Recent reviews by Shurenai

My personal experience with this game is all post 1.0 and post 1.0 hotfix #1.

Frankly, I love the concept. Even most of the implementation that I've actually been able to experience.

But the AI. My god, the AI. They're aimbotting wallhacking POSes, and the devs seem to have zero intention of correcting that. The enemies even in the early level- Hyped-up-on-drugs teens and meth making gang bangers just ignore flashbangs, pepper balls, pepperspray, CS gas, tasers, you name it, whenever they please.

Oh, and did I mention they're aimbots? Nothing quite like breaching a room with a simultaneous flash and gas against 2-3 suspects in a fairly confined room, all of whom should be coughing up a storm and doubly blinded, stepping into the threshold and getting headshot by one of the guys who by all rights should be more than incapacitated.

Spend 45 minutes slowly tactically clearing a mission with not a single injury on your team, and then in the last 30 seconds, the last one or two guys will just decide they're immune to any and all suppression and stunning effects at your disposal and execute you and your squad like he's john wick.

Nothing like the AI just casually staring through walls right at the location of your squad, rounding three corners, entering a doorway and killing a swat member in full armor in the split second it takes the swat squad to gun his own unarmored self down- Totally normal right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNfI4iUIeqA

Nothing like emplacing your squad intelligently and holding an angle, only for an enemy to enter the room via the door the majority of your squad is trained on and execute two of your squad mates and you in the second it takes you to even register he's there and fire back- And he's still standing afterward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD5Mmd5h3XQ

Literally just failed the third mission of the game for the fifth time because I gassed a single guy in the tunnel, waited a second or two to hear coughing then flashbanged him for good measure before rounding the corner ready to fire and fell over dead from a headshot....From the guy who should be coughing his lungs out and blind. Again. This has caused me to fail this mission 4 out of the 5 times I've played it.

I had been following the development for ages and I was so excited for this game, and fully prepared to buy it when it went 1.0- and then out of nowhere they replace the old AI and swap in this ridiculous aimbotting wallhacking AI for 1.0... I decided not to buy it after seeing the changes. Only reason I own it is because a friend gifted it to me.

It's ridiculous, and the devs still haven't made any statement on it; Radio silence. I'd been holding off making a review hoping they'd say something, do something, acknowledge the issues- And nothing. We're well past the holidays now, Being on holiday break is no longer an excuse that can be leveraged by them.

I'd talk about some other aspects of the game, but, frankly, I'm stuck on the third mission. I'm certainly not the greatest gamer in the world but I'd say I'm at the very least a little over average; and every run I've done has been handled with as much tactical care as I can muster; Pieing off rooms, holding angles, using the mirror on doors to gain tactical awareness, breaching with flash, gas, and stingers, emplying as much violence of action as possible- And doing great, right up until the AI decides it's game over and instakills me through a wall from 30 meters away- Oh, did I mention that? Yeah, the AI can see you through and every little crack and crevice in the wall will happily kill you in the split second you're walking by from 30 meters away with a handgun. Great, right? :)

So- Here's my review. I'm certainly salty, fresh off my latest loss... Take it for what you will. But this is absurd. I'm down for a hard game, if that hardness is fair to engage against. But this isn't.

PS: I will acknowledge that there ARE AI mods that 'fix' these issues, if you're someone that is alright with modding a game they just bought. But I shouldn't have to use mods to fix something that is so close to the core of the game- Practically the heart of this kind of game is the enemy AI and how they interact with the player and environment. And what is in the game now just isn't acceptable. And it's equally unacceptable that the developers dropped this half-baked AI into the 1.0 version seemingly untested and then hasn't said a word for nearly a month since.

PPS: OH, and, a final note that I will mention because it's one of the things that put me off purchasing the game myself, is that in 1.0 they removed like 4/5ths of the playable content by removing the various playable modes from each map- Due to 'limitations with design and testing' and to 'avoid narrative conflicts'. In doing so, they made every level one note and repetetive. There WERE 5 different game modes that could be played on basically every map. But now each one is what it is and that's all there is to it. Massive blow to replayability.

Exact quote from the 1.0 changelog: "Ability to pick which mission type to play a level on has been removed due to limitations with design and testing, and to avoid narrative conflicts."

Funny, though, the maps all seemed to play those other 4 game modes just fine pre 1.0 in all the videos and streams I'd watched. So, 'limitations with design and testing' rings ever so hollow... And they could've just made the first play of each level on the intended game mode to retain narrative cohesion and let repeat plays pick any mode. But what do I know.

May be in alpha/early access for a long time, but still worth the buy, imo. Still being actively updated and mainitained by the devs, and soon they'll be finally focusing on optimization and getting everything running smoothly.