I like it. I wouldn't view this game as a hardcore competitive shooter, it's something like Evolve but with both teams playing as hunters (with a bit of Gigantic sprinkled in). You have serious decisions to make about how to split your team to keep the XP rolling in vs. capping objectives and teamfighting. There are genuine things to criticize here:

-no team communication, this has to be fixed if you ever want to play with randoms. Playing with a team over VOIP negates this but that shouldn't be required baseline. Easily the single largest issue with the game at the moment from a mechanical standpoint. When playing with a full team on comms it's nearly impossible to lose given the current situation.

-character balance is spotty at best. It's very clear that there are some characters with bad numbers, and some characters with a very confused kit beyond just numbers. This is something I would expect fully from a game that is so new, so I'm surprised they haven't pasted BETA over everything (this seems like a real mistake from either the dev team or the publisher).

-performance optimization. I run this game at around 85-95 FPS on minimum settings, which is far lower than any other game in my library. It's got real problems in this department.

Those are the big 3 that I think can kill this game for new players. Relatively minor issues include a limited character pool beyond balancing issues (only 10 at the moment), poorly balanced talent selection (there are very clear winners in many cases), and a single map on launch. Not to say these things aren't problems, they just seem pretty normal for a newly released game.

With all of that said, I had a good time during my first few hours with the game. There is a lot of downtime between abilities since average cooldowns look to be around 10 seconds, which may be irritating to some but I find to be a good way to focus primarily on shooting mechanics. Weapons have projectile velocities and beyond extremely close range parallax hasn't been a problem (things can definitely break down in melee). There are characters that fill specific roles but these don't seem too restrictive - tanks like Rahi and Earl have potentially quite high damage output at the cost of range and large hitboxes. Most characters move relatively slowly and have some form of movement ability, though a handful of characters could use improvements here - Earl can engage from staggering distances with his while somebody like Shakirri or Ajonah suffer from slow or clunky repositioning (Shakirri just gets more movespeed with a sword out, for example).

The primary game mode is Heart of the Hives as best as I can tell, and the game seems to function best here. You have hives that spawn randomly (or possibly in sequence, not sure) around the map that can be destroyed to pick up an objective, with the first team to 3 winning. It is vital to keep your level, which is shared among teammates, at least as high as your opponent, and ideally higher. Large boosts in character abilities can happen during leveling, meaning you may want to focus on grabbing some XP before trying to contest a hive. Getting picks is obviously also important, since players can choose to spawn around the edges of the map given they are not too close to hives, and can keep teams separated or on staggered respawns. There are creeps that can be killed for XP around the map, as well as 5 capture points that are static and give a slow XP trickle based on number held. It's important to balance farming, capping, teamfighting, and going for hives during the match, making teamwork absolutely vital.

TL:DR - get a group, get on comms, figure out the role you like playing (and which characters actually fill this role) and you will likely do well and have a good time, doubly so if you liked playing hunters in Evolve. I really think a lot of people have had terrible experiences due to the lack of communication, and that's completely valid. I'd also suggest giving Mendoza, Earl, and Tosca a shot as character selections based on ease of use and power while learning what the hell is going on.

I like it. I wouldn't view this game as a hardcore competitive shooter, it's something like Evolve but with both teams playing as hunters (with a bit of Gigantic sprinkled in). You have serious decisions to make about how to split your team to keep the XP rolling in vs. capping objectives and teamfighting. There are genuine things to criticize here: -no team communication, this has to be fixed if you ever want to play with randoms. Playing with a team over VOIP negates this but that shouldn't be required baseline. Easily the single largest issue with the game at the moment from a mechanical standpoint. When playing with a full team on comms it's nearly impossible to lose given the current situation. -character balance is spotty at best. It's very clear that there are some characters with bad numbers, and some characters with a very confused kit beyond just numbers. This is something I would expect fully from a game that is so new, so I'm surprised they haven't pasted BETA over everything (this seems like a real mistake from either the dev team or the publisher). -performance optimization. I run this game at around 85-95 FPS on minimum settings, which is far lower than any other game in my library. It's got real problems in this department. Those are the big 3 that I think can kill this game for new players. Relatively minor issues include a limited character pool beyond balancing issues (only 10 at the moment), poorly balanced talent selection (there are very clear winners in many cases), and a single map on launch. Not to say these things aren't problems, they just seem pretty normal for a newly released game. With all of that said, I had a good time during my first few hours with the game. There is a lot of downtime between abilities since average cooldowns look to be around 10 seconds, which may be irritating to some but I find to be a good way to focus primarily on shooting mechanics. Weapons have projectile velocities and beyond extremely close range parallax hasn't been a problem (things can definitely break down in melee). There are characters that fill specific roles but these don't seem too restrictive - tanks like Rahi and Earl have potentially quite high damage output at the cost of range and large hitboxes. Most characters move relatively slowly and have some form of movement ability, though a handful of characters could use improvements here - Earl can engage from staggering distances with his while somebody like Shakirri or Ajonah suffer from slow or clunky repositioning (Shakirri just gets more movespeed with a sword out, for example). The primary game mode is Heart of the Hives as best as I can tell, and the game seems to function best here. You have hives that spawn randomly (or possibly in sequence, not sure) around the map that can be destroyed to pick up an objective, with the first team to 3 winning. It is vital to keep your level, which is shared among teammates, at least as high as your opponent, and ideally higher. Large boosts in character abilities can happen during leveling, meaning you may want to focus on grabbing some XP before trying to contest a hive. Getting picks is obviously also important, since players can choose to spawn around the edges of the map given they are not too close to hives, and can keep teams separated or on staggered respawns. There are creeps that can be killed for XP around the map, as well as 5 capture points that are static and give a slow XP trickle based on number held. It's important to balance farming, capping, teamfighting, and going for hives during the match, making teamwork absolutely vital. TL:DR - get a group, get on comms, figure out the role you like playing (and which characters actually fill this role) and you will likely do well and have a good time, doubly so if you liked playing hunters in Evolve. I really think a lot of people have had terrible experiences due to the lack of communication, and that's completely valid. I'd also suggest giving Mendoza, Earl, and Tosca a shot as character selections based on ease of use and power while learning what the hell is going on.