Recent reviews by hype

generally still the best arcade shooter to play in 2025.
and hidden movement tech makes the game a lil bit more competitive to the anger of the older gen (rouzouuuuuuuuuuu)

otherwise, no $30 skins running around, easy silhouette characters that u can tell what they do and what gadgets they carry, op vehicles as they should be, and the best boomer takes in the chat that isnt filtered.

glad to see reviews are mostly positive after 12 years and what battlefield should be (except for launch, that was still a disaster and CTE by DICE LA saved the game. new battlefield i'll buy ofc but it will never come close to this, just a game made during a different time where developers and/or publishers had different goals that werent all about greed.)

the closest you'll get to a old school bf4 type fps in 2023

and for $15, you get a early access game that is basically 99% complete in terms of weapons, maps, gamemodes, ui + options and character customization, simple kill progression for camos, simple progression rank system that allows for classic 07' prestige when you hit max rank, fun VOiP, old bf class system that have their strengths and counters, and smooth respawn shoot repeat gameplay. (oh and map voting in 2023 is a neat feature)

*** REVIEW FROM PLAYTEST BEFORE EARLY ACCESS ***

Reminds me of old school FPS's before the FPS formula somehow shifted towards operators, agents and other weird things they could monetize.

Game plays like any Battlefield between BC and BF4 if you enjoy a big team, destructible environment sandbox FPS. While it may look like a bunch of blocks shooting at each other, I would say the gameplay and gunplay itself makes up for it with mostly each gun having a controllable recoil pattern to it where it wont aim for you but if you fight it, you can definitely control the spray depending attachments on the gun. Which you can put any attachment on any open slot without having to sacrifice another slot like some other games at the moment.

Destruction is this game blows away any other multiplayer FPS atm that isnt Red Faction 2 or BFBC2. Make any hole in the wall if its in your way to destroy cover, make a new running lane, or just blow everything up and have the entire building collapse on everyone and create a tiny dust cloud before it becomes a new structure you can take cover in. Destruction in this is really fun and its about time its been relooked at. The only thing the destruction lacks in this game is making craters in the floor for cover but ive only seen Battlefield 1 & V be the only games to do them right.

Gunplay in this is outright simple which is a nice touch as most guns basically (in my opinion) operate like another variant as one another which is absolutely fine. You have your no recoil, fast fire rate guns that deal low damage and then you have your slow fire rate, chunky recoil but high damage guns in the same class that reward the players that place their shots or just want to try and combat the recoil. Im sure there is some guns that are balanced in the middle of that scale but I would say there isn't (or wasn't depending time of this review) any certain meta loadouts people were running a majority of the time. As some games make you feel like if you dont have the best loadout, then you would always lose to said loadout. (TTK in this game felt even which is nice given how there is plentiful of weapons in each to choose from)

Customization: Theres plenty of camos to chose from and are all mostly rewards for hitting X amount of kills which is simple enough and they don't distract from gameplay. Character customization is also supported to change how you appear on the field without visually taking away what role you look like. Although there are options in the character customization screen that lets you swap out certain attributes like less armor for more running speed, certain vests give more grenades, certain vests increase HP but you move super slow, and i believe there are some certain Class-specific armor pieces like the support helmet that blocks sniper shots (Could be wrong, please correct) but it depends how you want to play the game which is a nice touch. There is also supporter skins in the game if you're a patreon supporter that add some neat milsim outfits, a lot of gun camos, and more character options (Its a lot of unique skins for $10 and you get a copy of the game.)

Classes in this game felt like a classic battlefield game. (Squad Leader, Assault, Medic, Support, Recon)
With each having their unique gadgets and class specific weapons which gives the classes some roles along with being able to identify who does what on the map. (Looking at you BF2042) The proximity chat is also a nice touch along with anyone having the ability to drag a friendly (or enemy) away to revive them. Dragging is very very nice touch (biased Medic)

Overall, at the time of this review at level 123 and as a old fan of BF4 and old FPS's before they became super saturated with in your face monetization, if you want a old sandbox FPS that you can run around and have some fun spawn in, shoot some things, respawn, and repeat then i recommend you check out the playtest while its still live before the game releases sometime this year.

