credit to @dongle for insisting I had to try this out after we both lamented the loss of titanfall 2 multi
it takes a solid ten hours with this game to actually get halfway decent at it because it has a roster of 30 characters that you want to kind of understand how to go up against & it’s extremely difficult initially to adjust to just how much terrain is destructible and when you can shoot through walls & you die in like two hits so reaction and positioning are incredibly important & having a good team that clicks and a few characters you like to play makes a massive difference
but holy lord it is good
it has the counterstrike style pacing combined with extremely good & open-ended level design & a meta that is extremely interesting but not comprised disproportionately of hard counters that get substantially in the way of actual moment-to-moment gameplay
the player base is actually decent and you can get the game for just $20 ($10 on sale!) if you buy the starter edition that makes it take prohibitively long to unlock characters (like 12 hours each vs. 1) other than the six you start with
you used to be able to pick the characters you got with starter but only get 4 and now it’s all randomized and the selection is slightly worse – I actually don’t regret at all that I got the game for ten bucks because I like my four (now five) characters, but most people tell you not to get this version
you’re not allowed to play ranked for your first 15 hours which is a very good decision. the single player is obviously just a tutorial but actually a very worthwhile one.
it also scales up and down really well – I currently have a 90 gotdang GB install because of the optional ultra texture pack, but I have no doubt at all that it would be totally fine on like a 750
it’s a little unforgiving for sb tastes I think because you really do have to accept that you’ll be like the worst player on your team for the first five hours at least but it’s worth it
latency will get you killed though, I’ve never wondered about my wireless keyboard before
it makes so many design decisions that initially seem too aggressive (for example, hip fire is almost useless) but eventually come to feel really good & the community is actually very forgiving for the most part
the sightlines (and the degree to which they may or may not be blocked off by fortifications or blown walls) are a thing of beauty and make me feel like an FPS design guy when I am in reality nothing of the sort
I like boarding myself up in a bathroom or something right next to the objective when possible and knocking some holes in the walls to shoot through at anyone getting to the objective. I killed almost an entire team that way once. but there’s also a lot of idiot teammates who like to reinforce the walls in the objective room that just lead to those little side rooms, instead of the actual entryways, then I can’t hole up in there and knock holes the wall
the environmental audio also actually works in practice to an incredible degree which is not something I’m aware of any other multiplayer shooters accomplishing
ubi has frankly done a really good job with this, I don’t think I’ve ever played any other tom clancy game at any point in the past two decades for more than like 90 minutes before
you log on and you get a random map and objective and take turns being attackers and defenders and it’s just this great big meaty tense thing
I am tempted to draw a comparison to new Hitman in that it’s a pretty stalwart unpretentious franchise that went a decade without having really topped the earliest entries & seemed a little meatheaded at a distance but something about this generation really let them focus resources to make an admirable flexible game
it also has the same agreeable “less of this is plenty” pricing model
This is going to be a comparison no one will agree with but it’s the closest thing to Umbrella Corps I’ve found since, however like Umbrella Corps a lot of your situational awareness and enemy discovery comes from environmental sound so I never felt like I could satisfactorily play it while watching TV. So I didn’t touch Siege at all last year despite picking up the Season 2 pass. Surprisingly most (not all) of the time the people voice chatting were actually really nice even if it almost always went like:
I still have it installed though so if a bunch of SB people got together to play I’d probably hop in.
This game has so many little details and mechanics that add up. They all can be relevant too.
Then the game rewards you for knowing the cast, and the mix you’re facing in a certain, round. It’s just great. By no small factor, they have improved it through the years as well.
it is probably too twitchy to be accessible for many people but it only really seems that way when you’re losing – every death is “ah, if only I could’ve gotten that shot off cleaner / faster” but your actual kills rarely seem as much so. in practice it’s a strategic game that’s only twitchy when the strategy breaks down. which is exactly what it should be!
being able to monitor the cameras and call out to your teammates after you die is also just genius, it’s such a nice kind of engaged downtime
if you find yourself just way too bad at the multi, try the single-player, it only takes a couple hours to run through all the tutorial scenarios on normal & you will learn a lot
also don’t give up on the game until you’ve been matched into at least one really good team where at least four out of five of you are communicating and planning together, it’s incredibly enjoyable and generally happens like once an hour for me (then the team can vote to stick together until you stop playing)
Hell, I’m way too anxious to just hop online after all I’ve heard. I don’t want to be the noob that ruins the game for the team. I’m definitely going to get my training wheels in singleplayer first
no matter what you will be bad for your first several hours of multi as you’re learning what all the different supermoves are and where the sightlines are on the maps. the singleplayer at least gets you used to the gamefeel but you’re gonna have to deal with dragging your team down if you want to get into this!
there’s a reason it takes so long before you’re allowed to play ranked
I heard good things about the Siege community from several sources so I think I’ll be okay with that! Supposedly it’s really supportive and laid back. But then again that was before the game blew up like it has, recently
