With the help of my friend Aqwis, I got my hands on a beta key for the game in the title, which several of us tried out. Below I’d like to summarize my experiences.

Here’s a video I made about the game:

First of all, the game itself kept me engaged, which is presumably because it wasn't made for hardcore gamers (at least not as hardcore as the earlier Rainbow games). My first issue started with the fact that the game is on Uplay, which is a pretty big black mark, since I think Uplay is a pile of misfortune and a crime to integrate into games.

The game has two game modes (for now, in the beta): one is terrorist hunt, where you have to clear a house of terrorists, with up to 5 players. It’s a fairly entertaining game mode, but the kamikaze terrorists are quite annoying. Partly because the game’s netcode is PRETTY TERRIBLE, and partly because if you have a shield, you have no chance of escaping, and shooting back with this netcode is pretty difficult.

About the netcode, all I can say is that it regularly fails to register shots, and the host has an insane advantage, which can be quite noticeable in PvP matches. (they shoot you before they even turn the corner on my screen, or they kill you when I’m already clearly in cover)

The AI turned out to be pretty cheaty — if there’s even a tiny hole in the wall, you can be sure that if a terrorist enters the next room, they’ll instantly look at that hole and shoot you through it. At the same time, the AI can flank players, which is fairly realistic but can also be quite annoying 🙂

The PvP part of the game can be quite fun, in the beta there were two variations. One where there’s a single bomb, and another with two. 😛 The terrorists obviously have to defend these, and the CTs have to defuse them. My biggest issue with multiplayer was that it wasn’t uncommon for at least 3 CTs to come with shields, which gave us no chance of winning as terrorists, since the shields are (in my opinion) way too strong. Unfortunately there’s not much room for tactics, since you can’t quietly enter a building. Every opening is barricaded with wood, which you can’t quietly dismantle — only smash through or blow up. But this alerts the terrorists to your presence and they start swarming you. Which brings me to the main point of my post.

This game is almost exactly like any recent Call of Duty. Tactics are merely an illusion — you don’t have much choice in how you enter, where you go, or what equipment you use.

I’d outline the entry options as follows:

  • enter through the basement: clear the building from bottom up, while terrorists flank you from outside the building
  • enter through the ground floor: massive shootout, go down to the basement, clear it, go back to the ground floor, clear it again, go up to the upper level, clear it, then try to find the last terrorist
  • enter through the upper level: clear each level from top down, while terrorists flank you and shoot you from behind

You can only blow through floors between levels at specific points. The enemy likes to cover hallways and rooms with C4, worth watching out for.

In summary, I liked the game, but toward the end it started getting fairly repetitive, since there really aren’t many options and no matter how much you try to plan your entry method, it always starts with blowing up a window or busting through.