Cons: As someone who only played Infantry Conquest, i will say that some of the maps in regular Conquest become a running simulator if you happen to spawn in late and miss a vehicle.

if i could leave a neutral review then I would rather prefer that but since while I do believe there is many positives about this game, the development and overseeing from everyone's favorite publisher leaves a bitter resentment from me at least as someone who considers himself a old fan.

Campaign was alright but MW2019 was much better in terms of story telling and progression where as with this one the main story isnt as interesting as the first. Plus IMO after how MW19 introduced "continue the story though WARZONE" made me realize the game was slowly transitioning away from its former self.

If you enjoy "new cod" (any cod after 2018) then you will most likely enjoy this game too as it improves on what made MW19's gameplay feel great.

BUT
UI is still pretty awful after the season 2 update as they wont let go of the tile menu along with not changing anything to do with the lobbies and keeping the T-posing character pre-game lobby backgrounds. Leaderboards were just added in with this update (14/02) as legacy features from the late 2000s are slowly making their way out the door it feels like in terms of basic launch features. New perk system is still pretty bad and does nothing to change the pace of the game but only slow it down. Field upgrades return with some new options but nothing too drastic.

Gunsmith is pretty much the same from MW19 but instead of unlocking attachments in a linear fashion for just the gun you're using, the dev's tried to streamline it in a way that the same "family" of attachments can be used with any gun no matter what level the gun is. While it does make using other guns a little bit easier when you unlock them, it also creates a grind to get a specific attachment which could be getting max level on a gun thats 3 guns down the tree line which means you have to at least use 3 different guns to a certain level before you get a simple red dot streamline for any gun.

They also tried using the same approach with the weapon camo's and camo mastery. Unlock the camo and it is universal for every gun which is much faster than MW19's camo progression. The camo grind in this game gets rid of some of the more annoying challenges from MW19. Overall the Orion grind was much easier than the damascus grind for me it felt like.

MAPS
are awful. One of the keys to retaining a FPS playerbase is through the replayability and gameplay of your game. Boring maps that make you want to dodge the queue 9/10 times will slowly make you not want to play at all. Good maps that offer both fun and freedom of movement will keep people trying different options and thinking of different routes instead of feeling like they're constantly being fed into a spawn trap, they cant move at all, or are constantly running. The original maps for this game are pretty forgettable and nothing really stands out atm for the crown jewel map of the game. Ground war maps in this game are also a step down from MW19 as the pacing does not feel the same. The sad part as a mp player is the slap in the face of all the content that is in the game already for 6v6 but is simply being held back to be drip fed every 60 days. You can jump into the warzone map and find many re-mastered MW2 maps they could easily cookie-cutter into a 6v6 map and drop for more season content but instead we are still left with 2-3 maps every new season. (would prefer if we got 3 classic maps from mw2/mw3 and 2 new maps for the season but they will never do this) No map voting or veto'ing in a 2023 game makes zero sense but for a matchmaking system designed to treat each unranked game like a ranked game, im really surprised you the player have zero say about the map pick except for dodging the queue. trash talking in lobbies feels forced 95% of the time given activision's patented skill based matchmaking will disappear them from your life after 10mins. Warzone 2.0 felt like a obvious ploy by the dev's to show they tried to make a different product for you to invest your time and money in when really the original product played and flowed much much better (which with the season 2 update they did lol).

havent touched the co-op except for the season 1 raid which was alright but nothing great and nothing as challenging as a destiny 2's or warcraft's type of "raid". they have no replayability value once you complete it as theres nothing much to really reward the player in this game as raids in other games work with loot value and best in slot gear stats where understandably, call of duty doesnt have any of that.

Gunplay felt like a upgrade to MW19 but this game unfortunately follows the trend of 2015 with battle passes, no real factions, operators with personalities you dont care about, drip feeding content and holding existing locations in the game hostage for 6v6, no 10v10 mode that was in MW19 that fit the game play perfectly, no new original new maps as of season 2 release, games as a live service model, and honestly im not surprised that warzone and the free to play part of the game is getting more content and updates for it over people who paid $70 for the original cod experience that dates back to cod 1 pc which is just loading up multiplayer and relaxing. now the main focus that was multiplayer has slowly shifted to free-to-play sections of the game as if they make a $25 sale from a free player that was never going to buy the full $70 product, then they (activision) got what they wanted.

