Quick note to start: this is all subjective stuff, I don't necessarily expect people to agree with everything I say, let alone any of it. Also I'm sorry for the wall of text but I really wanted to effort post this game.
I've been spending the last while playing IW quite a bit, more than I should be. I didn't play the game at all at launch, I instead continued playing BO3. I still play BO3. Part of the reason I wound up grabbing IW (outside of it being on sale) was because I had read quite a bit about it and it seemed like it was a really interesting take on the same sort of formula BO3 has.
I'd like to share my thoughts on this game as a newcomer playing the game in 2019, when the game has reached its maximum maturity. A lot of what I have to say has probably all been said before, numerous times, by many people, but I thought it might be relevant and maybe even interesting in some way because of the disproportionate amount of time I've spent playing the previous game in the series, BO3.
Just to be clear, I'm aiming for more constructive criticism on the game. I've been having fun with it and usually playing pretty well, so I don't think I have much salt bias. I hope not anyway.
Things I Like
First of all the game's aesthetic approach, the art design, is really very good. Infinite Warfare massively errs towards the rule of cool rather than any realism or rationality and it is very charismatic for it. The maps generally look great, but the weapons particularly shine; the overall uniqueness of the arsenal was genuinely one of the biggest reasons I took the chance with the game.
I also appreciate that Infinity Ward went out of their way to make some genuinely gimmicky and unusual types of weapons that haven't really existed in the games up to this point, especially stuff like the Type-2 and G-Rail, which really don't have any previous equivalent in any of the games, at least as far as I can remember. Beyond there's a lot of variety in general, with the Launchers category surprisingly standing out with a lot of viable and interesting options.
I also want to praise the fact that Infinity Ward actually had some restraint when it came to including melee weapons. One of the things I didn't like with BO3's Black Market (you know, aside from the entire system itself) was that there was an absolute deluge of blunt and bladed instruments which were completely redundant and generally pretty disappointing as a supply drop item. In IW, not only are there fewer options, but the ones that are there actually appear to function differently, which is pretty great.
The huge number of equipment options is fantastic, even though a number of them don't appear to be all that useful (the exploding drone doesn't seem all that great, for example). A lot of it is pretty new stuff to the series and everything that isn't usually has some major change in functionality to make it still feel different to previous games. It's honestly a pretty ambitious list of options and I appreciate that they put so much effort into it, it all honestly seems pretty balanced as far as I can tell.
The scorestreaks are overall fun to play around with and I think the variant system for them actually works surprisingly well. Nothing seems to be particularly underpowered or overpowered as far as I can tell. It all seems pretty well thought out.
The actual system for acquiring gear and crafting stuff and all that is a vast improvement over what BO3 has, or perhaps more accurately what it does not have. Like it's not even a competition at all, it's just straight-up completely better. Of course, I'd rather just have no system at all and not have to worry about that stuff, but given that we live in Hellworld and that no longer seems to be an option anymore, I guess I'll have to deal with it.
Things I'm Not Too Sure About
The map design in general is basically just okay. I don't think any maps in this game are really ever going to be considered "classics", in the way that stuff like Dome, Firing Range or Afghan are. None of the maps seem to be really bad though, they all largely function fine and you've got options on the maps, but they're not particularly special either. I don't think I can really articulate why I feel this way this either, the maps are... just kind of there. They exist and I play matches in them. I also find that the maps are really not designed in a way that makes hunting for UAVs and other air support easy without massively exposing yourself, without Engineer I mean. I'm not entirely sure if this is actually something that's baked into the maps or if it's just because I'm not completely familiar with them yet, it could very well be the latter.
The change to specialists with the new rig system is a bit of a mixed blessing. I like most of the abilities (Bullrush in particular is incredibly entertaining), but I'm not sure I'm too crazy about putting traits on the rigs, since it's resulted in previously useful perks being seriously nerfed in different ways. Scavenger is a good example of this: Warfighter's Resupply makes the perk have seriously lower value while at the same time meaning that if you happen to be playing a class that is based around a lot of equipment usage, odds are you'll be stuck with Warfighter (or maybe Stryker) to get good use out of it. The thing is, this specific example doesn't make Scavenger useless or anything, but it becomes far more niche than it is in a game like BO3.
The overall balance of the traits seems weird too. For example I don't think that any of the other traits available to Phantom are anywhere near as good as Heightened Senses, since the only perk that blocks that trait is very niche and rarely used and the other available traits are incredibly situational and rarely seem to actually be worth it, at least from my limited time trying them. It just seems like there are some traits that are exceptionally good, surrounded by a number that are either way too situational (Shockwave) or aren't even remotely worth it (Persistance).
Having said all that, that you can change your rig entirely mid-match is a pretty welcome change and helps mitigate some of my issues with the system. I think I'd still rather not have traits at all.
