So I got the game in the mail and loaded it up to put in my online pass and got my free guns and such. Maybe it's just early in the day and a lot of people haven't had a chance to pick it up, but when I go to quick match there are only 9200 people playing. That probably just my region, but since my region is North America, you'd think there'd be more.
There are only 4 game modes for multi:
Combat Mission - similar BFBC2's Rush, capture the objective by sitting near it, then the map expands to the next (of 4 or so)
Team Assault - team deathmatch
Sector Control - king of the hill, sit near the objective flag to cap it
Objective Raid - plant a bomb? not sure, haven't played it
Then I check out the unlock tree, and damn this thing is barebones. You get unlocks based on your class (rifleman, special ops, sniper):
Rifleman unlocks:
1: Assault rifle (different depending on which team you're on)
2: Extra magazine
3: red dot scope
4: Light machine gun
5: Suppressors
6: Open-tip ammunition
7: Combat scope
8: Muzzle brakes
9: New assault rifle
10: Veteran assault rifles ("veteran versions of standard firearms"... ??)
11: Veteran light machine gun (same as above)
12: Enemy assault rifle (the base weapon from the other team)
13: More pistol ammo
14: Enemy light machine gun
15: Extra grenade
Yes, level 15 is the max level. And no, it doesn't really take longer to level (compared to a CoD game) to spread that out.
So for that class, that's 4 guns total, including the pistol. Then for the other team you get 4 OTHER guns, that are balanced to be equal with the first set. But hey, they have different models and sounds, so we'll say 8 guns for the Rifleman class. This is about how all the other classes work. You get a main weapon (assault rifle, submachine gun, sniper) based on class, one alternate weapon of that type, one alternate weapon type, and a pistol. Compare that to BFBC2 which had 7-8 truly unique weapons per class, 1 more class, plus about that many more weapons that were not class restricted. Or compare to a CoD game that has probably 6-8 weapons in each of the 5-6 different catergories, each with their own challenges and equipment unlocks.
I'm not sure where the Gamestop exclusive M60 fits in (got my game from Amazon), but I'd guess that it's simply access to the rifleman's LMG from the start. And the "tier 1 on day one" Gamestop thing is just being level 7 "tier one recruit" for the rifleman class apparently. The 2 shotguns that unlock by getting the Limited Edition seem to just be the standard shotguns you unlock with the Special Ops class. The only reason there's 2, is because there's one for each team, probably balanced so they feel identical. The only unique extra I'm seeing is the MP7A1 SMG for the Special Ops class, which came with the Limited Edition also.
So from the outside this game did look like it could compete with CoD, which is what it seems they were trying to do. But this just looks so stripped down that I don't see how it can. Add on the fact that the single player portion is reportedly about 4 hours long, and heavily HEAVILY scripted, and that makes things even worse. (I was watching a GiantBomb quick look earlier, and there's a part where you ambush some guys around a fire, and one of them is INVINCIBLE until he finishes running to the campfire and throws something on it to create dark smoke, signalling his nearby friends. He unloaded a full clip on the guy and he didn't flinch, because he was running through his scripted sequence first.)
I'm sure I'll get some enjoyment out of both modes, but I was really hoping this game would be a bit more. I did hear that Dice has only had 8 months of work on this. But what happened to the single player? Did they have a full length development cycle and only put out 4 hours of content, or was this a rush job on both sides?
