Marathon

After all the controversy leading up to the launch, I only touched this game during the Server Slam so that I could say I actually played the next Concord before it died on release. I could be one of those 200 players on the Steam chart who saw the thing firsthand, and actually talk about the gameplay that no one had played. And also, because despite hating the genre and not playing FPS games in forever, I had to see this funky ass aesthetic for myself. 20 hours in the Server Slam in one weekend later and I'm thinking about playing it at work, and the day after it ended I'm thinking "Damn, really wish I could do a quick run right now". I had to concede I was wrong and it had its hooks in me. Now over 400 hours deep I gotta say its great, if it shut down tomorrow I still would've got way, way more than my moneys worth and had months of fun since launch. This is not really a casual friendly game, the community is decidedly PvP heavy (cause it feels so much fun to get into fights, and players usually have the best loot) and game knowledge and skill is almost more important than good gear. Don't get me wrong, you'll get ♥♥♥♥ on by good guns in a fair fight, but if you know what you're doing and have good game sense, you don't make it a fair fight. That and knowing what loot is where, what's worth hunting for and bringing back, good team comps, ability use, etc. is as important as being able to click on heads real good. It can feel very all or nothing at times, especially since there's no safe pocket or any way to get items out mid run, so if you die, that's it. But faction missions can grant items and gear even if you don't make it out, and the shop has a good baseline of gear that refreshes daily, and plenty of free daily items to get you back on your feet even if you have nothing. One good run, catching one geared up team with their pants down, or even coming through somewhere after another team has taken the best loot and scooping up the leftovers can make up for a half dozen failed runs, assuming you're not bringing your life savings out every time. I'm partial to running the gray free kits half the time even with purple shields in my shop and a nearly full vault just going in with nothing and coming out loaded is too much fun. You might be able to get some enjoyment out of it if you're trying to be friendly, or if you're mainly looking for PvE (they're adding a pure PvE mode July 21st so maybe that's worth it on its own, we'll see), but the PvP is where its at, and most players are in a shoot first talk never mindset, myself included. Even when I know I'm screwed and I could try to talk it out, or being a full team of gray shields vs purples and blues, the fighting is just too much fun, and you get numb to losing gear when so much comes and goes. But on occasion you might get someone who just wants to get a mission done, or a team who really doesn't want to fight, or very rarely people looking to team up to do something and you can talk things out. That said, your teammates are usually very chatty and all around nice, in over 400 hours I can count on one hand how many actually toxic or negative people I've run into in crew fill trios, and only 2 of them actually threw the run or left early. The worst you might get is someone with a loud hot mic, or someone not talking who takes off running off to do their own thing and dies silently, and the guys that kill you might call you trash on prox comms every once in a while, but most people are talking as soon as you load in and can usually help you out if you're looking to do some specific objective or get some certain loot. The aesthetic and design of everything is very polarizing, I know. If you like it you love it, and there's so much stuff in all the little details, the designs, all the little lore items and cutscenes. The whole vibe of everything is like nothing else out there and just, the color, just, god, actual color! A video game that isn't gray and brown smeared over high res textures. A sci-fi world that isn't sleek and silver and white and greebled out the ass. Its this weird ass sci-fi-bio-3d-printed weirdo future, and its great. It just looks and sounds beautiful. If you can't stand it there's not really much I can say about that, it is what is is, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is it something I wont forget. Genuinely, if you have any aspect of the game you think you might like, give it a shot. I came in a pure hater who hates the genre and the idea of losing my stuff and now I'm grinding for my last 2 Cryo skins. I couldn't be happier to say I was completely wrong.