(Reason for negative review further down)

The game is simple in concept but all of its moving parts make it "The Game" for me. Easy to pick up, hard to get used to (especially in terms of frustration/fun balance) but there is a lot of satisfaction waiting to be felt when you find your place in the bayou.

I fell in love with what the game used to be, which was a janky, low-budget FPS with a fresh concept and pure passion poured into it. While the devs remain passionate, their decisions in regards to monetization has become more... capitalistic. Although, all of the monetization remains cosmetic.

The game is still the same game at heart, which is what I love.

Edit: Things have changed after the 1896 launch for me. The game is still good at its core. However, the swathes of technical issues that I must bear with to be able to play the game, the uninspired and untested content pump and minimal acknowledgement of the issues from the devs made the game lose its spark that I thought would never be lost for me.

The devs removed the in-game lore archive and I personally don't like the direction of how the devs are affiliating the game with well known brands, instead of doubling down on being this ever-developing niche thing of its own. I feel like the game is losing its identity and slowly creeping into tasteless slop territory.

Addendum: I should've included this in the edit but Crytek support basically told me to ♥♥♥♥ it up and move on (albeit politely) when I reached out for my connectivity issues. I literally can't play the game that I used to love so much and sometimes it hurts to have it missing from my daily life. They also murdered the solo experience which I would play almost all of the time.

(Reason for negative review further down) The game is simple in concept but all of its moving parts make it "The Game" for me. Easy to pick up, hard to get used to (especially in terms of frustration/fun balance) but there is a lot of satisfaction waiting to be felt when you find your place in the bayou. I fell in love with what the game used to be, which was a janky, low-budget FPS with a fresh concept and pure passion poured into it. While the devs remain passionate, their decisions in regards to monetization has become more... capitalistic. Although, all of the monetization remains cosmetic. The game is still the same game at heart, which is what I love. Edit: Things have changed after the 1896 launch for me. The game is still good at its core. However, the swathes of technical issues that I must bear with to be able to play the game, the uninspired and untested content pump and minimal acknowledgement of the issues from the devs made the game lose its spark that I thought would never be lost for me. The devs removed the in-game lore archive and I personally don't like the direction of how the devs are affiliating the game with well known brands, instead of doubling down on being this ever-developing niche thing of its own. I feel like the game is losing its identity and slowly creeping into tasteless slop territory. Addendum: I should've included this in the edit but Crytek support basically told me to suck it up and move on (albeit politely) when I reached out for my connectivity issues. I literally can't play the game that I used to love so much and sometimes it hurts to have it missing from my daily life. They also murdered the solo experience which I would play almost all of the time.