Recent reviews by Olanov

Nebula Data Error

Failed to Fetch Game Config Data.

It's not ready yet

- decent foundation for a SWAT 3-4 spiritual successor, but misses the mark by huge margin

- basic mod support is good but currently rather broken

- good number of weapons, equipment to deploy

- atmosphere featured on maps generally solid, but has a serious lack of "average" SWAT missions, everything is blown way out of proportion for the most part, either too many suspects or scale is too wide for a 5 man team

- massive performance issues and visual artifacts across a variety of maps, technical instability such as crashing

- every level turns into a massive gun battle as the AI practically never gives up, from convenience store robberies, to veterans barricaded with combat experience, there's very little to no difference, it's fight to the death

- inhumane reaction times: you'll see friendly officers executing surrendered enemies instant they turn hostile, and suspects tag you with near pinpoint accuracy as soon as you are slightly visible

- levels are imbalanced: you're often going up against multiple armed suspects with just 5 team members and are expected to follow ROE, with the aforementioned AI issues on top of it as well

- on top of all that, the game constantly strives you to arrest or use non-lethal weapons in situations, where it would be completely laughable as you're facing multiple armed suspects

- many of the earlier features have been scrapped or are in some sort of limbo, including sniper teams and drones

We waited a year for a massive update to drop and not only are there a lot of new bugs, issues with the various systems and mechanics, but the development team has not yet addressed the most glaring ones, such as suspect AI, which have been an ongoing topic of discussion since the dawn of time. On top of that, the game came out of early access as such, which is just not at all accurate as to the state of the game.

It's still early access, don't be fooled.

No brainer. You know what you gotta do.

This sequel to an award winning tactical shooter with a pinch of run and gun is some of the best first-person action you can get for your buck right now.

Offering a wide variety of maps from open, close quarters or a mix, team based game modes from PvE to PvP, guns, weapon modifications which are all unlocked straight from the start, only limited by classes, introducing character customization, there's a lot of content to go for and more on the way as of writing this review. New World Interactive's 2019 roadmap showcases free content coming this year, including but not limited to mod tools, new maps, night maps, new guns and more.

Bringing back fire support from their WW2 shooter, Day of Infamy, you have the Commander and Observer classes which need to work together and in close proximity to allow Commander to call in from wide range of fire support, each of the two factions having some unique quirks. As Security, you'll have some more high end assets, including a gunship or an A10 strafing run. But the insurgents are just as crafty with bomber drones and chemical mortars, with some global fire support options shared such as high explosive and smoke artillery.

Vehicles with mounted machine guns are introduced in specific game modes and can act as great mobile cover, changing the pace of a match fast similar to fire support. Of course, they make you a big target and attract attention as well.

Otherwise, it's Insurgency as you'll remember it, if you're familiar to the series, but with the perks that Unreal 4 brings such as massively improved visuals, audio and animation systems - perhaps most importantly, the ability to overcome limitations of the Source Engine and introduce a heap of new mechanics that weren't possible before.

There are number of issues ranging from bugs, balancing concerns but New World Interactive seems to be tackling these issues seriously, with large numbers of bug fixes each update according to the change logs, as well as providing community surveys which set the direction and priorities for the dev team.

The community seems to be what sincerely drives this game along with the developer's vision and that says a lot today.

Edit circa 28.11.2019

As of recent, the road map with upcoming feature listings has been removed from the storefronts, as the developers are fully focused on optimizing the game instead of adding new things, gearing up for the console launch of 2020. More content such as the night maps, mod support are in the pipeline but seemingly delayed until more resources are freed up.

Considering the continued transparency & dedication to try and polish the game up whilst already having brought us new content for free, I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt but if you're coming to this game right now, you should know that optimization is a current priority, not so much new content.

Edit circa 26.11.2020

We've finally received night maps, as well as new maps in general such as Power Plant, Tideway and Tell. Variety of new weapons, attachments, both of which there are more on the way as of writing this review, in the upcoming Cold Blooded update. Outpost as a new game mode and other features, as well as continued optimizations and bug fixes. All of this for free. It's done a lot to keep the game feeling fresh and definitely increased my engagement with the game.

It's not all sunshine and roses though, Breakaway update for instance, so far seemed like one of the buggiest updates to date, with some bugs still running amok, even as large number has been addressed. AI continues to be a hit and miss although with Breakaway, steps were taken towards the right direction and I do appreciate the effort.

Additional paid skins (weapon textures and cosmetics) have also been added and so far my reactions have been mixed. Some weapon skins early on felt especially strange and something that takes away from the type of grit the game has. Some of the more recent items have felt far more appropriate and the developers have seemingly acknowledged they maybe went a step too far earlier.

I'm thankful for the continued transparency the team provides and I only hope their ear remains to the ground as far as community feedback is concerned, especially regarding some features that they so far refuse to tackle, fire support canceling and reflective team damage to name a few.

Edit circa 25.11.2021

As updates continue to come out the highs get really high and the lows really low.

Starting with the positive, the new maps have been cool, Bab and Gap. Ambush is a particularly fun PVP game-mode and Survival for Co-op, as well. New weapons are always welcome but I have to question putting SMGs for the Advisor class over Breacher. As it is, Advisor class tends to already be one of the more fought over ones. Co-op AI has been made tougher but as a downside they also brought back snapshotting, something infinitely hated across the community and at the same time, they still feel pretty silly as well. Free cosmetics were nice, and the paid ones as well for the most part, but NWI walked back on their promise to keep them toned down, and the Insurgents received some pretty ridiculous looking high tech gizmos. Bit mixed.

The negative for the most part I would say comes from the sheer amount of bugs. Besides AI improvements making the AI snapshot once again, in Outpost mode they cause packet loss on respawns, and in Hardcore Checkpoint mode in Gap, no ammo boxes spawn at all, or resupply cache at the end, causing major difficulty spikes, especially at night.

Paid cosmetics were locked due to a bug, although fixed in a hotfix fairly fast but it left a very sour taste.

Some cosmetic items are warping well above player models and giving locations and have yet to been fixed.

Fire support options can no longer be angled to arrive in specific directions and bomber drones do not land on target, and detonate several times over, breaking audio.

But that's just to name a few. It didn't seem ready to come out at all and it shows, now more than ever we need communication, PSA but we're getting very little to no. That transparency I praise them for is not here at the moment and that leaves me very worried for the future of NWI.

Edit circa 4.12.2024

Been a few years. The game continues to get more updates, more content. Both free and paid. They have since taken in community feedback and reverted some things, such as allowing to angle fire support again, and they continue to do limited time game modes by voting.

The game also released on consoles since but unfortunately doesn't feature crossplay to merge the playerbases. Fortunately however, there's still a lot of people on this daily and matchmaking isn't a challenge. The server quality does seem to have degraded, at least the last few times it did eventually hitch a number of times, dropping people out. Hopefully this trend doesn't continue to get worse.

A fantastic game to waste your money on, but not much else. After over 5 years of development, fresh out of Early Access after being stuck in it for most of those years, it still continues to struggle to deliver on failed promises.

I'm already compelled to recommend it just for the reactions here.

All in all, it's endless amount of fun for only a dollar. Hitting Mr. Trump in his orange face or baby-like hands gave me a rush that no drug ever could.

If you ever needed more of a reason to hate the company, they're going after modding. Again.

https://gtaforums.com/topic/973749-take-two-changes-the-agreement-modding-take-downs/

https://gtaforums.com/topic/889348-take-two-vs-modding/

The road is long and my hair is greasy.