Beppo review
Some "impressions" from the first "mission" *cough* and the controls in general in no particular order:
- the default keys set something like ADD and END for FOCUS and ZOOM... stuff you can use while walking but not with such a key setup (WASD is far away)
- [ and , or something similar for switching weapons and ammo types ... again not in reach
- you can use the mouse wheel for switching weapons as well - woohoo
- you can click on the number representing the weapon for switching through the ammo types too. This results in you going from FMJ to HE grenades over to HEsomething grenades and "reloading" the HEsomething one, dropping the HE grenade to the ground. Same anims, poor. Cycling takes forever. So using the , key or a mouse button binding is way better.
- the mouse wheel can be used for selecting the weapons or ammo types once the corresponding UI menu was opened. Unfortunately the mouse wheel together with the mouse pointer on the map stopped functioning after a couple minutes of "playing".
- the map ... hilarious.... you have to use the mouse to scroll around by either holding a button to "grab" the map to then drag it around or by moving the mouse pointer to the screen edges. You cannot use the WASD keys or other keys to scroll the map and you cannot ie. draw a frame using the left mouse button to zoom in on a specific region.
- the team "AI"... run backwards and do some sidesteps to the left and right while moving around and watch your team follow you on each and every step. They copy you to almost 100% and stay on their exact formation location almost the whole time too. Very funny to watch.
- if you turn to the left or right you can end up with a team mate standing right in front of your muzzle or next to your sights. If you now move forward into that direction the team member stays in front of you and copies your movement. So the formation doesn't rotate if you do, they just stay scattered around you and do not even clear your fire line if you point at them... nice "combat" situations do follow.
- nothing happens if you shoot at your own team mates or other friendly soldiers.... you just kill them without any kind of reaction of nearby friendlies
- sometimes your team mates kill an enemy on 100m ... and sometimes they do not hit them if 5 meters away and clear in the open and then need to move even closer... funny that the enemy doesn't hit them then too
- issuing a move order results in a "tango charlie blah blah" coordinate stuttering voice command even if you send them five meters away. No matter if an object is close by or not. Same ****ing voice command all the time.
- !7! HE 40mm grenades shot on a jeep... and it exploded ... but it would have exploded on its own after 5 or 6 shots too... the fire has an effect on it ... but it actually started to smoke after 3 or 4 shots taken ... funny
- no matter how many 40mms you fire at the big radio antennas... they do not get destroyed at all
- the small "village" in the first "mission" is hilarious too ... you have barrels all scattered around and even some small flasks or something alike. No matter which color the barrels do have (some are red/orange others green/grey) they do explode once shot at - taking several shots before doing so. And they take the smaller buildings next to them with'em once they explode... the buildings make boom and only some wall fragments are left.
- a bunch of shots on a fence and it is all gone in a cloud
- all exploding things do vanish. You do not have debris or fragments of any sort flying around, just some sort of "broken replacement" for larger things.
- grenades cannot be cocked... just a "all times the same" throw or an underhand roll
- smoke grenades rotate around themselves still after they stopped sliding over the ground
- 40mm hits where you are aiming at while using the aimdot
- no aimdot magnification or similar. so why is the optic ten inches long?
- pistol firing plays "recoil" anim that looks exactly the same each time... same for other weapons
- pistol cannot be fired in a fast pace at all cause you have to wait for the recoil anim to end...
- you don't hit **** on side moving targets even while staying still or kneeling ... its more luck then cause sometimes you hit while aiming center on target and sometimes you hit while aiming sligthly in front
- some targets take a bunch of hits before hitting the ground... hits are "marked" by a blood cloud effect... *cough*
- you ****ing cannot WALK
- you can only run/jog or sprint
- sprinting while crouched has the exact same speed than sprinting while fully upright
- while sprinting you cannot aim your weapon. however you need to release the sprint key so that the aiming can take effect. This then results in the sprint weapon posture going to the low-ready to then go to the engaged posture.... very very slow. A direct transition from sprint to engaged is not possible.
- if your leg gets hurt you cannot sprint. However if you hold the sprint key you still cannot take your weapon to the engaged posture
- no jumping, vaulting or anything similar to get on top of smaller obstacles or thru windows, over fences and the like
- you can fire thru ONE wooden wall in the barracks in the first village. The next wall stops the projectile. It doesn't matter if you fire with your AR, pistol or a sniper rifle taken from an enemy. All projectiles perform the same... even the hit decals and hit effects are the same.
- windows always break fully... no matter how "complex" they are.
- doors have simple textures, no 3D doorknobs or similar. Opening them exposes you almost fully. You first step close to the door, push it open with your weapon put away, step back and then bring up your weapon again. This all mixed with a focus in and out effect. If the AI would properly react, then opening a door to the in- or outside is a suicide mission.
- movement looks hilarious... the weapon swings fast from the left to the right... sprinting looks funny too. Due to you not being able to walk the weapon bobing really starts to disturb your view in a very short amount of time.
- crouch and prone weapon movement is too funny
- no body awareness at all... you do not see your legs...
- going from prone to crouch/standing and the other way around takes a lot of time and you always put your weapon away fully while doing so.
- fire effects are rotating and expanding textures... look good on a distance but not if you get closer. Then they look pretty ****ty.
- smoke effects look better actually
- if you hit a wooden wall in front of you your view gets a "dust" effect from the wooden hit effect stuff. Funny is that the size of this effect is not changing if you get even closer to the wall. It just gets triggered to show up if you get into a specific distance to the wall hit effect.
aso aso aso aso aso .... I guess I could go on forever... and this after only playing the game for a very short amount of time.
How can something like this be called a "simulation"... sure it isn't a FPS either
... it's just pure bull****.
A german games page gave it a 73 ... which would be a 3 or C in a school system actually. They mentioned slightly more negative than positive things... overall a lot on both sides actually.
I would give it a 50-60 at most actually... but I'm biased and I actually do know how these things should work and what Codemasters offers with this title is simply not worth to play thru the offline campaign at all. It simply is no fun at all.
I cannot stand the fact that some really like it. The whole weapon and movement control mechanism is ****. It doesn't come close to a FPS design nor to a simulation design... it is not even something in between.
The "realism" is far from being real.
I haven't checked if they feature different reload anims for dry reloads or not, or if they even got double and single action differences - if at all. I just saw ****ty anims, ****ty movement visuals and every shot resulting in the same "recoil" movement aso aso.
So, what about this title is actually "good"?
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OFP DR is a joke of the year and I sign every word of this review!
