Finding a cool and unique game that is actually fun these days is rare, so seeing one kill itself right before my eyes is incredibly disappointing.

The game in its beta state felt complete and was incredibly fun. Matches were fast paced and whichever team achieved five points, by a margin of two, won the match. Now, outside of quickplay, both teams have to reach three sets of three points with a pause in between sets for everyone to pick what were once trainings one could choose before a match. These are passive boosts to an aspect of a character that can help them reach their full potential, and are now erased after the match has ended. They are also random, which means you may not be able to play your character in your specific playstyle for what are now higher-stakes 20-30 minute matches. The magic of the previous version was how quickly you won if you were more skilled than your opponents, how quickly you lost if they were more skilled than you, and how tense matches got if both teams were equally skilled trying to get two points above the other. Losses didn't matter since you could easily get into another match afterwards, and getting on a win streak felt all the more satisfying. You could play hours of matches and not realise how much time has passed. Now matches are long enough to have one or two be exhausting.

The developer's justification of the temporary, randomised trainings mid-match is that the longer the beta was live, the more similar each match felt. This was a good thing, as it allowed the players to become accustomed to their characters and how they were supposed to function given the right trainings for the player's playstyle. Now it is easy to forget which ones you chose in the 15 seconds your are given to chose when you consider how chaotic the actual gameplay is. Additionally, Counter-Strike hasn't changed in twenty years, and it seems to be doing well for itself. Having matches be similar is not a fault, but the current system
they made to combat a non-issue is.

Another thing that makes matches take too long is the addition of what I will call goal-blocks. Previously, there were walls that retracted and extended throughout the match that blocked both goals. Whichever team was in the lead had their walls retract faster than the team losing, giving the team losing a chance to attack for a short time while their wall was still extended. Whoever is in the lead doesn't need an advantage over the other team, so the design at the time was good. Now there are goal-blocks. These are difficult to hit targets near each team's goals that will retract the walls once all are hit with the ball. This makes matches drag on, as one goalie can usually guard at least one of the goal-blocks for a long time, which means even more time spent in a game that used to have quick and fun matches. The charm of the worldwide beloved sport of football/soccer is that there's one person guarding a large goal with the help of the other players that are outside of the goal box, so adding a mechanic that makes it impossible to score unless you hit a prerequisite makes the game not fun.

Everything else that has changed is at most a minor annoyance, such as splitting up the end-game screen into three screens, so it's more difficult to share a screenshot of if you had a good game.

A common "gotcha" to the changes in ranked and the normal gamemodes include "Just play quickplay so you don't have to deal with the changes." What if you want to play the game you once loved with people around your skill level? Quickplay does not take skill level into account when forming players for a match, only ping. This means that the probability of completely destroying or being destroyed by the other team increases, and while it's nice for an ego boost, it's preferable to play opponents around your skill level to challenge yourself; Something you can no longer do if you prefer the previous version's gameplay compared the the current.

I will gladly change this review if these issues are fixed. It baffles me how a team can make a game for years, show off a fantastic pre-release product, and kill it in front of you when it was supposed to be finished.

Finding a cool and unique game that is actually fun these days is rare, so seeing one kill itself right before my eyes is incredibly disappointing. The game in its beta state felt complete and was incredibly fun. Matches were fast paced and whichever team achieved five points, by a margin of two, won the match. Now, outside of quickplay, both teams have to reach three sets of three points with a pause in between sets for everyone to pick what were once trainings one could choose before a match. These are passive boosts to an aspect of a character that can help them reach their full potential, and are now erased after the match has ended. They are also random, which means you may not be able to play your character in your specific playstyle for what are now higher-stakes 20-30 minute matches. The magic of the previous version was how quickly you won if you were more skilled than your opponents, how quickly you lost if they were more skilled than you, and how tense matches got if both teams were equally skilled trying to get two points above the other. Losses didn't matter since you could easily get into another match afterwards, and getting on a win streak felt all the more satisfying. You could play hours of matches and not realise how much time has passed. Now matches are long enough to have one or two be exhausting. The developer's justification of the temporary, randomised trainings mid-match is that the longer the beta was live, the more similar each match felt. This was a good thing, as it allowed the players to become accustomed to their characters and how they were supposed to function given the right trainings for the player's playstyle. Now it is easy to forget which ones you chose in the 15 seconds your are given to chose when you consider how chaotic the actual gameplay is. Additionally, Counter-Strike hasn't changed in twenty years, and it seems to be doing well for itself. Having matches be similar is not a fault, but the current system they made to combat a non-issue is. Another thing that makes matches take too long is the addition of what I will call goal-blocks. Previously, there were walls that retracted and extended throughout the match that blocked both goals. Whichever team was in the lead had their walls retract faster than the team losing, giving the team losing a chance to attack for a short time while their wall was still extended. Whoever is in the lead doesn't need an advantage over the other team, so the design at the time was good. Now there are goal-blocks. These are difficult to hit targets near each team's goals that will retract the walls once all are hit with the ball. This makes matches drag on, as one goalie can usually guard at least one of the goal-blocks for a long time, which means even more time spent in a game that used to have quick and fun matches. The charm of the worldwide beloved sport of football/soccer is that there's one person guarding a large goal with the help of the other players that are outside of the goal box, so adding a mechanic that makes it impossible to score unless you hit a prerequisite makes the game not fun. Everything else that has changed is at most a minor annoyance, such as splitting up the end-game screen into three screens, so it's more difficult to share a screenshot of if you had a good game. A common "gotcha" to the changes in ranked and the normal gamemodes include "Just play quickplay so you don't have to deal with the changes." What if you want to play the game you once loved with people around your skill level? Quickplay does not take skill level into account when forming players for a match, only ping. This means that the probability of completely destroying or being destroyed by the other team increases, and while it's nice for an ego boost, it's preferable to play opponents around your skill level to challenge yourself; Something you can no longer do if you prefer the previous version's gameplay compared the the current. I will gladly change this review if these issues are fixed. It baffles me how a team can make a game for years, show off a fantastic pre-release product, and kill it in front of you when it was supposed to be finished.