More than $1 of fun for a game that is sort of like PUBG, but fixes all of PUBG's problems and is also not really like PUBG at all. It has similar looting/gun customization/running-around-a-big-map mechanics, but fights play out more like a combination of Battlefield 1942, some competitor to Arma 1 that went free and I can't remember the name, and Return Fire. The gameplay loop is about teams of up to 4 players trying to collect 4 briefcases and then get off the island. The briefcases are marked on the map by a radius circle that estimates where they are within a certain area, meaning that whoever is holding a case is going to have part of the rest of the server after them. Desperate chases and shootouts ensue, and if you go down then you can respawn in 20 seconds and come up with a new plan. It all sounds pretty basic, but when it comes together, oh man. I was playing 2v3 with my brother, and over the course of a couple hours we kept exchanging briefcases with the other team as they out-maneuvered and out-gunned us at every turn. It came down to us with one last case, a messed up tank and APC, and no real small arms. We knew they were coming for us, so we set up across a bridge, parking our vehicles just behind a slope and waited. They sent a lone tank across. We watched the turret scanning the horizon, trying to figure out where we were as the driver double-checked the radial circle on his map. When they were 3/4 of the way across, I shouted GO GO GO and we popped out of cover and started blasting. The tank blew up and I saw one guy go running and began peppering the ground around him. From across the river, I started taking fire from a second tank, its shells going off around me as I juked and chased the runner down. I heard a motorcycle speeding across the bridge toward us, which terminated when my brother hit it dead-on with a tank shell. I nailed the runner then spun the turret around and started pelting the tank, which started juking through its cover in the trees. My brother drove his tank onto the bridge and started advancing, firing into the woods. Their tank got away, we got two cases, and it was a huge turning point in the match. Another good one was earlier on, when it was 2v2v3. It was night, pitch black, and all three teams were scrambling around a farm in the darkness, trying to find a case and kill everyone else. The three-player team had an APC, which is death on wheels to everyone that isn't in a tank, so we got blown up, respawned, blown up again, and then we decided to just follow the APC by crawling through the grass, which at night makes you nigh impossible to find. So we stalked this APC for a mile until we caught up with it, and as we were cresting the hill we ran into the other 2-person team, themselves crouched and trying to scope out a good time to take the vehicle on. We watched them watch, hoping they'd jump the gun and be a distraction (they did) so that the 3v would relax and hop out of the APC long enough for us to hop in and rain death (we did). So what am I trying to say here. Hmm. I guess that its approach to encounters is kind of like Arma, in the sense that the scope of the game makes good tactics more important than shooting skills; but then again, its approach to gunplay and interaction is far less rigid. You can run and reload your gun at the same time without taking a speed hit. You can open a door and reload at the same time. It does everything that is fun about milsims and then jettisons the stuff that isn't, which leaves you with a game that is surprisingly tactical while also surprisingly arcadey. Like, getting killed will set you back because you drop all of your guns and inventory...but then it's totally feasible to stealth your way back into a good position. Or to run off and grab a tank. Or an rpg. Or a horse. There are always options in both the short and long game, and it's rare that you'll be totally locked out of both to the point of guaranteed failure. A lot of reviewers say that the biggest problem is that not enough people play it, which is true, but the mechanics scale well with any number of players. A full 32-player 4v4v4v4v4v4v4v4 is pure mayhem and really fun, but 1v1ing your friend is also good and the mechanics are rich enough that the loss in sheer activity is made up for by trying to outwit and outplan your opponent. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of how games were fifteen years ago. A great emphasis on fun, ambitious in scope, a design that doesn't demand a ton of players for it to be any good, and some rough edges that are noticeable but don't get in the way of the game. It's a deal at $5 and a steal at $1, and if you have a friend that also has that many dollars, well buddy, you're good to go.
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