OPERATOR

died heroicly with a tourniquet on my neck

Overall, this game is just fun, and I think that’s probably the most important thing I can say about it. Does it need some refinement? Absolutely. Does it desperately need more missions and maps? Yes. Please. But even in its current state, the developers have gotten a lot right here, and I’ve already found myself putting hours into it without really intending to. For $20, I honestly don’t think the asking price is unreasonable at all. There are definitely things that need to be improved and expanded, but what’s already here is good enough that I have no problem recommending it. The gunplay is probably one of the biggest highlights for me. Weapons feel powerful, shooting feels satisfying, and firefights have a weight to them that a lot of tactical shooters never quite manage to capture. It doesn’t just feel like you’re clicking on enemies until they fall over. When a firefight kicks off, it actually feels chaotic and dangerous. The suppression effects are especially well done. Incoming fire actually makes you want to get behind cover instead of standing there trying to win a gunfight through better aim. Bullets cracking past your head, rounds impacting and ricocheting off nearby objects, and the general violence and confusion of a firefight all come together incredibly well. And this is one area where I have a little bit of real-world perspective. I’ve been on three combat deployments, so unfortunately I know what incoming fire and actual combat sound and feel like. Obviously, no video game is going to truly recreate that experience—and I don’t expect one to—but the sound and atmosphere of firefights in this game are some of the closest I’ve heard in a very long time. The crack of rounds passing nearby is especially impressive. The ricochets, impacts, gunfire, and the way everything starts blending together once things get loud genuinely caught my attention. There have been moments where rounds started snapping overhead and impacting around me and my immediate reaction was basically, “Damn, they actually got that pretty close.” That’s something I really appreciate. A lot of tactical shooters can simulate weapons, equipment, movement, and ballistics, but still somehow make combat feel sterile. You know you’re being shot at because your screen tells you that you’re being shot at. Here, you can feel the difference between shooting at somebody and somebody shooting back at you. That distinction matters, and this game handles it extremely well. The missions themselves are also genuinely enjoyable. I’m not playing them just because I want to test another weapon or mess around with the mechanics—I actually enjoy running the missions. That’s also why the lack of content is probably my biggest complaint right now. I want more. More maps. More missions. More scenarios. More reasons to keep using these mechanics. That’s actually a pretty good problem for an early game to have. I’m not sitting here thinking, “They need to completely redesign this.” I’m thinking, “You built something I really enjoy playing. Now please give me more of it.” There are definitely areas that could use tweaking and polishing, and I’m sure people who spend enough time with the game will find plenty of individual mechanics they want changed. I have my own little complaints too. But the foundation is already here, and that foundation is surprisingly strong. I’ve played Ground Branch, Ready or Not, and quite a few other tactical shooters, and so far I’ve honestly enjoyed my time with this more than several of them. That doesn’t necessarily mean this game is more polished or has more content than those games, because right now it doesn’t. What it does mean is that I simply enjoy playing it more. There’s something about the gunplay, atmosphere, sound design, suppression, and overall flow of the missions that clicks for me. It feels less like I’m admiring a tactical-shooter simulation and more like I’m actually playing a game. And when everything comes together during a firefight, this game can be seriously impressive. For $20, I think there’s already enough here to justify giving it a shot if this kind of game is your thing. More importantly, I think there’s a ton of potential here. If the developer keeps listening to feedback, refining the mechanics, adding content, and building on what already works instead of trying to reinvent everything, the sky really is the limit. So far, I’ve loved my time with it. I’ll absolutely keep playing it, and I’ll be following the project to see where it goes. The developers have something good here. Now, seriously… PLEASE GIVE US MORE LEVELS.

