Recent reviews by VANBROWN

This game deserves a second look.

Nobody will argue that game wasn't a disaster when it was released into Early Access in February, 2018. Not even the development team that created the game. The game wasn't really in a great place, even for Early Access. If you scan through the reviews here, the vast majority were left as a result of that rough beginning. Those reviews were legitimate and fair. Battalion deserved a poor rating score at that time.

Fast forward to today. The game has undergone an additional 4-5 months of intense development. Virtually every aspect of the game has been worked on and improved. It is quite literally a totally different game than it was upon release. There are too many updates and improvements to list them line by line in a review, but here are few of the larger items that have been improved that matter to me the most:

1.) The economy system has been completely overhauled and has added a whole new layer of depth to the game. It's not 100% dialed in yet, but the Dev team is constantly seeking feedback from the community and changing the various values to accommodate our requests. No other game does this. It's a unique economy systems that adds a lot of replay-ability and depth.

2.) The jump meta that everyone hated is obsolete. People can still jump out into the open and shoot at you, but they pay a such significant price upon landing (it's slows down your movement if you land while aiming down the gun sight) that it forces a more tactical use of the jump key than just constantly jumping around every corner with your gun zoomed in.

3.) Performance improvements and optimizations - I'm not a technical guy at all, but I do have eyeballs and the difference between what the game looked like and how it performed on my computer from February to today, is astounding. I have a mid to low range system and a stable 144FPS without having to dial the game down to trash. I don't know how they did what they did, but I'm liking it.

4.) Maps - The maps are good. Some are great, and some are still a work in progress. Here's what I like. This is an early access game. We play the maps, then we give feedback on how they feel. The Dev team then takes that feedback and makes actual changes to the design of the maps. What other game does that? It's nice to be able to have a hand in how this game develops and what the map pool ends up looking like.

5.) Bulkhead Development Team - These guys totally bombed the release of the game. There are a bunch of factors on why that happened, many of which were out of their control, but they are irrelevant to this review and the future of this game. The important thing to note here, is that this is a dedicated group of people whose sole purpose right now is to create a WWII ere FPS game that the community can enjoy. They've doubled down on doing whatever it takes to make this game a success. They've been responsive to the community, they've made substantial changes to the game based on community feedback, they've kept a positive attitude, and they aren't finished yet. This is/was a small development team that set out to punch well above their weight class. There is no way the 6 (or whatever) guys that started this game should ever have been able to produce what they have so far, but here we are with a game that is moving in the right direction at light speed. These guys are total underdogs and I admire their audacity in trying to do the impossible, against all odds.

This game is a passion project for the development team. It's evident in the way they engage with and respond to the community, and it's evident in the direction that this game is moving. The game is still in early access and it's not finished or complete yet, but if you were ever interested in a WWII era FPS game with ADS and all the old school weapons (MP44, BAR, Thompson, MP40, Kar, etc.) you once loved, you owe it to yourself to give this game a look.....or a second look if your only experience was the rough release in Feb and March.

FYI, next major update to the game will be on or around July 12, that will introduce many more improvements to the gameplay, maps, economy system, weapons, etc. If you're considering a second look, this would be a good date to check it out and see what you think. I think you'll be glad you did.