0
MW5 is finally going to release on Steam as it should have, that is nice.
We can, hopefully, if PGI has not provoked too much ire with lies and backstabbing, expect some new life to come to this game. People love multiplayer and they'll look for a multiplayer component of MW5.
But that life will not last nor change anything IF THE GAME DOES NOT CHANGE.
The game is riddled with flawed designs, lack of proper balance etc....
MAPS! Oh boy the maps... designed in such a way that most of them ENFORCE bad play, nascars, peek-a-boo gameplay, lurmspam, 3-4 minutes of walking before anyone even sees an enemy mech, single choke-points on an entire map...
Impassable mountains, long treks around them for single fast mechs that just end up meeting entire blobs of mechs standing at chokepoints ( = suicide and waste of time).
Extremely long stretches of open terrain no one wishes to go over so everyone stands in a ditch and lurms...
King of the hill maps where people can only nascar because middle is a killzone, peek-a-boo maps (like Alpine, Lava map again etc...).
HUGE MAPS which are now most of them, extended beyond reason for artificial match time. A huge portion of those maps is never even visited for travel, combat, recreation nor sightseeing.
Matchmaking... the game is not in its golden years and cannot expect to enjoy the population it had before. Matching 12v12 takes longer, creates extremely crowded chokepoints, DPS potential of a mech blob is too big...
Weapon balance.... does not really exist due to incredible and enviable customization system. It results in extremely fast kill times for the unfortunate because of the nasty power creep and boating of pinpoint ballistics and dakka like x4 AC5, x2 UAC10 x2 UAC5 MadCats and so on, a single mistake often leaves you feeling like you're in a giant papermech, not a lumbering monstrosity that can tank damage and dish out some. Builds that are bound to a single key for mindless spam instead of creativity, multiple weapon systems, engagement ranges etc.... one-weapon boats make the gameplay very boring so I personally tend to build diversly but it tends to result poorly when you OFTEN run into things with pinpoint 20 alpha every 1.7 seconds from quad AC5s, SMR6 carriers etc...
Fights do not feel like brawls, more like Call of Duty.
Ghost heat does fix some of them but not all as evidenced by ballistic builds.
Game modes are... pretty much all the same. Skirmishes. Only difference is Conquest where it's Kill-all-before-one-side-wins-by-points. This creates lack of diverse gameplay hindered by already poor map design.
Gameplay itself in this game is extremely satisfying, aside from being the only proper "newer" MechWarrior game where you take control of a single mech, the movement and shooting, the weapons, mech designs and diversity... it's incredible. It truly offers a unique experience not found in other games or titles and it feels like SUCH A WASTE for it to be squandered and abandoned, neglected by PGI, leaving the game to its own devices. This game needs serious servicing, polishing touches. Even with just a little bit of attention this title could truly shine and gain a proper following.
I hope there will be a larger influx of players to this game. I really do. But I do not believe many will stay for even a month if some things about this game do not change. Maps, kill times, matchmaker waiting times, players-per-match...
I am not a big fan of the faction gameplay but I know a good number of people are. And there is a lot of players looking for a competitive game. But this will not be that game if the number of players does not increase, which it will not if this game remains the same as it was when it went from MWO-release-day to MWO 2.0. The foundations for this game are really solid but the clay on top is dry and crumbling. It needs some sculpturing.
I am probably just talking to a wall as have all the people on the forum in the past several years, clamoring for changes only to see PGI do the EXACT OPPOSITE. Whole lists of compiled issues, design ideas, suggestions, statistics, raw and processed data, spreadsheets... all like piss in the wind.
I have quit this game 4 times before. I really like it but I just cannot recommend it to anyone because of all of its surface issues. And that really needs to change. They are just surface issues, simple changes...
Edited by Acersecomic, 08 December 2020 - 01:29 AM.
