I've been playing this game off and on for a few years now, and I'll go ahead and lock my review in.
If there were a NEUTRAL rating for games, I'd honestly give it that, but I will give it a positive review just because it's leaning more toward the positive side. Let's get it going!
First things first: this game is essentially Mount & Blade slapped with Cold War paint, though it's still mechanically different. As someone who ADORES history from the Colonial era and onward, this game is a wet dream for me, as I love Cold War-era history. Of course, there's some modernization in the game, but the overall theme and setting feel much more like a Cold War setting to me. You have your NATO vs. Warsaw Pact equipment groups, along with that "Neutral" group that has a mixture of both sides' equipment. If you're into that aesthetic, you're gonna love this game. I know I enjoy it, especially as a firearms collector in real life. I can personally recognize the feel and handling of some of these weapons. That's a definite pro.
Another cool feature of this game is the global conquest/campaign/whatever map. You essentially run a nation and manage its supplies and government. This is REALLY unique. This game lets you equip EVERY SINGLE UNIT with whatever loadout you want! You can either become very uniform and organized with your groups, or run it like you're some militia group and just use whatever weapon you find or purchase. You can also create vehicle groups and go that route! The options are limitless, and you feel much more accomplished when YOU manufactured your army's equipment and such. Running your government is... eh. You don't really do much other than produce food, adopt some policies, and that's really about it. Keep an eye out for rebellions, too.
Sounds good so far, right? That's really about it for the positives. I'll throw in the negatives now.
This was and still is a huge controversy: paid DLC for a game that's still in Early Access. Originally, I was on the "Do it to support the team" wagon, but I've come to realize that perhaps that's not really right. This game has been in active development for several years now. While they've made "acceptable" progress, the nerve to release content for an UNFINISHED game behind a PAYWALL is so absurd and ridiculous! I don't understand why anyone would do that. If you want my money, make a separate purchase for something like... content art, an OST, or... a supporter purchase? I don't know. Locking your EA content behind paywalls is unethical and gives off a bad vibe. I sincerely hope they don't continue that practice and just finish the game.
I mentioned that development progress was "acceptable," but by that I mean it's more like, "Hey guys, we're still working on this game. Here's a couple of bug fixes and a couple of guns and vehicles. WE GOT MORE COMING, SO STAY TUNED!" And then we hear absolutely nothing for months.
Yes, I'm being serious. It's very common for one of the devs to immediately dismiss people who simply ask when the game's getting a major update. They give users a very "vague" response. I'm personally not a fan of that at all. I feel like it's inherently important to keep your fans updated with what you're doing. For crying out loud, they say there's a roadmap for this game, but it's only accessible to the devs and their circle. WTF???? Why can't we see this roadmap? It'd be great to know what the plans are for your game.
Truthfully, I was under the impression lately that this game was about to go on hiatus because we hadn't received an update on development in months. However, the devs gave us yet another vague update with some cool stuff to come! Great! Soooo, ugh... when are you guys gonna release it?
I'm going to leave one neutral point here, and I hope this is not taken in any way badly toward the devs or anyone else. I've kinda come to the assumption that the devs (at least the majority of them for this game) are Russian. I want to say I'm EXTREMELY HAPPY that they are not allowing "political bias" into their game and are keeping it strictly out of it.
If you're confused as to why I'm mentioning this, Misery is a prime example of what I mean. Before the game came back, the developer for Misery, a Belarusian individual, expressed his opinion very broadly, which resulted in his game being taken down, though he would ultimately own up to it. We live in a world where people feel like they have to express their negative opinions through their projects, such as that example, and I'm grateful that these devs are keeping that separate. Not that this was an important point, but it's good that the devs are sticking to their game and nothing more.
I'd say this game feels like it's about... 60%-70% complete, but I couldn't honestly tell you as there's no damn roadmap to go off of. I really appreciate this game, and I do love the charm it has. I just hope the devs finish it soon because I know a lot of other people are feeling unhappy about the crawling pace of the development.
Guess we'll see!