This game is well worth the price, which is honestly not that much. It serves as a legitimate training aid if that's something you're into, but also just as a great video game in and of itself. Much prefer this to Ground Branch as it has far more features and feels more grounded in reality. As someone who trains IRL but doesn't often get the chance to practice small unit tactics, I really appreciate this game. Obviously you're missing out on the physical aspect of training with others but this game gives you an amazing idea and helps you legitimately formulate tactics and identify areas of concern or attention for when you can physically do it. The game has also helped me in solo training since it's given me some idea of what trying to CQB solo would look like, and obviously it isn't ideal (to say the least). It also has helped my real training by showing just how important verticality is when scanning an environment in a combat situation — I realized just how often I was missing targets that were above the areas I usually scan and has reminded me to pay more attention to what's above me at any given moment. Another neat thing that applies to real life is weapon attachments and their positioning. I like that I'm able to 'try out' different attachments and find my ideal positioning before ever spending the money irl. As an example, flashlight positioning matters because putting a flashlight too far back or at the wrong spot on your weapon can cause the muzzle or muzzle device to block some of the light throw. Especially if you have a suppressor attached — I've found that putting the WML as far forward and as close to the bottom of the weapon as possible helps negate the shadow cast by the suppressor. The shadow is then cast mostly only upwards, towards the ceiling, meaning that the light is still thrown onto the areas you pay most attention to and the shadow is cast where you pay least attention. I don't have a suppressor yet irl, but am planning to, so I appreciate that now I know I might need to move the WML I have already if it casts a similar shadow to in game. Very awesome to be able to work together with others in game and practice real world tactics so that you're more familiar with those tactics when you go to train in person. Especially since I like to visualize myself doing these things when I'm training at home, so I've noticed an improvement in my communication and ability to seamlessly work with others when doing in person real CQB or small unit training. Another neat thing is how you sprint faster and reload faster when your weapon is in the high ready stance, but it takes longer to ADS. I really like the arm 'stamina' mechanic, and how the different weapon stances affect different things. When I shoot irl, I bring my weapon under my arm into a similar stance to high ready as I'm reloading because through lots of practice I've found that to be the way that I most quickly and comfortably reload but when I'm done reloading it does take a noticeably longer amount of time to reshoulder my weapon and reacquire my sights. Super cool to see that in game, and the arm fatigue mechanic is very real too because obviously holding a weapon at the ready for extended periods of time does start to take a toll. Aside from real world applications, the game is also well thought out and addicting. I bought it a while back and didn't play much but checked back in after seeing its had some major updates and the improvement is MAJOR. The AI is pretty damn smart, and they'll lie in wait for you in places that you wouldn't expect from a video game's AI. That makes CQB really exciting and challenging, and again helps with real world applications for making you consider each and every possible hiding spot and angle. There are a variety of viable tactics for clearing spaces. Everything from taking it tactically and slow, to having a partner open the door while you toss in a frag, to lobbing 40mm HE at open windows, to prefiring each and every single door, window and wall with an M249 or Sig XM250 works wonderfully and has it's own pro's and con's. There's a ton of replayability to the game since AI spawns are randomized to a degree so they'll be in different places and behind different doors each time, and because of the variety of weapons and attachments giving you a bunch of different styles and approaches to missions. Genuinely cannot wait for future updates to see what weapons and attachments are added because obviously you can never have enough; Plus, the COMBLOC side of things definitely needs a bit of love considering there are only 3 choices right now being the SVD, AKM, and AK-74M with the latter being the most customizable. I'm also excited to see what maps get added along with the new missions and objectives since there's a hell of a lot that they could add but I understand the dev team is small and likes to be thorough with the things they do add, For an EA game, there is a surprising lack of bugs. You'll obviously encounter some but they've done a really great job. Although gaming culture these days has also led us to expect an EA game to be practically unplayable, considering that there are some AAA games that were totally broken at launch. Either way, massive props to the devs because there are very few bugs and when you do encounter them, they usually are not game breaking. In terms of features and stuff, I think they have a lot of the bases covered and every major feature you'd expect from a milsim is available in the game. One thing I do wish they'd add, however, is the ability to scavenge magazines and grenades from dead enemies. You can currently take their weapons, but I think it would certainly be within the realm of possibility to realistically open up an enemies chest rig and take the magazines out if you needed to. The only reason you'd be picking up an enemies weapon right now anyway is because you ran out of ammo. That and a system to share ammo with your buddies would be great. Also, a medic 'role' or 'class' and the ability to share medical supplies along with ammo, Perhaps you could equip a medical bag in place of either your 'special' weapon slot (like grenade launchers or breaching tools) or your second primary slot (occupied by long arms like precision rifles) which can be custom loaded with different medical supplies to help keep yourself and your team alive. The ability to change out your medical supplies at all would be nice, though the game does a good job of distributing the necessary items in sensible quantities already. To go with that idea, I'd really like to see something like a bandolier or supply bag that could take up a weapon slot like the medical bag. This way someone on the team could load the bag with magazines or ammo boxes to keep a team gunner up, or just to distribute something like standard 5.56 STANAG mags when people start running low. Realistically someone on the team usually does bring some sort of extra ammunition that gets shared if it's needed so I'd like to see that added with the medical system. A medical update in general would be amazing since you currently can't heal teammates. A system like Arma Reforger would be fantastic, but also it obviously doesn't need to be that in depth since the system we already have is cool and works well without overcomplicating things. We just need to be able to help out others, and definitely need to be able to drag them to safety. Overall, if you're on the fence or asking yourself whether you should buy this game or not: the answer is YES. You will not regret it, There are a few keybinds that you'll want to set up and get familiar with, but honestly what game these days doesn't have that ♥♥♥♥? Keyboard and mouse tech is gonna need to start catching up so we have more options, lol. Already use every key and button on my mouse. But I digress, it's a really fun game that can be replayed a lot. Plus the devs pay attention which is always nice :)

666

Good

Super fun, worth the price

The game is pretty solid in its foundation with some performance issues here and there and some quality of life issues that could definitely be resolved before the full release. The Good: The gunplay is a lot of fun, every gun sounds very punchy and gunfights feel tense. Receiving fire from an enemy feels as stressful as you could get in a video game. The gun customization is great and you could put together pretty much any gun you can think of assuming the base of it is available in game. Killing enemies feel really rewarding as their bodies will viscerally react to being shot, some with extremely gory effect. Once you beat a mission, you get a "Simulation" option where you can adjust the amount of enemies and the difficulty so you can add some variety and test out different weapons. The Bad: Movement feels very clunky. The walking is fine when you're on a close quarters map, but there are some larger maps where it makes it tough and tedious to get around and it ruins the feel immediately. You can't see how many magazines you have in the mission, and there's no visual indicators to let you know roughly how much of a magazine you may have left. The game also has mechanics it doesn't describe well or describe at all, only things you briefly see in in-game hints but are unsure of their veracity because you don't get any sort of indicator in-game that would let you know - like arm strength/stamina. Otherwise the game is a lot of fun and has a lot of potential, especially for mods for creating more missions,