I want to start this off by saying I've played this game for well over two years, before it was launched, and when it used to be called Ghost Recon Online. I have a TON of gear accumulated, I have a TON of experience, and I know the game pretty thouroughly.

The recent patch (1.2.4) added in several cool features, all but one of which were requested by the community. The features are somewhat important, but not as important as the seeming turnaround of the developers listening to the community and coding their requests. Previously, there was (and still is) almost zero communication between the devs and the players, outside of the Community Managers/Game Masters/ATHENA Council (a team of community volunteers whose purpose is to relay community opinions and provide feedback on changes, and which I was a part of for about 9 months), but almost every change until now was not made due to community request, but rather to developer vision. The changes were mostly made to make the game more accessible, as before, the game had a very, very high skill curve. It still does have a high skill curve, but is now much easier to get into.

Is this game Pay-2-Win? I don't like the term, but for what it is, yes, it is Pay-2-Win, however, some people seem to think that the terms Pay-2-Win and Free-2-Play are mutually exclusive, and they're not. This game is as free as it gets. You can get gear in somewhat reasonable amounts of time without paying. The game gives you like 150,000 AC (in-game currency) while you level up each class to level 10. There's a queue made SOLELY for beginners. If it's difficult to get into the game, and you find yourself crying "P2W!!!" before you've put even 10 hours into it, this game is just not for you.

The gunplay can still be amazing, with a good team, you can get incredible amounts of coordination going in order to push onto the point and recapture it at the last second. The mechanics are solid, the cover system is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. It is literally the best cover system I have EVER seen. It's snappy and responsive, not dull and clunky like most games. And the best part is, if you get to know the game well enough, players that are entrenched in cover become easier and easier to take out. If you get to know the game even better, you can stay entrenched in cover, and beat back entire waves of enemies.

Gun balance is okay-ish. The guns are balanced against similar tiers, and not against higher tiers. This would not be a problem, except that power creep is starting to show itself now that the new Tier 9 (which is Tier 11 in the grand scheme of things) has come out, and matchmaking can be horrendous at times, but for the most part, guns have one specific advantage, and are easily defeated when they're out of their comfort zone. And SMG will 99% of the time take down an LMG in CQC, but it will go the other way at 70+ meters.

Like I stated in the paragraph above, matchmaking can be terrible, putting much higher skilled/geared players in matches with lower skilled/geared players. I am a General 5 (highest rank) and I will sometimes get put with Captains and Majors (lowest two ranks in main matchmaking). These matches are fun for nobody, including me, and I generally just sit back and try to provide support while using lower tier guns. However, in this new patch (1.2.4), they've added Private Matches, WHICH IS PHENOMENAL. We just had a community driven private match event last night, and it was the most fun I've had playing this game in a year. Getting with a whole bunch of your buddies and playing this game is just absolutely awesome. This is one of the community requested features that has been wanted for the longest time, and it's finally here, and it pays off.

I think the best part about this game is that no content is money-only. By content, I mean no game-modes, no maps, no devices, no weapons, and almost no armors. There's no "exclusive map-pack DLC" or anything like that. They are starting to put in more and more cosmetic options that are money only, and fewer things that have an impact in game. In the new patch (1.2.4) they finally added an armor camo system, to go along with the weapon camo system. Yes, these are cash-only, but actually, there are monthly events which reward a small amount of in-game cash. Yes, it would take two months of completing each of the three objectives, but you don't have to wait to get a camo to spend it. You can spend it on grenades, or XP/AC boosts (which I would recommend).

All in all, you will love this game, if the game is for you.

I want to start this off by saying I've played this game for well over two years, before it was launched, and when it used to be called Ghost Recon Online. I have a TON of gear accumulated, I have a TON of experience, and I know the game pretty thouroughly. The recent patch (1.2.4) added in several cool features, all but one of which were requested by the community. The features are somewhat important, but not as important as the seeming turnaround of the developers listening to the community and coding their requests. Previously, there was (and still is) almost zero communication between the devs and the players, outside of the Community Managers/Game Masters/ATHENA Council (a team of community volunteers whose purpose is to relay community opinions and provide feedback on changes, and which I was a part of for about 9 months), but almost every change until now was not made due to community request, but rather to developer vision. The changes were mostly made to make the game more accessible, as before, the game had a very, very high skill curve. It still does have a high skill curve, but is now much easier to get into. Is this game Pay-2-Win? I don't like the term, but for what it is, yes, it is Pay-2-Win, however, some people seem to think that the terms Pay-2-Win and Free-2-Play are mutually exclusive, and they're not. This game is as free as it gets. You can get gear in somewhat reasonable amounts of time without paying. The game gives you like 150,000 AC (in-game currency) while you level up each class to level 10. There's a queue made SOLELY for beginners. If it's difficult to get into the game, and you find yourself crying "P2W!!!" before you've put even 10 hours into it, this game is just not for you. The gunplay can still be amazing, with a good team, you can get incredible amounts of coordination going in order to push onto the point and recapture it at the last second. The mechanics are solid, the cover system is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. It is literally the best cover system I have EVER seen. It's snappy and responsive, not dull and clunky like most games. And the best part is, if you get to know the game well enough, players that are entrenched in cover become easier and easier to take out. If you get to know the game even better, you can stay entrenched in cover, and beat back entire waves of enemies. Gun balance is okay-ish. The guns are balanced against similar tiers, and not against higher tiers. This would not be a problem, except that power creep is starting to show itself now that the new Tier 9 (which is Tier 11 in the grand scheme of things) has come out, and matchmaking can be horrendous at times, but for the most part, guns have one specific advantage, and are easily defeated when they're out of their comfort zone. And SMG will 99% of the time take down an LMG in CQC, but it will go the other way at 70+ meters. Like I stated in the paragraph above, matchmaking can be terrible, putting much higher skilled/geared players in matches with lower skilled/geared players. I am a General 5 (highest rank) and I will sometimes get put with Captains and Majors (lowest two ranks in main matchmaking). These matches are fun for nobody, including me, and I generally just sit back and try to provide support while using lower tier guns. However, in this new patch (1.2.4), they've added Private Matches, WHICH IS PHENOMENAL. We just had a community driven private match event last night, and it was the most fun I've had playing this game in a year. Getting with a whole bunch of your buddies and playing this game is just absolutely awesome. This is one of the community requested features that has been wanted for the longest time, and it's finally here, and it pays off. I think the best part about this game is that no content is money-only. By content, I mean no game-modes, no maps, no devices, no weapons, and almost no armors. There's no "exclusive map-pack DLC" or anything like that. They are starting to put in more and more cosmetic options that are money only, and fewer things that have an impact in game. In the new patch (1.2.4) they finally added an armor camo system, to go along with the weapon camo system. Yes, these are cash-only, but actually, there are monthly events which reward a small amount of in-game cash. Yes, it would take two months of completing each of the three objectives, but you don't have to wait to get a camo to spend it. You can spend it on grenades, or XP/AC boosts (which I would recommend). All in all, you will love this game, if the game is for you.