At the time of this review, this Steam version of Soldat is v1.7.
I used to play this casually back then in the v1.3.1 to v1.5 era, mostly in INF and Zombie servers (RIP - development changes that led those old custom gamemode scripts to break). Even made a flying Superman mod based on M2 turret explosions on Chainsaw.
Unfortunately, there's no one playing in public servers now, except for CTF One-Shots and Climb servers based in EU. Online activity seems to have moved to "gathers" in a Discord server, but even there its very quiet. Development has shifted to open source "OpenSoldat", and that's where v1.8 seems to be now.
While the game's graphics have been upscaled nicely, the gameplay has fallen short compared to its heyday. I'm not skilled enough to comment on the movement system, but I can immediately feel the problem with the game's updated weapon accuracy system.
* Weapons used to be perfectly accurate outside of MP5(up/down) and Steyr Aug(2nd shot onwards always upward) - this was actually due to a bug in the firing animation, but it added a lot of charm to how these weapons felt to shoot. The AK-74 meanwhile was perfectly accurate & reliable, and the FN Minimi was the heavier gun that you wouldn't want to run and gun with (instead you'd want to prone or momentarily let go off movement keys to fire accurately).
* However, in the process of improving the accuracy system (used to be 33% chance of shooting the maximum spread angle each direction, and 33% still 100% accurate), they've also patched out the animation bug and changed it so all autos have a generic random spread/recoil system. To add insult to injury, the AK lost its niche as a slow but perfectly accurate mid-ranged automatic - it feels just as sluggish as moving with the FN Minimi. In other words - all the automatic weapons now feel the same to fire, the reward is no longer for shooting accurately based on your understanding of the weapons' bullet speed & player speed inheritance - it is now based more on spray & pray in the general direction.
Also the minigun's reload sound is shortened, but the reload stat in the weapons.ini file is still the old slower reload and thus no longer matches by a long shot. To me, this shows that the level of care has dropped and is no longer worth supporting.
It is already difficult to recommend this old PvP classic game in its current state and community size, but seeing the accuracy system butchered like this... I simply cannot recommend Soldat anymore, not even to the most potentially hardcore player. It is now best left as nostalgia, of childhood memories long past.