Perks in general seem to be weaker than in previous games, often either providing a pretty minimal benefit (like Cold Blooded) or being difficult to really seriously take advantage of (Momentum). Whenever I build a class in this game, I don't really feel like I'm benefiting that much from taking a lot of perks, particularly compared to previous games. There's a few standout perks that seem to be pretty powerful overall (Dexterity and Hardwired come to mind), but those perks wind up highlighting how skewed the Pick-10 system seems to be in this one. For what it's worth, the grand majority of players I meet have the same handful of perks and stuff like Momentum never seems to be one of them.
Weapon balance outside of the variant system seems really strange, less in the fact that some weapons are too good, more in the fact that some weapons just seem to be... kind of shitty. In the entire time that I have played, I have literally never seen anyone use the KBAR-32. Ever, at all. I've tried to use it and it seems pretty bad as an assault rifle and pretty iffy as an SMG for that matter. In truth, there seems to be a number of weapons that never really get touched at all, even if we're including variants in the mix too. I know that every weapon has its defenders and there will be people telling me that the KBAR is, in fact, good, but it's really jarring that the game seems to have an abundance of stuff like NV4s, Karmas, R.A.W.s, etc, being used, while there's a good chunk of weapons that seem to be neither popular or even really worth using. It's a problem with every COD, but IW's reduced number of base weapons (generally speaking) really makes it stand out in a big way.
Shotguns and sniper rifles really seem to have gotten the shaft, at least from my limited experience. For shotguns, the weapons themselves tend to be very inconsistent and high risk when you consider how much you have to put into them. For sniper rifles, the default aiming speed is incredibly poor without quickdraw (particularly compared to BO3) and most of the maps don't seem to be conducive for sniping at all. I admit, part of that point might have to do with the fact that I don't know the maps really well yet, but generally speaking there tends to be far fewer ways to properly defend your flank (especially with placeable equipment not being all that effective) than previous games, with sightlines tending to be much more limited and harder to work with in general.
The game seems to really favor ARs, SMGs and LMGs on the whole. I don't think this is necessarily that big of a deal, but it's a bit of a bummer compared to how this isn't always the case in these games, notably in BO3 where you can easily use pretty much anything on any map and get away with it if you're good. Now, that's still true in IW, but it seems like you have to put drastically more work into it if you're playing with a shotgun or sniper.
Things I Really Don't Like
The weapon variants are the second biggest problem with the game for me. It seems that the majority of variants either don't do much of anything or don't really work that great, while on the other hand you will have certain Epic level variants that are either a significant improvement over the base weapon, have drastically different functionality, or both. This leads to issues where certain weapons seem to actually be extremely limited outside of getting certain variants. Shotguns seem to be a particularly huge example of this and I'm basing this not only on opinions I've seen from other people on this sub, but also through my own experiences when picking up shotgun variants.
So basically the issue comes from the fact that most weapons appear to have one or two variants that are straight-up better than the base weapon, with the only ways to get the weapon either being through sheer dumb luck in supply drops or by spending hours and hours playing the game to get salvage. This creates a not-insignificant power gap between people who have put in the time and those that haven't. I think that it's pretty natural and reasonable for people playing the game longer than people who have just started, but through experience, not because they've spent the hours building up 4000 salvage to produce an incredible gun. That's really the root of my problem with the system here: if Infinity War must put major game changes in the game as variants, it really sucks that they're kind of a pain in the ass to get in a reasonable amount of time.
In a way it's kind of like Pro Perks from previous games in that people who are able to put in more time will benefit more from those who can't/won't in a more material way beyond skill. Basically it makes the game less of a level playing field. Again, I absolutely agree that a person playing the game more should have the benefit of experience and practice, but I think providing actual hard benefits that makes things even easier for them is pretty bad design overall.
Having said all that, it's probably still a better system than what AW had. There are still absolutely dominant variants, but there seems to be more thought put into the system and less resulting Obsidian Steeds as a result.
Finally, IW seems to have a particularly terrible spawning system, which I have both benefited from and been burned by. I've seen people spawn in front of me, I've spawned in front of other people. I have respawned five feet away from where I've died countless times and I've seen the same happen to other players, even when the area is not even remotely safe. This isn't an occasional thing like most of the other games in the series either, I've seen it happen several times a match and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot I can do about it.
The most jarring thing about it is that it doesn't really seem to depend on the map either. I've seen it happen in every map and every mode that I've played (aside from Frontline of course). I have genuinely no idea how it's so consistently bad. It honestly feels broken, as if the game had just come out and they were still in the process of fixing the spawns. The spawns are never perfect in this series but it really stands out in this one, I've never quite dealt with anything like it.
I honestly like the game overall. It has a lot of unique ideas and there are certain aspects that it absolutely nails. I find it's really rough around the edges though and that there are certain things that just flat-out don't really work much for the player's benefit. Basically it's a COD game I guess.
tldr: game is good, but has problems
Submitted April 03, 2019 at 05:47AM by CodeOfHamOrRabbi https://ift.tt/2HSb3tq
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