Insurgency

At first sight, Insurgency demonstrates nothing more than the average Battlefield or Call of Duty experience. Look deeper, however, and the game is far more than just a mediocre shooting experience. But it still doesn't demonstrate factors that can compete with other shooters. But Insurgency focuses on making a realistic shooter rather than a top of the notch graphically enticing title which is definitely a plus in my book.

Primarily, the game itself features a good chunk of content. The game contains 8 different maps, 4 game modes, over  14 weapons,  and that's not including customizations, nor the chance to create your own maps as well. The game modes consist of firefight, hunt, push, and skirmish. Most of these have been done before, but in many ways, Insurgency adds its own spin to them. For example, in push, players have a certain number of chances to receive revival or else they will have failed the mission and this is the same for the enemy team as well.

However, speaking in terms of the combat itself, the multiplayer does a fantastic job demonstrating what a realistic shooter truly should be and how teamwork is a necessity. Players do not get infinite lives in multiplayer, every death counts as it counts against the amount of times they have to gain an advantage. If a player rushes out to the enemy zone without thinking it through, they can not only show where your whole team is located, but also risking their lives as it's one less man on the field.

In terms of the shooting, the game is very difficult and this is one of the portions that shows realism. Insurgency is very much based on the quote: "high risk, high reward". The game focuses on the idea, you either get the first shot on the enemy, or you'll be the first one to die, as gun damage is realistic. Players will die with one shot to the body, they will get flanked and then shot on the back, there's no such thing as jumping around in order to avoid bullets, and in many times, grenades are far more useful for hiding than to kill an enemy. In addition, the gunplay itself is spot on. Guns are easy to handle and actually feel tight when shooting a target, as the ammo follows where the muzzle is pointing. There's also no crosshairs, meaning players will not have hand holding, and the customizations are somewhat necessary.

Speaking of customizations, each and every weapon has a set of customization players can choose from. From scopes, to amour piercing bullets, to even flashlights to surprise your victim. Of course, the main problem with this is how it's barely explained at all. Apparently, a team gets a set of supplies that they can use, usually it's 8 from what I've witness first hand, however, the game never bothers to explain how this system works. Do your teammates choose the amount of supplies do they want, or is this evenly split or so on and so forth. But this is a great feature for the game as it adds to things players need to think about. If they're having a hard time killing the enemy team because they're are wearing west, it's time to get out the armor piercing bullets, or if you want to initiate a surprise attack, it's time to utilize the flashlight at its best.     

Of course, these pros don't mean the game is perfect by any means of the word whatsoever. The game itself is actually one of the buggiest early access titles I have played. During my five hour playthrough in order to preview the title, I found myself constantly having troubles. Sometimes, I couldn't find a server, even though I knew for a fact there were several people playing on it. Other times, I fell through the ground, and sometimes I would try to load up a game with people clearly playing on it, and finding myself dead even though the rest of the players were revived.

Despite the clear faults that Insurgency demonstrates, my time with the game was very enjoyable. I did like being shot down for making dumb mistakes, such as wasting all my ammunition on a single enemy or not hiding behind cover on a daily basis or the fact is, I should have thought about what I was going to do before doing it. Or perhaps that I never bothered to work with my team even though I should have. I am however expecting that the games AI, the graphics to look a lot more concrete, and in general, I want everything the developers promised. Currently there's no release date for Insurgency, but I for one am waiting impatiently for the overall product.

Zeeshan Sajid, NoobFeed