its sad to see a game launch with less content then previous installments that came before it but in this current era of video game development, there will probably never be a new FPS that launches with more content then something before the big fortnite boom. many people also see this game thinking it had to somewhat resemble MW2 from 2009 which is why i also feel like there is a big disappointment behind it as I would like to believe everyone has their own nostalgia for MW2 if they played it but tend to forget how unbalanced it was and how that wouldnt work in today's age. But for the time MW2 was popular back then, the game had great maps and the gameplay (even though mostly broken) had great replayability to it alojng with the extra boost of the lobbies not disbanding. But that was basically back in the day of golden age console multiplayer.

If you like new cod/MW19 then you will enjoy this game's MP despite its awful publisher, bland maps, drip fed content you wait 2 months for that gives you less than old games, and its lackluster campaign.

I'm enjoying the game but there's many missing features from previous battlefields that should've launched with the game whether it's something to do with the UI, gameplay, or quality of life features.

The game in its current state is close to non playable whether it's the weapon bloom making what feels like every gun but one (PP-29) feel awful to shoot down range, bland maps that don't have any personality to them, operators/specialists that feel out of touch with the setting, annoying voice lines at the end of every match that you can basically memorize after an hour, promised customization of the specialists were going to be to the point you can't tell who is who but most of the options are locked behind high levels that are 50+, no revive or health symbols in the minimap for teamwork purposes (also cannot make the minimap bigger atm which is a let down), lobbies are disbanded after every map which makes some maps feel unavailable at points, I also keep running into the same people every other hour or so which makes me think there's some sort of sbmm involved but I honestly have no clue, no server browser to stick with communities like in BF3/4, lack of UI features from previous games, lack of UI customization from previous games, aircraft control feels off compared to BF4, no VOIP/voice chat, no all chat, no option to disable the profanity filter when most of the time it filters out regular words, 3rd person animations are both janky and not as smooth as the old first person animations from all previous games, optimization doesn't seem to be all there and might be a bottleneck of some sort, ttk is long, armor on spawn for a multiplayer is inhenerently selfish and dumb in general, GAMES AS A LIVE SERVICE IS AWFUL IN GENERAL (and leads to lazy development), tornado gets repetitive after the first 3 times you see it, destruction is alright but I'm sure other people would prefer every single iteration of previous games into this one (think BC2 buildings being flattened and BFV's blowing cover up and digging holes in the ground),

Positives: Portal was fun and cool but right now you can play all three games within a hour and there's not much community made options atm, graphics look really nice?.... , flying the little bird has been enjoyable but was a bit easier in BF4 it feels like, portal content should be great once the dumb gamesasaliveservice model starts up (hope the game is a bit more playable before they start adding more content in though), soundtrack

I do enjoy the game and will continue to play it but am overall just disappointed in terms of lack of previous content that didn't make it from other games, miss the old roles/faction looks of the soldiers, and hope the weapon spread/bloom isssue will be fixed so infantry gameplay will be a bit more fun before they add/fix more stuff. I'm sure I'm in the minority who will continue to play the game and deal with the lack of stuff and inclusion of bugs but overall I am just sad that a lot of things were simply omitted or not included. I feel like a majority of the games development cycle had to be forced onto the developers by the higher ups in order to keep up with the current genre and most likely soon to be egregious marketing and skins to be sold to make extra profit. Hopefully the game is in a playable and fun state before they open the store up and that a majority of bugs and missing features are in the game by then.

I will come back to review this every 4 months or so if see if anything has changed from this review.

TL:DR - if you're expecting a packed battlefield game and features from the old games, don't buy.

Best $20 i've spent on a video game in a long time.
Also only 1GB, and packed with loads of stuff I havent gotten to yet.

Great PvE, fun with friends and a different world/seed every map keeps the exploration going!
Other than that, game is unique in its own way and glad its getting the positive reviews it deserves.

Soundtrack is awesome and so is the tree physics.

csgo minigames in a nutshell

fun puzzle game
cool drawings
& pancakes

andawholetonofrulethirtyfourohnonono :>

Stupidly fun, never a dull moment.

and its fun to confuse people on the VR mic

came for the memes
left feeling empty