I re-reverse my last review. The game is still very buggy. Rapid fire stratagems still break regularly. Elements of the game such as the support space station are not well implemented, and ended up disabling the space system for a story element that feels like a cop out. The collective objectives feel illusory, with the latest illuminate objectives not giving any clear feedback as to what is needed to win. Over 100,000 simultaneous players was not enough. So ... what is? At this point, it feels like a distraction to me as I don't perceive players as having any real impact anymore yet Arrowhead keeps shoving it in my face.

Edit2:

I reverse my review. Updates have changed the game direction for the better. My only real issue now is a currency bottleneck and some inconsistent glitches.

Edit:

Post patch stability continues to be a problem. Now the game has fallen into currency imbalances that discourage playing. Specifically, the game is giving too many medals relative to super credits, and charging WAYYYYYY too many rare samples for ship module upgrades. Seriously, the upgrades take as many rare samples as common samples, often taking as many as a player is allowed to have (250). Because of that, a player cannot save up and buy more than a single module at a time, which encourages players to stop playing until an update is released. With super credits and rare samples as a bottle neck, the incentive to participate in major orders has evaporated.

Original Post:

Should you buy and play this game with your friends for a couple months? Sure. But as a long term game of choice, I can't say yes but that is what HD2 is saying it is. The game balance is far too chaotic for my taste. With the devs nerfing weapons so hard, they are effectively deleted from the game entirely. In other words, the weapon you saved up for in game is just gone. If you stop playing for any period of time, you will come back thinking your weapon loadout is adequate but it is not. This is not a PVP game, so it doesn't make sense to me to balance weapons so severely.

Major Orders are not compelling at this time. They are poorly balanced and have unclear objectives--from what I can tell, they move too fast/happen too often with narrow windows for success. They also have problems with clarity/communication. The last major order made it seem like it had been achieved but then showed as a failure when the order ended, making them seem frivolous and distracting from merely enjoying the game.

I re-reverse my last review. The game is still very buggy. Rapid fire stratagems still break regularly. Elements of the game such as the support space station are not well implemented, and ended up disabling the space system for a story element that feels like a cop out. The collective objectives feel illusory, with the latest illuminate objectives not giving any clear feedback as to what is needed to win. Over 100,000 simultaneous players was not enough. So ... what is? At this point, it feels like a distraction to me as I don't perceive players as having any real impact anymore yet Arrowhead keeps shoving it in my face. Edit2: I reverse my review. Updates have changed the game direction for the better. My only real issue now is a currency bottleneck and some inconsistent glitches. Edit: Post patch stability continues to be a problem. Now the game has fallen into currency imbalances that discourage playing. Specifically, the game is giving too many medals relative to super credits, and charging WAYYYYYY too many rare samples for ship module upgrades. Seriously, the upgrades take as many rare samples as common samples, often taking as many as a player is allowed to have (250). Because of that, a player cannot save up and buy more than a single module at a time, which encourages players to stop playing until an update is released. With super credits and rare samples as a bottle neck, the incentive to participate in major orders has evaporated. Original Post: Should you buy and play this game with your friends for a couple months? Sure. But as a long term game of choice, I can't say yes but that is what HD2 is saying it is. The game balance is far too chaotic for my taste. With the devs nerfing weapons so hard, they are effectively deleted from the game entirely. In other words, the weapon you saved up for in game is just gone. If you stop playing for any period of time, you will come back thinking your weapon loadout is adequate but it is not. This is not a PVP game, so it doesn't make sense to me to balance weapons so severely. Major Orders are not compelling at this time. They are poorly balanced and have unclear objectives--from what I can tell, they move too fast/happen too often with narrow windows for success. They also have problems with clarity/communication. The last major order made it seem like it had been achieved but then showed as a failure when the order ended, making them seem frivolous and distracting from merely enjoying the game.