for your time

Hi @xaviah-reaper!

@xaviah-reaper said in My review so far..:

The game is poorly refined and will require serious fixes to avoid a poor launch.

Devs would probably appreciate if you could be more specific. What do you mean exactly? Two hotfixes seem like refinement to me. Maybe could list all the issues you have with game (and you do mention some already in your post).

From helicopters floating dead and frozen in the sky

This is a bug that can be fixed.

to completely illogical hit boxes>
Devs are aware of the hitreg issues and have said they're working on it.

bots that have X-ray vision one second to headshot you through walls, to being completely brainless and wandering into gunfire

Now this is something I am actually excited about considering modding and playing around with the AI. UE4 has good tools to create really powerful AI bot compared to source engine. So as long as they allow full modding of the bots, there is the possibility for a skilled modder to do A LOT with the bot AI.

the game certainly has it's issues. In my completely honest opinion, I feel this game released for beta too soon and should be released at a later date (maybe 6 months).

You have to remember that NWI has said their model is an old school model. That means a beta is actually a beta (meant for bugfixing and optimizing) instead of marketing based early access/beta-model that a lot devs use nowadays. So they're really fixing things. Can they make it? I don't know 🙂 But they put out two hotfixes already and with this pace we are going to have 7-8 hotfixes more.

Cosmetics are very grindy and appear to completely pull players away from the general reason to play. Cosmetics should be completely free. All of it available to the players.. no stupid currencies! It makes the games feel like effort rather than fun.

I understand, that if you value character customization, you would like be able access the different cosmetics. On the other hand, cosmetics aren't necessary for the gameplay, so you can totally play without even thinking about them. At this moment it seems to be a simple reward for spending time with the game. I don't think agree with you on this. If we were talking about someting effecting the gameplay, then we could argue that player HAS to do something that is grindy.

The voice communication options (hold C) are poor. they should mimic original insurgency 100% as they were actually useful! A lot of information cannot be passed to teammates as a result of this.

I agree that the comms only have the very basic functions. What specifically are missing, what it is that you would like to communicate that you cannot not at the moment?

Overall, the game needs brought back in line with its more tactical and raw ancestor. The pieces are there, but the game feels developed by completely different people with totally alterior goals.

This is something I wrote about in another thread. Maybe it is the devs goal to not fully copy INS2, but instead try to push it forwards. Doing that requires changes and testing on how those changes work. Everytime this is done, there are going to be opinions against it of course and discussion needs to happen.

Being specific would help here as well. What pieces do you like in Sandstorm? What pieces would you like to be the same as in INS2?

I have spoken with a lot of people in-game and 99% agree that the game has lost it's touch.

I agree that Sandstorm feels a lot different, but personally I really like the direction it's going 🙂 Looking here on the forums it sure is not just a 1% minority who is enjoying the game at the moment.